The flute is a beautiful instrument. The sound we hear is the air that passes through the empty vacuum inside it. The form of the vacuum and the passing air create all these feelings.
I borrow this from Chapter-11 of the Tao Te Ching:
Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center hole that makes it useful.
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful.
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes which make it useful.
Therefore profit comes from what is there;
Usefulness from what is not there.
I have been fascinated by the underlying philosophy of these ancient traditions.
I wanted the melody to begin with the simple flute sound. To achieve that I used the AWM2 engine of the Yamaha MODX and then, in order to give it a more "earthly" feel, I added some tape delay. As the melody evolves, I wanted to transition to sounds that communicate the sense of thoughts that originate only in our mind, lacking any correspondence in the material world (think of Plato's world of ideas/forms). For that, I added a synth brass from a Korg Wavestate, reaching eventually the crescendo from the FM-X synth engine of the MODX; all of them sounds that originate in mathematics (i.e. digital sounds) without any direct organic equivalent.
Eventually, the sound returns to the earthly flute, as a return to our simple life, and evaporates with increasing reverb at the end fusing the earthly sound with the "sense of going away".
I don't play the flute, even though I always wanted to learn. As a musician, I am extremely grateful for all the electronic means we have available which allow us to create the music we have in our heart and soul. It would otherwise require a fortune to create the same music piece with the use of acoustic instruments and recording equipment which would be impossible for small independent artists. A million thanks to the Free Software community for their contributions, which extends far beyond music.
You can find this piece at the following links: Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp