#34: Fuller tone increases physicality of intervals
Section 5: Josef Suk – Meditation on an Old Czech Hymn ‘St Wenceslas’ Op.35a
Adopting a fuller, more highly ‘spun’ sound helped us to increase the density of ‘content’ we were able to find within melodic intervals: a greater range of overtones opened up a richer range of consonants and vowels in the grammar of the music. This is related to the idea of balancing up, insofar as we tried to retain some of this feeling even when becoming less present, individually, within the texture. Cultivating a concentrated but still gentle sound quality was especially important here. This also altered our experience of collective resonance: it increased the potential relations between the overtones of each instrument, and — paradoxically — opened up a greater sense of the fragility we heard on the original. This is an extrapolation from the original, more than a direct product of listening. The difference is subtle but audible on record; compare Version A, from early on in the experiment, with Version B considerably later:
