Installation / Performance
INSTALLATION / PERFORMANCE is an alternate way of presenting get used to it man thats the way we live now that directly leverages Steinway's Spirio|r technology.
15 pianists collectively realize the complete piece via recordings of music from the piece that has been uniquely assigned to them, so that the entire piece can be realized on a Steinway Spirio|r concert grand in a variety of locations for a defined period of time, as is customary for a museum or gallery exhibition.
How it works:
Fifteen pianists collectively realize the complete piece via recordings of music from the piece that has been uniquely assigned to them, so that the entire piece can be realized on a Steinway Spirio|r concert grand in a variety of locations for a defined period of time, as is customary for a museum or gallery exhibition.
90 sections
average 25 seconds
15 pianists
each records
6 out of the 90.
Their recordings are uploaded to the Currawong platform. The total amount of music for each pianist learns averages about two-and-a-half minutes.
During the recording session, pianists will record numerous takes of their unique set of six fragments. We generally capture 8 - 10 versions of each fragment to populate the source queues.
All pianists are encouraged to refresh their queue with more uploaded recordings from time to time. And many more than the original 15 pianists will be engaged to record their interpretations of the six fragments that constitute an assignment. The result will be that Installation / Performance realizations over time will present ever more variance.
Let's explain that one by getting into more detail about the digital sound transformations. At a primary level, transforms are pre-set in the sense that the general type of transformation is decided in advance for every phrase. Then at a secondary level the transforms are shaped -- "fine tuned" -- by real-time analysis of how a preceding passage was played. As the piece progresses, the computer is not only modulating piano sound, but also continually evaluating characteristics of the performance. As more pianists "weigh in" by uploading their performances of more of the many available fragments, the overall variability of these performed fragments will increase. Accordingly the total spectrum of sound transformation over time will enlarge as well. Accordingly there can be no "definitive" version of any fragment, let alone the piece itself.
Note: The order of fragments within the piece itself never changes. This is a piece composed from beginning to end, and the score is the score.