We will also consider how the piano can be reinvented, both acoustically and digitally. This will include study of the prepared piano, the autonomous piano, and the digital piano, as well as Trueman’s own prepared digital piano, which itself raises a host of questions regarding rhythm, meter and groove, music perception, adaptive digital systems, and the creative process.
This is not a history course, but in some ways it is course that uses the piano to bring together a range of subjects that are often ignored or under developed in traditional music curricula. Nor is it a composition course, but students will be asked to create in a variety of ways, and it should be of use to both experienced and aspiring composers, not to mention pianists. We will engage with a range of music, going back to Frescobaldi, Scarlatti, J.S. Bach and his son C.P.E. Bach, through Schubert, all the way to more recent composers like Conlon Nancarrow, György Ligeti, and John Cage. And finally this is in part an “artist practicum” course, focusing on the creative process and how composers today might invent, and reinvent, instruments to create new work; some of Trueman’s own work, including the Nostalgic Synchronic Etudes for prepared digital piano, will come in to play.
Schedule:
This course is in adaptive mode and is open for enrollment.
Session 1: The Piano
The keyboard layout, hammers and strings, timbre, overtones; clavichord, harpsichord, with Gavin Black; pitch and perception.
Session 2: Tuning and Temperament
A tour of all the chromatic intervals and their flavors; tuning and temperament; Bach’s temperament; Inharmonicity; with Cristina Altamura, guest.
Session 3: The Prepared Piano—the Autonomous Piano—the Digital Piano
The prepared piano, with Adam Tender; the player piano and Conlon Nancarrow; the magnetic resonator piano; digitizing the piano, input, engine, and output.
Session 4: The Synchronic Piano—Rhythm, Meter, and Groove
The genesis of the synchronic piano; entrainment; perception and cognition of rhythm and meter; case study: the Norwegian telespringar.
Session 5: The Prepared Digital Piano—bitKlavier, the Adaptive Piano, Performance Practices, and the Nostalgic Synchronic Etudes
Nostalgic, Tuning, and Direct preparations; adaptive tuning; adaptive tempo; the Nostalgic Synchronic Etudes; performance practices, with Adam Sliwinski and Cristina Altamura