- Abstractive extensive studies
- Three situation studies
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Three measurement studies
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Greenwich House, 1957
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At every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able to satisfy himself of the contrary, he should conceive himself to be so.
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Timecode studies
- Postproductions
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[number of performers-date-abbreviated venue name]
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Edgar Varèse and the Jazzmen
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Piano Reductions
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Luftlinien
three-part suite for prepared piano
2020
In Piano Reductions, a piano is extensively prepared so that all sounds it produces are contained within less than an octave. Three selected pieces from the repertoire (works by Satie, Bach, and Chopin) are then performed on the instrument.
Piano reductions is a piece in which the spatiality of the piano is considered. As a mediator between the composer’s sonic imagination and the instrumental ensembles for which their scores were written, the piano has, for centuries, shaped Western musical space. It has done so not only in terms of its external boundaries but also through its internal division into equally distributed, discrete pitches. By excluding a variety of possible timbres and nuances from other instruments or voices, the piano allowed music to be represented similarly to how a map represents a territory.
This capacity to create "musical images" facilitated the wider dissemination of music across geographical spaces (and across time). Those unable to attend live performances or who wished to relive orchestral or chamber music could now hear or play reduced versions on the piano, perhaps imagining what might be missing.
Taking advantage of the semantic shift from the Latin digitus (finger) to the English digit, one might even argue that piano reduction was a form "digitalization" of music ahead of its time. This process enabled a form of virtualizing musical works—an outcome of all arrangements—through standardized, mass-produced interfaces that discretize continuous phenomena.
Piano Reductions proposes an alternative use of the piano. Here, the instrument’s sonic space is "folded" onto itself, compressing the traditional arrangement of equal, equidistant pitches into a mesh of closely spaced, untempered pitches with varied qualities, forming a new potential and non-representative "territory" within the piano. However, this space is unstable and "quasi-site-specific"; it cannot be consistently replicated from one piano to another, as the original preparation depends on the specific materials used and the unique architecture of different piano brands.
As a result, the piano’s cartographic function is lost, and the cardinal directions of its interface (left-right and up-down) become irrelevant. To acknowledge this transformation, three pieces from the repertoire, each offering a distinct concept of "pianistic space," are performed. Satie’s work provides a literal, geometric depiction of architectural arches on the staff; Bach’s fugue represents a historical exploration of tonal space afforded by equal temperament; and finally, Chopin’s prelude thematizes the depth of the piano, notably through the use of the pedal and the "third hand illusion."
first performance: 03.07.2021 / ZHdK-Konzertsaal 3, Zürich
piano: Ranko Markovic
score
video