Why Heartbeam Never Resolves

Heartbeam is built as one composition held at two pitch centers a perfect fifth apart — F minor and C minor — crossfaded live by the listener's own heart rate. Because it's the same material at both centers, nothing in the music itself pulls a listener toward one side; only their physiology decides.

The harmony stays deliberately open throughout — extended ninths, elevenths, sixth/ninths — with no true dominant-to-tonic motion anywhere in the piece. Even its one moment of "home" arrives by modal gravity rather than a resolved cadence, a color in the vein of Bartók and Tchaikovsky that a trained ear should recognize immediately.

Written for IACS's HEARTBEAM protocol. Read about the study — or listen to the current mix.