"The Phi of five" (for 5 voices, frame drum, shaker, lap harp and hackbrett) is a sound-painting in response to an artwork called "Pentad" by Kathleen O'Brien. More info about this cross arts project here: https://helendavey.com/blog/week-15-kathleen-obriens-pentad/
15 - Kathleen O’Brien
The Art
“Pentad” by Kathleen O’Brien,
watercolour, drawing, collage, 12 x 7.5, collage on Arches Cover;
From the series “The Mystery of Numbers”,
abstract watercolors, drawings, ephemera from an antique encyclopedia and Forget-Me-Nots.
kathleen-obrien.com
obrienstudio.blogspot.com
facebook.com/KathleenOBrienStudio
Kathleen O’Brien writes…
“Pentad”, from this series of Golden Rectangles, revisits one of my favorite subjects, Sacred Geometry, the development of numbers and related forms starting with one. The flatness of the basic forms are well suited to the flatness of collage. The method of construction of Pentad or Pentagram is complicated and was kept secret until Luca Pacioli (da Vinci’s teacher) published Divina proportione in 1509.
First one must create the Dyad from intersecting circles which creates the shared space, the vesica piscis. Next, once creates the Triad and triangle, then Tetrad and square. Using the points of the 4 previous forms one can draw the Pentad. Its geometry is seen often in nature, like the seeds of the apple, a starfish, and our own hands.
The Music
Focussing on the mountains in Kathleen’s artwork, “The phi of five” is a meditative pathway on five-ness. The meter is set in 5/4; I have used a hackbrett (Swiss hammered dulcimer) tuned to a C pentatonic (5-note) scale; the harmonic structure emphasises the consonance of the perfect 5th, unison/tonic and the octave (in equal temperament rather than Pythagorean or vedic tuning) which are all paramount in the first 5 notes of the overtone/harmonic series;
Project 52.
The Artists
1 - Kathryn Portelli
2 - Helen Hiebert
3 - Petrus Spronk
4 - Ann Lewis
6 - Cornelius Cardew
7 - Bronle Crosby
10 - Casey Klahn
11 - Maggie Ruley
12 - Jim Carpenter
13 - Gerda Tobler
14 - Pete Goodlet
15 - Kathleen O’Brien
16 - Cynthia Morris
17 - Mark Payne
18 - Juli Cady Ryan
19 - Shakespeare
20 - Jack Fisher
21 -Nanci Hersh
22 - Padraig McCaul
23 - Laurie LeBreton
24 - Sophia Khan
25 - Linnet Hunter
26 - Lisa Call
27 - Brenda York
28 - Holly Wilson
29 - Dariusz Klimczak
30 - India Flint
31 - Chris Maynard
32 - Mauricio Paz Viola
33 -
35 - Patty Sgrecci
I’ve also used the first 5 numbers of the fibonacci sequence when the fundamental tone is C (as this diagram of piano keys indicates). At the time when Pacioli revealed the golden ratio in his “Divina Proportion”, people believed that the world was flat and a firm dome – the firmament – separated the earthly waters from those above.
As a “forget-me-not” to this time period, I took some Latin text from Hildegard von Bingen* where she describes the firmament. I’ve also referred to some of the key mathematicians who contributed to the development of the golden ratio (from Pythagoras ca. 490 – 430 BC) through to Paciolli (1445 – 1517).
For a person who finds it difficult to remember their own telephone number, researching the topic of sacred geometry was fascinating for me!
Sending you a high 5 and a Phi Pho Phip
(which is phi squared when A and B are vying for 5th in line for a Pho)
Helen