Long Liz

In August of 2024 while taking my usual evening constitutional, a melody sprang to mind. On four successive nights, while strolling, it gradually became much more than a mere tune: I began to hear it as a sequence of variations on a theme. The fanfare at the opening sprang from this, and still later a discombobulated passage inspired by it took form. More about the latter in just a moment.

This all happened while pondering the impending 136th anniversary of the tragic night Long Liz (Elizabeth Stride) met Jack the Ripper. And so, the fourth entry in my five-part suite, The Whitechapel Horror, sprang from the vasty deep. (I've been composing these sections out of order, having actually started the project a half-century ago). 

It's been a difficult haul, and believe it or not, took me over 720 hours to compose, perform and record this summer and fall! Quite literally, for the past three months it's a been a daily slog of nothing but working on this short (2:46) piece. There are three reasons for the extended labor. First, it's one of the most complex things I've ever written, requiring sixteen tracks on the recorder for the basic instruments, and another half-dozen for the various submixes.

Second, my dominant hand continues to degenerate in the last two fingers, so playing the various parts properly took numerous takes. I didn't keep track, but the dulcimer part alone required something like two hundred takes before I was happy. If it isn't obvious, by the way, I used a piano keyboard to play all the parts (except for the percussion).

And finally, this summer I bit the bullet and completely refurbished my studio to run on Linux exclusively which took much work. I made the switch to Linux Mint some three years ago for everything else, and have never looked back: it's infinitely more elegant than Windows, is clear of Microsoft's invasive intrusions into privacy, and is absolutely free of charge to boot. I use Linux for everything now, but transforming the studio to employ it required a fair amount of fiddling. Incidentally, I also took this moment to fine tune and optimize all my electronic gear. The studio, under Linux Mint, is amazing now! Sleek, intuitive and capable of crystal clear sounds. And I didn't spend a single cent on all this. But back to the song.

The case of Long Liz's demise is particularly fascinating, sad as it is. For in fact, this was the only one of the five murders in which Jack the Ripper may have been sighted. Moreover, he was interrupted in his mayhem on her, probably hiding in the dark, just inches away from discoverers. Because of the interruption, he went on to commit a second murder a couple hours later, giving this night the name of "The Double Event."

In my piece, I tried to covey some of this, and also some of what I experienced actually walking these very streets in London. If you listen carefully, you might notice (in order):

• Opening fanfare: a depiction of just how miserable life was in the Whitechapel of 1888
• Main theme: Long Liz and Jack sighted together, perhaps three times, earlier that evening
• Prelude: Jack lures her to an unlit corner in Berner Street, just off the Commercial Road
• The Deed: he begins
• Interrupted: A merchant, coming home late at night, stumbles upon the still-warm but dead Liz in the street, his pony shying from the mysterious form on the ground; note how I worked the drums in 3/4 meter against the flute in 4/4 meter to convey confusion and disruption
• Conclusion: the dissatisfied and angered Jack flees from the scene, for a second outrage that night

Would you like to hear it? I hope you'll do me the favor of listening with headphones or decent speakers, for I put a ton of work into the upright bass part. In my next incarnation, let me come back as a bassist...

 

Now, a bit about the instrumentation. The primary one is a homemade device I call the GM-Voice 1. This is something I designed around second-hand parts a couple decades ago. At its heart is the Yamaha DB50XG. It provides the French horn, brass, strings, tubular bells, dulcimer, flute and drum roll.

A similar homemade instrument, the GM-Voice 2, is another I cobbled together from discarded parts, this time with an old Creative Waveblaster/E-Mu card. It provides the timpani, upright bass, congas, tambourine and VibraSlap.

The cello is played on the ACE FluidSynth plugin, and the low bass comes from a Surge synthesizer plugin.

The orchestra cymbals and footsteps were synchronized from wave files.

My Boss BR-600 digital recorder supplied the drums sounds, and the final mix was recorded on this unit as well.

Finally, coordinating the entire composition is the excellent Linux software, Qtractor, which I ran on a 20 year old discarded laptop. That's yet another advantage to Linux Mint: it works perfectly on decrepit computers, keeping them out of the landfill and serving useful purposes.

So, it's been quite a haul in many ways, a good chunk out of the last three months, both musically and electronically. I hope you find the result evocative. 

Oh, and the name Long Liz? Well, originally from Sweden, in the London of 1888 where she met her end, Liz stood out almost freakishly tall, at some 5'5" in height... 

Next entry: A Good Idea