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Huon pieces: letters & notes

by Bradfield Dumpleton

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1.
Lower Longley to Huonville 07:43
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2.
Woodstock to Port Cygnet 08:48
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3.
Cygnet to Verona Sands & Back 13:26
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4.
Glen Huon to Port Huon 05:40
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5.
Geeveston to Surveyors Bay 10:06
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6.
Dover to Cockle Creek 10:17
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about

The Huon Valley region, all 5500 sq km of it across Tasmania's South East, is an expansive & richly diverse landscape of quiet beaches, majestic mountain ranges, riverside tranquility, picturesque farmland vistas and wild ancient forests, from alpine to rainforest.

These six 'suites' are comprised of smaller pieces of music (listed in full below), each less than 2 minutes long. Each smaller piece represents a place in the Huon, and each 'suite' describes a chronological journey through certain sections of the valley, in the general order they may be encountered driving along the Huon's highways.

All of the Huon's recognised localities are mentioned here, as well as a few other places (local beaches, roads or walks) that carry particular personal significance for me, and which I have included by way of celebrating their memory. I've lived in the Huon for fifteen years, SE Tas for twenty, the longest I've stayed in any place my entire life.

Creatively, these pieces began as a minimalist exercise, combining limited resources with deliberately self-imposed creative limitations. The former being I don't have an external midi keyboard, nor do I happen to have a classical pianist or string quartet handy. As to self-imposed limitations, for amusement & challenge, I devised the following parameters:

- Use only the laptop's qwerty keyboard.
- Limit instrumentation to piano, cello & violin (using LABS plug-ins).
- Each piece is the name of a place in the Huon Valley region, SE Tasmania.
- Each melody is formed by the notes sounded as I type the name of the place.
- Within each piece, every melodyline (piano, cello, violin) is the complete name of the place, typed from start to finish. Only the timing of the typed name may vary.
- The letter keys A, F and K do not play a musical note, so instead they create space that suggests a rhythmic nuance.

Using this methodology delivered some surprising results, from unexpected lyricism to jazz dissonance, contemporary classical moments to gothic horror themes. Each piece had its own melody built-in, requiring only the typing and the interpretation, each placename opening itself like a tiny music box. Kind of an inverted synaesthetic of place=text=sound, writing notes with letters, writing letters with notes.....writing music by writing words, that kind of thing.....

For best results, approach with humour and creativity.

1. LOWER LONGLEY TO HUONVILLE
0:00 i. lower longley
1:08 ii. sleeping beauty
2:43 iii. grove
3:38 iv. mountain river
4:25 v. crabtree
5:05 vi. lucaston
5:47 vii. ranelagh
6:43 viii. huonville

2. WOODSTOCK TO PORT CYGNET
0:00 i. woodstock
0:41 ii. cradoc
1:27 iii. glaziers bay
2:38 iv. silverhill road
4:19 v. wattle grove
5:36 vi. petcheys bay
6:26 vii. lymington
7:54 viii. port cygnet

3. CYGNET TO VERONA SANDS & BACK
0:00 i. cygnet
1:34 ii. nicholls rivulet
2:47 iii. deep bay
3:30 iv. garden island creek
4:13 v. charlottes cove
6:14 vi. verona sands
7:45 vii. randalls bay beach
8:40 viii. mickeys beach
9:30 ix. eggs & bacon bay
10:50 x. sandrock
11:52 xi. abels bay
12:43 xii. gardners bay

4. GLEN TO PORT HUON
0:00 i. glen huon
1:13 ii. judbury
2:19 iii. lonnavale
3:06 iv. franklin
3:58 v. castle forbes bay
4:59 vi. port huon

5. GEEVESTON TO SURVEYORS BAY
0:00 i. geeveston
0:51 ii. arve river
1:34 iii. the hartz mountains
3:02 iv. cairns bay
3:58 v. waterloo
4:53 vi. surges bay
6:04 vii. brooks bay
6:44 viii. glendevie
7:54 ix. police point
8:56 x. surveyors bay

6. DOVER TO COCKLE CREEK
0:00 i. dover
1:25 ii. esperance river
2:25 iii. raminea
3:00 iv. strathblane
4:21 v. southport
5:12 vi. hastings
5:41 vii. lune river
6:58 viii. ida bay
8:04 ix. recherche bay
9:03 x. cockle creek

credits

released January 30, 2021

All music © 2021 Bradfield Dumpleton.
Composed, played, recorded & sculpted Jan 2021, at Nicholls Rivulet, SE Tasmania.

BD plays: Laptop electronics - LABS Soft piano & strings plug-ins, played on qwerty keyboard.

More info: bradfielddumpleton.com/huon-pieces-letters-notes-2021/

Cover pic: BD / Wood installation: Fen

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Bradfield Dumpleton TAS, Australia

A library of musical sketchbooks, mapping my various evolutions from 2005 to next week. Dedicated to exploring sound for its own sake. Many diverse delights here for the patient & attentive listener.

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