Back in 2012, when the news was filled with ill-conceived predictions based
on third-hand misunderstandings of the Mayan calendar, I remember thinking ...
2013 is actually the year we should all be talking about. After all, our
society has been taught to avoid the number thirteen at all costs. We won't
put a thirteen in an elevator, a street address, or a flight number. We're
taught that thirteen has some kind of black magical power, and now we're stuck
saying it and writing it for a full year. Awesome. And now that we're nearly
halfway through the year, I've noticed hardly anyone mentions it, as if we're
just closing our eyes and waiting for it to pass.
I actually think thirteen is a truly interesting number. It has a unique
character and a symmetry all its own. It breaks into into interesting parts
like seven and six... or five, five and three... or three, three, three, and
four.... Okay, I admit it, sometimes my obsessive personality extends from
music into numbers (and vice versa). I especially love prime numbers, and I
tend to notice them as they occur around me. I've been known to emphasize
fives and sevens in my music... I feel like it's time to give thirteen its due.
If you listen closely to this music you'll hear patterns of thirteen beats or
thirteen notes divided in many ways. You'll also hear some of my other
favorite numbers like seventeen, seven, and five. You might not know it, but
you'll hear them.
But the numbers in the music are just the subtext. The main themes are
melodies with their own personalities, and they are the star of the show. As I
often do, I put my melodies through the wringer in this piece, putting them in
different harmonic or rhythmic settings, and gradually changing them.
When I was in my early twenties and first getting serious about writing
music, my father would say, "that sounds like music a drummer would write." At
the time, I flatly rejected and took offense to his comment, much as I rejected
the majority of his comments. Looking back at much of my music now, my
father's comments ring true. Growing up with drums as my primary focus in life,
I can't help but emphasize the rhythmic elements of music, whether it has drums
in it or not. Thirteen is a piece only a drummer would write. There's a
pulse running through this piece that's kind of like an irregular heartbeat.
The longer I spent with this music, the more that irregular pulse stared to
feel entirely natural. My hope is that the uncommon rhythms here will also
begin to feel natural to the listener. Because fours are sooooo
overrated.
