programming
the viper matrix vol.1
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Friends often become collaborators and whenever I team up with someone, I like to push the boundaries. This case, I wanted to see what could be done with a particular harmonic and rhythmic matrix. The sky is the limit! After much tweaking, a few hits and bowed pianos, I came up with this little gem.
The coolest part about this piece is that it is very intuitive to perform. This track is easily performed live, and is constructed so that no matter how hard you try it will sound different every time. This opens up many ways to improvise and interact with additional instrumentalists… As a bonus, all of the samples are acoustic. The goal was to make a live, interactive patch that sounds as if it were a musicological field recording.
a piece for player piano
It’s inspiring to ponder how situations, environments and new communities of people have on one’s creative output. I arrived in Banff with all sorts of goals and expectations, but I quickly put most of them off on the sidelines once I realized how many new things I could really take advantage of – things that normally I don’t have access to, like amazing classical musicians and digital pianos! Once of these mini-projects I took on was to write a piece for a digital ‘player’ piano, a Yamaha Disklavier built in 1988 – the thing even has a 3.5″ floppy disk drive built into it!
With this new undertaking, I quickly did a ton of research. I remember as a kid seeing some white baby grand piano in a hotel lobby playing ‘The Entertainer” or something similar, never dreaming that I would be programming a piece for it one day. I studied the works of Conlon Nancarrow (see previous post) and Steve Reich in particular in order to gain some perspective, and then I began to hash out some ideas.
Now that I got the hang of it, I plan to write another something for this instrument…
And as always, let me know your thoughts!
a taste of nancarrow
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About six months ago guitarist and composer Travis Reuter introduced me to the work of player-piano composer Conlon Nancarrow. Immediately I was intrigued with the rhythmic complexity of his works and began to research his methods. Just recently I came up with a little sample-based arrangement of one of his etudés for player piano. I love the way that this piece feels so dark, and yet is so grooving with a feel of improvisation-like freedom!
**Update: Check out Kyle Gann’s Blog “Post Classic” for a special mention of this post!
