#4204: Music for Altered Keyboards
Listen to works for altered and retuned keyboards, with prepared piano music by keyboardist and composer Kelly Moran and the German composer Hauschka, plus music for three pianos by Kyle Gann.
Kelly Moran is a keyboardist, composer, engineer, and producer whose music is mainly centered around the piano, and how to utterly change what the piano sounds like. She prepares the piano strings with screws and bolts to make the piano more percussive, or plucks the strings inside to make it sound orchestral, and also adds electronics. From Moran’s latest record, Ultraviolet, hear “Nereid”, a work for prepared piano with electronic treatments. Then, listen to a work by German pianist and composer Hauschka (Volker Bertelmann) for prepared piano and electronics from his record, “Abandoned City,” inspired by different ghost towns throughout the world.
Listen also to microtonal music by composer and music writer Kyle Gann for an imagined single piano with 243 keys. It’s music from a series of works, Hyperchromatica, written for three computer-driven pianos (Disklaviers), where each piano has been tuned very close to the other two.
Hear “The Magic Knot Waltz” by minimalist composer Terry Riley – a work for piano in Just Intonation – also called “Pure Intonation”. These pure intervals are based on the way the overtone series lines up, so that the frequency of each sound is a whole number multiple of the fundamental (the lowest frequency.) There’s also music for retuned sampling keyboard based on an Indonesian scale from the late Pauline Oliveros.
Program #4204: Music for Altered Keyboards (First aired 2/11/2019)
ARTIST: Kyle Gann
WORK: Galactic Jamboree [1:00]
RECORDING: Hyperchromatica
SOURCE: Other Minds, OM 1025
INFO: otherminds.org
ARTIST: Kelly Moran
WORK: Nereid [10:07]
RECORDING: Ultraviolet
SOURCE: WARPCD/LP 297
INFO: https://kellymoran.lnk.to/UltravioletWe
ARTIST: Terry Riley
WORK: The Magic Knot Waltz 9:25
RECORDING: The Harp of New Albion
SOURCE: Celestial Harmonies 14018
INFO: harmonies.com
ARTIST: Hauschka
WORK: Pripyat [7:20]
RECORDING: Abandoned City
SOURCE:Temporary Residence trr232
INFO: shop.temporaryresidence.com
ARTIST: Kyle Gann
WORK: Galactic Jamboree [7:18]
RECORDING: Hyperchromatica
SOURCE: Other Minds, OM 1025
INFO: otherminds.org
ARTIST: Pauline Oliveros
WORK: Lion's Tale [10:27]
RECORDING: CDCM Computer Music Vol. 7, iEAR studios at RPI
SOURCE: Centaur #2047
INFO: centaurrecords.com/store
