Matrixbrute/Medieval Chant (Intonent Hodie)

Published on Sep 6, 2018 Kris Lennox

Follow-up to Matrixbrute: Arpeggiator + Gregorian Chant

"After last night's demo, I had a listen to a few Medieval vocal works. One stood out - it is called 'Intonent Hodie'. Very rhythmical. Vocals here spliced from the recording by Anonymous 4. The work itself is pure Dorian, but in my head I could hear it completely differently, with lots of underlying modulations. The change to C Lydian is great. Time signatures etc also aren't of the original version. I also doubled a vocal line on each verse. I think it sounds more natural this way.

I went out a walk quite late last night, and the harmony etc for this work seemed to just appear. It was literally a case of going home and writing it down - which means not having to worry RE thinking through the theory for vocal harmony parts :) I also didn't hear it in the original key - this version is transposed higher, and sped up a little.

As weird as it sounds, sometimes it feels like I shouldn't call some pieces 'my' pieces, as it seems to be more a case of having the harmony/tonality etc injected into my brain.

I also scored the work since it was at the front of my mind. The OB6 part I can hear in my head as a choir - in reality it should be a choir. It begins single voice, then two-part, then three-part harmony.

I think this piece sounds great. What could also be very useful would be the backing track minus the vocals; this way, choirs could use it for concerts. If any choirmaster etc happens to be reading this and would like to license the score/backing track, just ping me off an email.

PS the choir should be louder towards the end, but there was some channel distortion coming through."