Roger Smalley

Monody

Monody was composed between October 1971 and February 1972. It is the first piece in which the technique of ring-modulation plays a structural, as opposed to colouristic and decorative, role. This is achieved by restricting the piano part to a single monodic line throughout. Thus only one set of addition and difference tones is produced and their frequencies can be exactly predicted. The pianist controls the frequency of the sine-wave generator by means of a small keyboard which he plays with his left hand. In addition, two drums and four triangles are used to reinforce the lowest and highest difference tones.