Now the Day Is Over
I thought it would be interesting to take the notes from a hymn—that is, the pitches and durations the notes represent—and spread them out in time and in space around the listener.
To illustrate, you can imagine taking a paper copy of a hymn, cutting out each note, putting the notes in a jar, mixing them up, and then sprinkling the notes (as actual sounds) all around the listener over a span of time.
I should point out here that this process is not a commentary on hymnody or on any particular hymn. It is simply using the notes as “found” pitches and durations.
I decided to use the hymn “Now the Day is Over,” composed by Joseph Barnby, with text by Sabine Baring-Gould. It is a lovely hymn. We used to sing it fairly frequently in the evening when our daughters were younger.
There are 98 notes in the version of the hymn that I use.1 I alter five of those notes by a semitone, and I do some additional sound processing, such as delay with feedback.
The sounds are spread out over a duration of 500 seconds. The sounds are then allowed to decay for another 100 seconds. The process is then repeated, but with different results each time, due to the random processes that I use. In the video above, the cycle is completed seven times for over an hour of music.
Take a listen! I recommend listening with headphones because it will make the spatial effect more audible.
1S. Baring-Gould and J. Barnby, “Now the Day is Over,” in Hymns (Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1985), 159.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash.