Bowed Piano Ensemble
Stephen Scott plays the piano from the inside out. For his compositions, Scott and nine other musicians use homemade bows, popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, guitar picks, rubber plumbing tape, and other materials to manipulate the strings under the lid of the piano. They never touch the keys. National Public Radio's Morning Edition profiled Scott yesterday. The NPR site also features audio and video of Scott and his Bowed Piano Ensemble. I listened to the music first and it reminded me of the trance-inducing minimalism of Steve Reich. Turns out, Scott cites Reich as a big influence and studied music with him in Ghana. From the feature (photo by Peter Savage):
Link to NPR, Link to buy Bowed Piano Ensemble CDs (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)To get a sense of what the bowed piano is, imagine a grand piano with the lid lifted off. Ten musicians crowd around, leaning over the innards of the instrument, like a team of surgeons performing an operation.
Scott says you won't find any traditional-looking bows — like the ones violinists use — in his ensemble.
"The primary sound is produced by a bow of nylon fish-line, which is rosined, and that's just threaded under the piano string and across it. There's another kind of bow, which is a stick of wood which has horse hair affixed to it, and that's rubbed against the strings to produce a short, percussive sound."
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See also Ellen Fullman's "long string instrument" for more string manipulation action.
very cool.
fazil say,a turkish composer/musician,also utilizes an extended technique;reaching his left hand under the lid to flatten the strings while playing the keys with his right hand.his "black earth" is really lovely.
On the topic of playing the piano in strange ways, if you haven't heard John Cage's Bacchanale, you must!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0BwwF9cLwM
It's written for "prepared piano". In Cage's use, the preparations are typically nuts, bolts and pieces of rubber to be lodged between and entwined around the strings. Some preparations make duller, more percussive sounds than usual, while others create sonorous bell-like tones. Additionally, the individual parts of a preparation like a nut loosely screwed onto a bolt will vibrate themselves, adding their own unique sound. By placing the preparation between two of the strings on a note which has three strings assigned to it, it is possible to change the timbre of that note by depressing the soft pedal on the piano, which moves the hammers so they strike only two strings instead of all three (the soft pedal is traditionally called "una corda" on a grand)."
-J
When I saw Bela Fleck (banjo) and Chick Corea (piano) playing at the Barbican in London last year (awesome, as it happens), Chick played one piece where he bent over the piano and did something with the strings inside, while playing the keys.Sounds a bit like Fazil Say's technique.
Very cool, I'm hooked.
I'm actually thinking about purchasing mp3s for the first time. somebody tell me again, is amazon's current mp3 store DRM-free?
One of my favorite pieces is a minor work from George Crumb called 'A Little Suite for Christmas'. For certain parts, the pianist reaches inside the piano to play the strings directly. It makes the music sound other-worldly.
Seems to have a couple more videos . . .
http://www.youtube.com/user/educacionmusical
@ #3 - The Cage prepared piano stuff is stellar. I love 'Sonatas and Interludes'; some of my favorite listening.
@ #7 - I'll have to check that one out, thanks! I am a big fan of Black Angels, as played by the Kronos Quartet.
I highly recommend Vikings of the Sunrise, a great cd Scott's ensemble did a few years back.
Freaky. That photo reminded me of
http://www.penwith.co.uk/artofeurope/rembrandt_anatomy_lesson_dr_tulp.jpg
Speaking of Steve Reich, fans of the stuff we've mentioned so far might also like So Percussion, who I believe I first heard on NPR as well...
If you watch Ben Folds (particularly Ben Folds Five Sessions at West 54th) he does a lot of odd things with his piano, including playing it rather like a harp and, at one point, running a microphone across the strings. Very fun stuff.
Back in the late 80's, early 90's I was teaching a class of gifted kids. We did a unit on the physics of sound, where the kids built a laser oscillator using a helium neon laser, a speaker, and a mirror. I let the kids work on synthesizers, etc.
One of our projects was a prepared piano EXACTLY as described here. I tied the ends of pieces of 50lb test fishing cord to popsicle sticks and coated the strings with bow resin. Each kid had one string and was responsible for one note. We did a short Christmas concert with the piano for the other classes.
One other project involved four Apple IIe computers. Using BASIC we could program one line of music on each computer. Taking a four-part Bach chorale, we programed the bass in to one computer, the tenor into another, then the soprano and alto lines. Once everything was set up, we hit enter on all four computers simultaneously.
Ah, for the good old days. That was a fun class to for a geek like me to teach, whether or not the kids really got anything out of it.
Hey, I found a cool Wiki entry on this topic!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_technique
It's a happy surprise to see The Bowed Piano Ensemble profiled here (oops, I missed the NPR story!). I first saw them perform in 1996, when I attended with the brother of one of the current performers, then a student at Colorado College, where the ensemble is based. We walked in about 10 minutes late after "preparing" for the show outside in the park, and discovered a completely dark concert hall, with the Ensemble gathered around the open piano, lit dimly with tiny flashlights. They were producing the most incredible sounds I had ever heard, and actually, yes, one performer occasionally touches the keys, but usually while placing the other hand inside to mute the strings for an eerie plucked sound. Beautiful music, seldom noticed. Thanks for putting it out there for more to hear.
Fondu!
It kind of reminds me of this scene from "A Day at the Races":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoTyDD0C93U
#8 sort of linked to this but i think it bears repeating...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRg2Rg5z5ZM
is a great video of a complete performance. (lots of closeups so you can really see the details of what's going on, and the music itself is excellent)
also an interview with the composer:
http://www.newmusicbox.org/article.nmbx?id=4067
thanks for posting this! i had heard some of stephen scott's music back in the (pre-youtube) day, but never seen it being made.
now i'm off to the piano... if i can just find that fishing line...
John Cage is a charlatan; the emperor has no clothes.
most cool,maybe a use for the old upright
The piano is traditionally played as a percussion instrument. Here they show it can be played like strings. But did anyone know it's actually a woodwind?
Einstürzende Neubauten did something sort of like this for their Supporter Project #3, which led up to the release of their latest album Alles Wieder Offen. Alexander Hacke, the bassist, wrapped loops of string around the strings of a piano and played it all by pulling the loops of string across the piano strings. Interesting stuff.