(HD) Alvin Lucier: Nothing is Real for piano, amplified teapot, recorder, & mini-sound system

My music and teaching blog: https://mostlynoise.wordpress.com/

http://flavors.me/sspeciale#_

http://kriskerzman.tumblr.com/post/5768974873/last-night-i-discovered-the-min...

https://sites.google.com/site/loyolamusicaugmentedrealityapp/

HD version

I am playing this ethereal and subtle work on my 2010-2011 recitals. I filmed my last performance in October, however, the technical challenges of playing and recording in addition to getting the amplification right were too great. So I restaged a recording in the chapel at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, where I teach.

A few words of unsolicited advice for others wanting to play this piece:

I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different speaker/teapot combinations to find a pair that best expressed the harmonics. As a general rule, I found that the rounder teapots worked best, but they tend to have small lids, making it difficult to get the speaker inside.

I used Blu-Tak to affix the speaker to the bottom of the pot. For this particular pot, the spout was too small to get the plug through, as well. So I had to cut the wire, thread the line through the teapot, then reattach it to another line.

I have tried several different mics to amplify the pot, too. Generally, small diaphragm condensers work best. I had many problems, however, with feedback. For this video, I used a Shure SM58 directly into a powered JBL speaker. The very good off axis rejection of this mic eliminates feedback, but it is not very sensitive. For the recording, I placed a portable Sony recorder close-by and mixed it into the soundtrack as best I could with iMovie.

I will be performing the work again in November.

According to Lucier:


In the Spring of 1990, Aki Takahashi asked me to write an arrangement of a Beatles song for her. She had just finished recording the complete piano music of Satie for Toshiba-EMI, the success of which had prompted them to ask for a collection of Lennon and McCartney tunes. She agreed, on the condition that she could invite composers of her own choosing to write the arrangements.

Not wanting to pin myself down to a specific song, memory or feeling, I asked her to choose one for me. She selected Strawberry Fields Forever. When I asked why she chose that particular song, she replied that the line, "nothing is real," reminded her of my music.



During this work, fragments of the melody are played and sustained as clusters. The performance is recorded on a cassette tape recorder. After the last fragment has been played, the tape is rewound and played back through a small loudspeaker hidden inside a teapot.

During the playback, the lid of the pot is raised and lowered, changing the resonance characteristics of the pot. Twice during the performance the pot itself is lifted off the lid of the piano, causing the resonances to disappear completely.



Nothing Is Real was commissioned by Toshiba-EMI Ltd., Japan, and is included on their Eastworld Compact Disc, TOCE-6655, HYPER BEATLES 2. It was written expressly for Aki Takahashi.
- Alvin Lucier

Alvin Lucier's Website
http://alucier.web.wesleyan.edu/

Music with Roots in the Aether
http://www.ubu.com/film/aether.html

Discussion of Nothing is Real and other works:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/2002/sep/22/

Buy the score here: Material Press
http://www.materialpress.com/lucier.htm

Video performance of Phyllis Chen playing Nothing is Real
http://www.phyllischen.net/?page_id=236

Margaret Leng Tan plays Nothing is Real on the Other Minds website. Also hosted on the internet Archive.
http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Lucier.shtml

Student and educator use for curriculum-based instruction and portfolio

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[mattpolofka]

This is a really cool piece. I might give it a try, it'd be a cool technique to use with my own music if I can get manage it. Was that a zoom h2 you used to record it?

[LHSMusicClass]

@mattpolofka It was, if you mean recording the piano during the piece. I used a Sony D-50 to record the sound as a whole.

[LHSMusicClass]

@mattpolofka : one more thing. through experimentation, I discovered that the rounder the teapot, the better the overtones. Definitely try out the teapots before you buy them. I brought my cellphone to stores and played music through the speaker to check how they rang. There was a lot of variation. For this piece, specifically, you also need to hear the music coming from inside the pot. The thickness of the teapot walls had quite an effect on the volume.

[wtficantgetausername]

i do not understand. Please explain the purpose. I am curious

[LHSMusicClass]

@wtficantgetausername i think the piece explores "hidden" music. Modifying the recorded sound with the teapot creates a dream-like sound world that wasn't readily apparent in performance. Specifically, I think the teapot suggests an Alice in Wonderland kind of surrealism which works with the psychedelic "Strawberry Fields". The work has a theatricality about it as the audience waits to see what is going to happen next. The overtone wash surprises every time!

[MuseDuCafe]

Like it so much. My one 'fault' finding - no simultaneous interaction [composer's choice]. A.) here's the piano, source material. B.) here's the electronics permutations. A bit too 'lecture demo' for my sense of theater. Tricky to perform well(and build the right thing in the teapot!), and very very nicely done. Thanks

[LHSMusicClass]

@MuseDuCafe Thank you so much for your comments! I think the theater of the "demo" part is such a surprise live, though. When I have performed it live, there are always audible gasps at the amplified overtones. You are right about the trickiness of crafting the teapot and amplifying the thing. I found that you get the best overtones from the roundest pots. Thanks again!

[duefriday0]

@MrJrpjazz Ha, I was thinking the same thing! Mumbling "Nothing is real..." while listening :)

[yourockets3]

great musician - nothing to say

[LHSMusicClass]

@MrJrpjazz Amen. Thanks for the comment!