Toy pianos, poor tools: virtuosity and imagination in a limited context

The toy piano is fast becoming a concert instrument in its own right, with its own (growing) body of repertoire that has moved well beyond John Cage’s 1948 classic Suite for Toy Piano. There are dedicated musicians specialising in toy piano performance all over the world, and numerous composers producing new works written specifically for the toy piano. This unusual miniature instrument provides a respite from the traditional implications of the grand piano, breaks the ice with audiences and allows pianists to perform in locations that would otherwise be inaccessible. In this article the author introduces the history and mechanism of the instrument, performance considerations, extended techniques and approaches to working with electronics, recent repertoire and suggestions for performers and composers. Discussion is supplemented with musical examples

Approaches to notation in music for piano and live electronics: the performer’s perspective

This chapter examines elements of notation in music for piano and live electronics. The author introduces examples from the repertoire and discusses different notational approaches. These are grouped into three main categories. 1 Graphic notations and visual representations or descriptive scores (Boorman 2001) are commonly used in repertoire with fixed media to simplify synchronisation and can also be found in more recent repertoire with interactive live electronics. 2 Tablature-style notations, or prescriptive scores (Boorman 2001) including notation as documentation, offer a different and potentially complementary approach. 3 Hybrid combinations of approaches and notations, including semi-improvised pieces and notation for new instruments, show new perspectives in the field. The author addresses performance practice challenges and draws conclusions from that perspective

Interaction, instruments and performance: HCI and the design of future music technologies

Rationale There has been little chance for researchers, performers and designers in the UK to come together in order to explore the use and design of new and evolving technologies for performance. This workshop examines the interplay between people, musical instruments, performance and technology. Now, more than ever technology is enabling us to augment the body, develop new ways to play and perform, and augment existing instruments that can span the physical and digital realms. By bringing together performers, artists, designers and researchers we aim to develop new understandings how we might design new performance technologies. Some Topics - Methods and Approaches; What are the methods and approaches that we can employ to understanding interaction and interplay in performance and what impact does technology have on this? - Sonic Augmentation; can performance and sound change the experiential attributes of places, e.g. make them more accessible, more playful? -Physical/digital augmentation; how can one augment one’s self or existing musical instruments and artifacts physically and digitally? - Meaning and Mediation; can people narrate or make sense and movement as part of performance – how does the audience understand this? - Mobility and Immobility; performance and movement, what are the dynamics of performing at rest or whilst mobile, how can technology supported co-located and distributed performance and reception? - Locating Content and Spatialisation; how is performance located, how does sound and performance become part of the spatial fabric and what software tools can support this? - Personalization and Reflection; how can people use new performance technologies to narrate and reflect upon experiences – both as performer and spectator? These are some tentative implications and questions that we expect to address in the workshop. Goals The main goal of the workshop is to bring people together to discuss the issues mentioned previously and to explore this emergent space. As part of Audio Mostly we would like to build this community and develop a network that would engender ongoing participation, debate, scholarship and collaboration. The workshop would also like to encourage early career researchers and PhD students to attend in order to grow the community

Atomic Legacies

This full-length album features two substantial semi-improvised original compositions for the magnetic resonator piano (MRP), "Glowing Radioactive Elements" for solo MRP (2018) and "Atomic Legacies" for MRP and string quartet (2019). The Magnetic Resonator Piano is a novel hybrid instrument designed by Andrew McPherson (Queen Mary University). Electromagnets are installed above the strings of a regular concert grand without physical contact with the action, allowing for control of minute details of shimmering resonance, fragile pitch bends, sliding crescendi from silence and sustained "bowed" sounds that the performer can shape directly from the keyboard. All of the sounds heard on this recording are produced acoustically. Only whole takes were used and there are just two edits, both to slightly restrict duration

Gold.Berg.Werk

Ergodos is proud to release "Gold.Berg.Werk", a radical re-interpretation of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations by Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl, performed by pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett, with live electronic diffusion by Ed Bennett. The Goldberg Variations form a cornerstone of keyboard repertoire, yet we rarely question the mode of presentation for this work. Here, Essl offers a refreshing glimpse of a new performance practice: gorgeous time-stretched harmonies are manipulated in real time and played back through spatialised loudspeakers in between the piano variations, bringing together Baroque and contemporary sound worlds. Pianist Xenia Pestova Bennett reflects on her engagement with this transformative project: “The very idea of tackling the Goldberg Variations, places an enormous psychological “weight” of tradition on any keyboard player brave or foolish enough to do so. However, rather than presenting this work as a fixed artefact behind dusty museum glass, or trying to match existing interpretations, I find that it helps to view it as a living and evolving organism. Karlheinz Essl’s "Gold.Berg.Werk" (“gold mine work”), a new piece in its own right, takes Bach’s music as a point of departure and offers a fresh perspective.” An additional binaural version of the album is available to download as a bonus item

Interaction, instruments and performance: HCI and the design of future music technologies

Rationale There has been little chance for researchers, performers and designers in the UK to come together in order to explore the use and design of new and evolving technologies for performance. This workshop examines the interplay between people, musical instruments, performance and technology. Now, more than ever technology is enabling us to augment the body, develop new ways to play and perform, and augment existing instruments that can span the physical and digital realms. By bringing together performers, artists, designers and researchers we aim to develop new understandings how we might design new performance technologies. Some Topics - Methods and Approaches; What are the methods and approaches that we can employ to understanding interaction and interplay in performance and what impact does technology have on this? - Sonic Augmentation; can performance and sound change the experiential attributes of places, e.g. make them more accessible, more playful? -Physical/digital augmentation; how can one augment one’s self or existing musical instruments and artifacts physically and digitally? - Meaning and Mediation; can people narrate or make sense and movement as part of performance – how does the audience understand this? - Mobility and Immobility; performance and movement, what are the dynamics of performing at rest or whilst mobile, how can technology supported co-located and distributed performance and reception? - Locating Content and Spatialisation; how is performance located, how does sound and performance become part of the spatial fabric and what software tools can support this? - Personalization and Reflection; how can people use new performance technologies to narrate and reflect upon experiences – both as performer and spectator? These are some tentative implications and questions that we expect to address in the workshop. Goals The main goal of the workshop is to bring people together to discuss the issues mentioned previously and to explore this emergent space. As part of Audio Mostly we would like to build this community and develop a network that would engender ongoing participation, debate, scholarship and collaboration. The workshop would also like to encourage early career researchers and PhD students to attend in order to grow the community