A Piano Listening To Itself -- Chopin Chord

Castle Square, Warsaw Autumn Festival, September 2010

Six long piano wires are suspended across a space and are connected to a piano positioned at one end of the wires. At the other end, audio recordings are transmitted into the long piano strings using vibrating coils attached to the wires, which cause the piano strings to vibrate in sympathy with the audio signals. The vibrations in the long piano strings are amplified by contact to the piano soundboard.

For the 'Chopin Chord' version created for the Warsaw Autumn Festival, six long piano strings are suspended from the Royal Castle bell tower and connected to a piano positioned on the ground below. Audio recordings transmitted into the piano strings consist of note sequences derived from piano compositions by Frederic Chopin. The note sequences were extracted from Chopin's piano pieces and redeveloped to form new compositions that were then recorded using a software-based piano. In total, the note sequences were derived from twenty Preludes, two Etudes Opus 10 and 25, the Fantaisie Impromptu Opus 66, one Nocturne Opus 27 Nr. 1, one Polonaise Opus 53, and the first movement of the Sonata, Opus 35.

In addition to the piano sounds vibrating in the wires, whenever the wind blows perpendicular to the piano strings, they vibrated with Aeolian tones, thus adding a spontaneous audio event manifested by natural forces. These Aeolian tones blend with the audio signals or they sometimes drown out the audio signals, which re-emerge once the wind dies down or changes direction.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sound installaion
• sound art
• sound sculpture