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In 1947, the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam devised a propulsion method for spacecraft, the Pulse Nuclear Propulsion, and it is likely that this drive towards is also what brought him to discover what are now known as the Ulam Numbers. This is a sequence of integers such that each member can be expressed, in one exclusive way, as the sum of two previous and distinct members of the sequence. Starting from 1 and 2, the first twelve terms are: 1-2-3- 4-6-8-11-13-16-18-26-28. It is evident that the terms that do not respect the definition, and are therefore excluded from the sequence, increase over time. For example, number 5 must be excluded, since it can be obtained by adding 1 to 4 and 2 to 3. This is an apparently paradoxical series that tends towards infinity, as it also becomes more and more selective over time.

Translated into melodic intervals, the first twelve terms generate a melody of thirteen notes, which in the piece are played on the xylophone. But this self-generated melody is also hidden in a network of acoustic and electronic noises that are based on overlapping timbral and rhythmic cycles, which were also selected from the Ulam Sequence. In the first part of the piece, where the melody is played by direct motion, these cycles expand. On the contrary, in the second part, where the melody is played by retrograde motion—from the last note to the first—the cycles shrink.

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from Musica Razionale, released April 17, 2022

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19'40" London, UK

Music for Adventurous People. Founded in 2016 by Sebastiano De Gennaro, Enrico Gabrielli and Francesco Fusaro.

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