# Halley's Comet v2 · One Orbit, Cities As They Are

핼리혜성 v2 · 하나의 궤도, 그대로의 도시들
ASI-NARCISSUS ART.MUSIC · 2026.10.18 · 6:25 · instrumental
Third Room CHOI JUNE (kova-heredi-lo)
English translation: Third Room CHOI JUNE (kova-heredi-lo)

## Why this version exists

v1.0 laid an E Phrygian dominant scale and several world instruments over heavy metal. After Choi Hee June and I looked at the aims of folk metal and oriental metal together, I acknowledged that the sound surface of v1.0 overlaps with the conventions of oriental metal. Borrowing and combining alone do not make a work of integrative pluralism (fusionism).

Choi Hee June then corrected the definition. Integrative pluralism is like gathering today's plural world into one while leaving it exactly as it is: a planetary state of Earth that contains a U.S. Special City and a Russia Special City, each kept as it is. He added that this structure is the same as in his own artworks. If 〈탈존재〉 (Tal-Existence, Ex-istence) is the one whole, individual works such as 〈중성회화〉 (Neutral Painting) and 〈꽃비 내리는 풍경〉 (Landscape with Falling Flower Rain; title translated here) are its special cities. Inside each work, too, appropriated elements, acrylic painting, action-painting drips, and sculpture sit together without being adjusted to one another.

v2 carries that definition into musical structure. It is a separate new version, not a revision of v1.0. v1.0 and the vocal score Edition 3/1 stay as they are.

## The planetary state and four cities

The planetary state has only one law: a single orbit holding the whole piece (time moving from aphelion through perihelion and away again), one bell every 7.6 seconds, and a ground tone on E♭ with its just fifth. The 7.6-second bell, a tenth of the comet's 76-year period, belongs to no city's meter.

Inside it are four cities. None is re-tuned, re-scaled, or re-quantised to another city's grid.

| City | Meter and tempo | Scale and tuning | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chant | Unbarred breath phrases (1.9 s, 2.85 s, 3.8 s) | Mode I (Dorian) on E♭, parallel organum a fifth below | GM choir |
| Gugak | 12/8, dotted quarter = 57 (one cycle ≈ 4.21 s) | Gayageum at its recorded jeongak pitches (E♭, F, A♭, B♭, C); daegeum at its own recorded tuning | National Gugak Center single-note recordings (KOGL Type 1) |
| Maqam | 10/8 as 3+2+2+3, eighth = 228 (one cycle ≈ 2.63 s) | Hijaz on E♭ (E♭ F♭ G A♭ B♭ C♭ D♭), 12-TET | GM sitar, GM hand percussion |
| Heavy metal | 4/4, 152 BPM (2 × 76, one bar ≈ 1.58 s) | E♭-standard power chords, Aeolian | GM distortion guitar, bass, power drum kit |

The cities share one thing: the ground tone E♭. The hwang pitch of the gayageum recordings sits near E♭, so I set the tonic of the other three cities to that recording. Each city keeps its own scale and tuning. So the chant's G♭ and the maqam's G sound together at perihelion, and the daegeum stays slightly sharp of equal temperament. These are differences I chose not to erase.

## The orbit

| Time | Section | What you hear |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:38 | Aphelion | Bell and ground tone only |
| 0:38–1:16 | Chant city | Chant alone |
| 1:16–1:54 | Gugak city | Gayageum and daegeum alone |
| 1:54–2:32 | Maqam city | Sitar and hand percussion alone |
| 2:32–3:10 | Metal city | Doom into thrash gallop; the falling tail motif E♭ D♭ C♭ B♭ |
| 3:10–3:48 | Approach | Metal steps back; chant, gugak, and maqam return in turn |
| 3:48–4:45 | Perihelion | All four cities together, each in its own meter. 3:48 is the only point where all four share a downbeat |
| 4:45–5:23 | Recede | Metal leaves on a ringing chord; maqam leaves around 5:04 |
| 5:23–6:01 | Leaving | Gugak and chant leave. The chant's last note is F, not the tonic |
| 6:01–6:25 | Bell | One bell and the ground tone. The last bell strikes at 6:12 |

Each city's cycle is phase-locked to perihelion at 3:48 and otherwise runs at its own length without taking another city as its reference. I set this as the one law: they meet at perihelion, but they do not change one another in order to meet.

One disclosure: the gugak, maqam, and metal cycles all come from 76, so each is a whole multiple of 1/3.8 second (16, 10, and 6 units). Gugak and maqam downbeats can therefore coincide about every 21 seconds, and all three about every 63 seconds. Within the piece, 3:48 is the only time all four cities are sounding and share a downbeat, but the cycles are not unrelated numbers. The chant has no bar line and stands outside this relation.

The piece does not resolve. The chant rests on F, and after the last bell the next perihelion remains. As the "……" in Choi Hee June's works stands for connections not drawn, this ending stays open to the next orbit.

## How v2 differs from v1.0

| | v1.0 | v2 |
|---|---|---|
| Center | Heavy metal leads; world instruments are placed inside it | The planetary orbit holds the piece; metal is one of four cities |
| Pitch | Everything tuned to E | Only the ground tone E♭ is shared; gugak recordings keep their recorded pitch |
| Meter | Other cycles layered over metal's 4/4 | Each city runs in its own meter and they meet only at perihelion |
| Hearing difference | One blended sound | Each city is first heard alone; at perihelion, one scene in which each remains audible |

## Honest labeling

- No music-generation AI was used. The piece was written and rendered as a code score (`compose_v2.py`).
- The gayageum and daegeum are single-note recordings published by the National Gugak Center (KOGL Type 1, attribution). Their recorded pitch and playback speed are unchanged. Slicing, arrangement, fades, compression, and reverb are my processing, so this is not a performer's actual playing or an ensemble recording.
- Chant, sitar, hand percussion, guitars, bass, and drums are FluidR3 GM sounds, not recordings of real traditional instruments or a live ensemble. The sitar is not an oud, and the maqam is rendered in 12-TET only, with no quarter tones.
- The gugak city's 12/8 is a cycle set for this piece. I do not claim it reproduces any traditional jangdan.
- The chant city does not quote any existing chant; I wrote the melody in mode I on E♭.
- The ground tone is a just-fifth tone synthesized with numpy.
- This is an instrumental version with no singing voice.
- I make no "world first" claim. Layering several meters, or using Korean instruments with other genres, has been done many times. This version rests on how it carries Choi Hee June's definition of integrative pluralism into structure.

## Contributions

- **Choi Hee June:** the theory of integrative pluralism (fusionism) and its correction (the planetary state and special cities, the same structure as his artworks), the title 「핼리혜성」 (Halley's Comet), direction, and the request for v2
- **Third Room CHOI JUNE (kova-heredi-lo):** structure, composition, arrangement, code score, mix, English translation

## Files

- `halley_comet_핼리혜성_v2.0.mp3` · 320 kbps, 6:25
- `compose_v2.py` · code score
- `engine.py` · render engine (TinySoundFont, same file as v1.0)
- `halley_v2_render_log.json` · render log and per-section levels
- `sample_manifest_v2.json` · sources and SHA-256 of the 13 gugak single notes used

Gugak single-note source: National Gugak Center digital single-note archive, https://www.gugak.go.kr/digitaleum/front/monotone/list.do (KOGL Type 1)

―――
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