"Piano Three Hands" [mp3 removed]. This will most likely be the first part of a longer work, posted in installments as I did with the string quartet piece a while back. The intro repeats at the end now, but I will probably take that out and add new material.
Update: Added an 18-second "middle section."
Simply because of the keyboard sound and the speed I couldn't help but think of Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997).
This awkwardly written paragraph (perhaps not a native speaker of English) from the Wikipedia: "Nancarrow is remembered almost exclusively for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use mechanical instruments as machines, far beyond human performance representations. He lived most of his life in complete introspection, not becoming widely known until the 1980s. Today, he is remembered as one of the most original and unusual composers of the 20th century."
I'm a fan of Nancarrow's and think about him often when doing "piano roll" style writing. (Not just for the piano--I'm doing everything that way.)
How different his world would have been if he'd been born 30 years later. He was sitting down there in Mexico punching one hole at a time for weeks to make two minutes of music.
He could have done all his scores and heard them played instantly with a laptop.
I'm interested in impossible-to-play scores, but also in writing something that we could imagine a "virtuoso" playing.
I like the awkwardness of not being sure if there's a human involved--thus, some of the stray discordant notes and a couple of jazzy riffs thrown in.
Thanks for listening to this, and for the feedback.
I'm fantasizing about doing something for, say, piano and oboe and some sort of rave-y, out of control synthesizer.
I forgot to say in the previous comment that I like this piece. It's not nice to only say, "Yeah, it reminds me of so-and-so," and leave it at that, which isn't what I was really saying, anyway.
I wonder how Nancarrow's music might have been different had he not had to hand-punch those roles. One of the things with his music is the tension between parts that sound like they could be played by a person and parts that no person could play- suddenly I'd think, "that's a machine." He managed to achieve real delicacy at times, and then he'd write parts that were just pounded out with incredible force. Despite being played by a machine his music is still handmade. People often used to ask me if when making the HTML drawings I missed actually drawings. I can't explain it well, but believe me, it's drawing- it's physical and mental and problem solving. I imagine it's the same with the composing tools you're using.
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"Piano Three Hands" [mp3 removed]. This will most likely be the first part of a longer work, posted in installments as I did with the string quartet piece a while back. The intro repeats at the end now, but I will probably take that out and add new material.
Update: Added an 18-second "middle section."
- tom moody 6-07-2006 2:07 am
Simply because of the keyboard sound and the speed I couldn't help but think of Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997).
This awkwardly written paragraph (perhaps not a native speaker of English) from the Wikipedia: "Nancarrow is remembered almost exclusively for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use mechanical instruments as machines, far beyond human performance representations. He lived most of his life in complete introspection, not becoming widely known until the 1980s. Today, he is remembered as one of the most original and unusual composers of the 20th century."
- chrissashley 6-08-2006 6:37 am
I'm a fan of Nancarrow's and think about him often when doing "piano roll" style writing. (Not just for the piano--I'm doing everything that way.)
How different his world would have been if he'd been born 30 years later. He was sitting down there in Mexico punching one hole at a time for weeks to make two minutes of music.
He could have done all his scores and heard them played instantly with a laptop.
I'm interested in impossible-to-play scores, but also in writing something that we could imagine a "virtuoso" playing.
I like the awkwardness of not being sure if there's a human involved--thus, some of the stray discordant notes and a couple of jazzy riffs thrown in.
Thanks for listening to this, and for the feedback.
I'm fantasizing about doing something for, say, piano and oboe and some sort of rave-y, out of control synthesizer.
- tom moody 6-08-2006 6:54 am
I forgot to say in the previous comment that I like this piece. It's not nice to only say, "Yeah, it reminds me of so-and-so," and leave it at that, which isn't what I was really saying, anyway.
I wonder how Nancarrow's music might have been different had he not had to hand-punch those roles. One of the things with his music is the tension between parts that sound like they could be played by a person and parts that no person could play- suddenly I'd think, "that's a machine." He managed to achieve real delicacy at times, and then he'd write parts that were just pounded out with incredible force. Despite being played by a machine his music is still handmade. People often used to ask me if when making the HTML drawings I missed actually drawings. I can't explain it well, but believe me, it's drawing- it's physical and mental and problem solving. I imagine it's the same with the composing tools you're using.
- chrissashley 6-09-2006 5:40 am