|
|
In Unprepared Piano, a Yamaha disklavier grand piano is connected
to a database of music MIDI files appropriated and compiled
from all over the web. This library of electronic scores is
then “performed” automatically according to a
simple set of rules.The musical scores found online contain
a wide variety of instrumentations and are not generally intended
simply for piano, so our Unprepared
Piano is told to perform
each piece from beginning to end by randomly picking and choosing
from its different parts. This means it might play bits of
drum parts and percussion alongside chords and melodies intended
for the other instruments. |
|
|
The result is a transformation,
where traces of the original remain, but form part of a new
generative piece of music that could be thought of as an automatic
random improvisation. The piano performs and reinterprets
each score every time it is played, and although there is
no person playing the piano itself, it retains a kind of innate
authority because we recognise it as a complex and traditional
instrument built and perfected over hundreds of years for
the virtuoso. |
|
|
The title of the work also
refers to the idea of, 'Prepared Pianos' developed for the
most part by the artist John Cage, and although software is
used in this case to alter the scores, rather than objects
being used to alter the timbre of the instrument, we like
to think of these rules or instructions contained in the software
as a bit like John Cage's preparations in his prepared pianos
The MAX patch running this work was built by Justin Randell
|
|
|
|
|
