Triple Courses, part 4

 

There are times wherein I need to hear triple courses.  I mean need to hear them.  

There are instances wherein I've stopped whatever I'm doing, and picked up one of the triple course instruments because I needed to hear that.  Right now.  And the triple courses have spawned several compositions that would have been impossible without triple courses.

I first thought of them several years ago.  To be specific: thought of them for my instruments and to utilize in my work.  I'm not attempting to say I invented triple courses; they existed long before me.  The earliest reference to them I've found is the four-course cittern from c.1500, which featured two triple courses.  The American tiple (c. 1919; C.F. Martin) also features two triple courses.  However, I've never seen triple courses on a guitar.  I don't know why; it seems like an obvious evolutionary step.

I wanted triple courses so that I could play an entire chord or tone cluster with one finger.   For me, tone clusters always sounded as natural and harmonious as major or minor triads.  I've preferred them as harmonic structures since I was first exposed to them in my late teen years.  The drawback with tone clusters on guitar is that they are very difficult to execute, and the tone clusters that are possible on guitar are pretty limited.  At least, that's the case with 6-string guitars.  Not so with triple courses, as the two octave strings in a triple course can be tuned to whatever I want.  Thus, I can achieve a vast number of tone clusters; not only per triple course, but by using simultaneous multiple triple courses, I can access larger-structured tone clusters.

I thought about this for a few years.  I decided to plunge into the world of triple courses on my own, and I've documented those journeys of instrument modification elsewhere on this blog.

I'm providing this background only to illustrate the long-running need or place for triple courses in my work.  And, now that I have two instruments with triple courses, how addicted I've become to them.  There are periods wherein I will shed the 30-string Double Contraguitar, which features six triple courses, for several days on end without touching another instrument.  The harmonic possibilities are vast and deep, and though I've had the 30-string for a year or two, I know that I'm only scratching the surface of the harmonic potential.

Triple courses tuned to tone clusters provide such a dense, thick, deep, and at times dark texture that this instrument isn't right for every project.  But there are times that it seems to invoke an entire orchestra.  I love that.  Triple courses have proven to be far more interesting, fulfilling, and exciting than I had ever supposed.  

And I'm still learning about them.

More to come.

-kk