Contemporary Classics August 29, 2017 - Piano and Electronics

This show features contemporary music using both piano and electronics - in most cases solo piano with either a separate performer doing the electronic elements or prerecorded electronics.

Jakub Ciupinski  Morning Tale    I. Nocturne      II. Alba      III. Awakening      IV. The Miracle of Being Earnest      Vicky Chow  AORTA   New Amsterdam Records

Morning Tale centers around the motion from a place of darkness to a new beginning. Technically, the piece strives to use electronics as an extension of the piano's capabilities rather than a separate medium by featuring an electronic layer derived from piano sounds, with the speakers placed inside the instrument to achieve a greater blend with acoustic sounds. 

Jacob Sudol  threads unraveling… (2014)    Chen-Hui Jen (piano) and Jacob David Sudol (live electronics)  Live recording at the Miami Beach Urban Studios as part of 2014 ISCM Miami New  Music Miami Festival  downloaded Jacob Sudol website

threads unraveling…is the third in a series of works for piano and electronics written for his wife – pianist/composer Chen-Hui Jen. This work involves solo piano with recordings of three Tibetan bells and a large tam-tam. The piano writing is primarily based on spectral analyses of these same Tibetan bells. Sudol describes the work “As a whole the work focuses less on melody, harmony, or even timbre than it does on material and memory progressively unravelling and rewriting themselves.”   http://www.jacobsudol.com

John Melby Concerto #2 for Piano and Electronics   from album  John Melby  Concerti   ALBANY RECORDS   This work features pianist Winston Choi.  This is one of several concerti that John Melby has written for solo instrument and computer.  This second concerto for piano and electronics was written in 2006.

Jacob Cooper  Clifton Gates        Vicky Chow AORTA New Amsterdam Records

Clifton Gates (2011) Written for Timo Andres for 1 performer  Piano with Laptop. named for the place it was written (Clifton Place, Brooklyn) and the piece it pays homage to (John Adams’s "Phrygian Gates"). "Clifton Gates" employs—among other digital effects—actual audio gates, creating a rhythmic alteration out of sudden shifts in amplitude. The gating effect is especially audible as the work begins, processing music whose tonality and texture are reminiscent of the slow middle section of Adams’s piece.    jacobcoopermusic@gmail.com

INTERVIEW WITH COMPOSER KIRSTEN VOLNESS AND HER WORK "NOCTURNE"  Included below

Jonathan Harvey Tombeau de Messiaen  Philip Mead, piano  Tombeau de Messiaen SARGASSO  

This work is for piano & CD and is a homage to the composer Olivier Messiaen on hearing of his passing back in 1994. The prerecorded portion is composed of piano sounds entirely tuned to harmonic series - twelve of them, one for each class of pitch. The ‘tempered’ live piano joins and distorts these series, never entirely belonging, never entirely separate. Tombeau de Messiaen was written for Philip Mead (who commissioned it with funds provided in part by Eastern Arts).

Mario Davidovsky  Synchronism no. 6  from the album Aequalis: Brody/Davidovsky/Gideon/Steiger/Ung    Fred Bronstein, piano New World Records 

This work is a combination of the new and classic – It starts with a sounded G in the piano mimicked by the electronic track but structurally it is sonata form with theme, development and recapitulation.

 Chris Cerrone: Hoyt-Schermerhorn     Vicky Chow AORTA New Amsterdam Records

Chris Cerrone: describes Hoyt-Schermerhorn is a tribute to the New York nightscape. Named after a subway station in Brooklyn where he have spent many a night waiting for the train.  To him “the piece explores the myriad and contradictory feelings that often come to me late at night in my city of choice— nostalgia, anxiety, joy, panic.” chris@christophercerrone.com

Allen Strange: Velocity Study No. 3 "Rip" Keith Kirchoff, piano  Live recording

Allen Strange (1943-2008) was considered the leading authority on analog electronic music, and he wrote dozens of pieces for solo instruments and electronics. Among these works were five compositions each for a different instrument he titled "Velocity Studies"  which were etudes that explored new methods of integrating live acoustic performance with pre-recorded media. His only work for piano wasVelocity Study No. 3. The DAT tape with the electronic score was damaged after his death but remastered with some clicks and pops by Brian Belet.  Here the work is performed live by Keith Kirchoff, piano