Piano Forum
Piano Board => Repertoire => Topic started by: fast_forward on October 28, 2009, 01:52:32 AM
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Hi,
Does anyone know of any good pieces for piano and electronic tape?
Thanks
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There are many pieces in this genre. One I saw performed a few weeks ago was Luigi Nono's "...sofferte onde serene...", where the tape part is essentially another piano playing an extension of what the live player plays at the same time, with some interesting effects (the part was recorded by Maurizio Pollini, at Nono's request). There is also Carl Vine's "Rash", a piece which uses a very electronica-pop-based tape part to accompany a very rhythmic and very characteristically-Vine piano part. For something very funny, try out Jacob ter Veldhuis's "The Body of your Dreams". I won't give away anything about this piece, other than that it is probably one of the funniest pieces you will ever hear. Another funny work is Matthew Hindson's "Plastic Jubilation", which is similar to the Vine in that it incorporate's pop-music influences (I also won't give away much of the funny context of this work). He would later rewrite this work for solo piano, naming it "Moments of Plastic Jubilation", which is a far simpler work, and almost as funny. A very serious work, as serious as the one by Luigi Nono, is Jonathan Harvey's "Tombeau de Messiaen", which is a introspective work written in memory of the great composer with many bell-like sonorities. Those are just a few of them, but there are many more, in many different veins.
You may want to take a look at this journal on the subject:
[EDIT: I downloaded it off the site and uploaded it here as a pdf.]
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Nono's work (which Retrouvailles already mentioned) is probably the most well-known work for piano + electronics, and absolutely with good cause. It is, in every way, an excellently crafted and evocative piece that will affect your audience without any sacrifice to... how to say... the "contemporary aesthetic".
However, the work I'd recommend is:
Although, I should warn you that it's quite a bit more difficult (like, super-duper-oh-my-god hard); well, really, I'd recommend the Nono as well, but I'd give this a second place. There are many, other works to look into, by the way. Stockhausen's Klavierstuck XV forward mostly all used electronics, as well as the Klavierstuck III by Wolfgang Rihm. Another famous, famous piece for piano + electronics is Piano Phase by Steve Reich (can also be performed with two pianists, although I wouldn't advise it!); the works of Clarence Barlow often call for the inclusion of electronics. You could also look into the Japanese piano repertoire, as there is a huge wealth of untapped music in this medium (look into Ikeda and Yuasa to start). Alvin Lucier wrote a couple pieces for piano + electronics (although I'm not a big fan of his music). The Due Notturni con Figura by Fedele is also excellent. The last composer I would recommend looking into is Morton Subotnick, who has written two or three pieces for the medium as well; his music is consistently good, although I'm not personally familiar with the piano + electronics works.
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