This series is currently comprised of two pieces, Spectre and Swarm, that explore how micro-time analyses of sound can be used to guide the form and structure of a musical composition. Both pieces' form is based on the analyses of millisecond timescale sample of saxophone multiphonics.

For both pieces, I selected short segments of multiphonic recordings (max 1 second) and stretched them to several seconds in length. Then, using Audiosculpt, I performed a chord sequence analysis in the case of Spectre, and a partial-tracking analysis for Swarm. I used the chords generated from the analysis as a material set, and composed around those chords. The tape part, the xylophone-type percussive sounds, enforces certain pitches given by the chord being used at that moment, fulfilling a harmonic function. The rhythms of this part also serve to inject, and remove momentum into and from the piece. The live part consists of a guided, timed improvisation for baritone saxophone. The sax part takes its pitch content from a bracketed chord, indicating that it may use any of the given pitch classes. The saxophonist's rhythmic content is given cumulatively - rhythmic phrases are given and may be used as desired and added to the performer's mental bank of rhythmic material.

Below, you can hear rendered versions of both pieces, as well as a live recording of a performance of Spectre. The piece was performed by Emil Sein, in April 2017, as part of the Music, Electricity, and Computation: Rave and Recital.

The score for Spectre contains 3 parts: pitch class, rhythmic cues, and tape rhythm. Throughout the piece, the performer should use a timer, together with the time cues given at significant moments in the score, to follow the score.

Chords within square brackets indicate pitch classes. They give the performer a set of pitch classes that he or she is free to use as they please. A particular pitch class should be maintained until the next is encountered, at which point the previous pitch classes should be disregarded, and the new ones maintained.

These pitch class chords should be regarded as a pitch class resource pool.

A note that is written without the square brackets around it should be played at the exact notated pitch and rhythm, but this only occurs once in this movement, as notated in bars 4 – 7.

These are 2 examples of rhythmic cues. Rhythmic cues introduce rhythms that the performer should utilize. Rhythmic cues are additive up to a double bar line; if a new one is introduced then the performer may utilize any of the cues that have previously appeared. A double bar line acts as a mark to clear the accumulated rhythmic cues and start a fresh with whatever cues follow it. "Empty" bars in the rhythmic cue part do not mean that nothing is to be played, but that no new rhythms are introduced at that moment. Only explicitly written rests indicate that nothing is to be played, or that a pause should be made.

The rhythms can be combined with the pitch classes given in the pitch class staff as the performer wishes, unless explicitly noted in the score.

Occasionally, the performer will see a notation like this as a rhythmic cue:

This does not mean that a chord should be played, but is rather an indication of a very fast note cluster. The number of notes in each "chord" indicates the number of notes that the performer should try in play in the time of the written note (4 notes in the time of a 16th triplet in the example above). These are not strict requirements, but a suggested guide. In these cases the spatial relation of the notes suggests the approximate manner in which the pitch should move (ending on a higher pitch than it started in the example above).

The rhythmic cue part contains dynamic markings and directions that should be followed as notated.

Lastly there is the tape rhythm staff. This staff offers prominent rhythms that occur in the prepared electronic part in order to give the performer some reference/guide for their improvisation.

In the tape rhythm part, this symbol has a bit of a different meaning that it does normally. It doesn’t mean that the content of the previous bar is repeated exactly, but that in the previous few notated bars, those rhythmic patterns continue until the next notations.
Swarm is more focused on the tape component of the piece. The saxophone part has less individual significance, and primarily functions as a leading melodic line.

I used the pitches obtained from the partial-tracking analysis as a template for the density of sound, and harmonic content in this movement. The pitches are introduced and accumulate, each being played by a certain key on a virtual piano. These pitches build throughout the piece, culminating in a swarm of sound that is unplayable by a human player. The piece develops certain combinations of extracted pitches.