Here at Making Waves, we’ve been wanting to collate a “Piano Waves” playlist for over a year now.  This staple instrument attracts so much solo repertoire that it can be hard for performers and listeners to know where to start.  There is of course the burden of tradition, of a solid canon of classical piano repertoire, but also the instrument’s versatility in playing a huge role in jazz and popular musics.  In this month’s playlist we broadened our definition to “Keyboard” to include not only acoustic works, but some amazing tracks in which the piano meets technology: via live electronic manipulation, the use of electric instruments and MIDI, input via audience mobile phones, and even a robotic piano named RHEA.  We’ve also split the playlist into a Soundcloud segment (c.50min) and a YouTube segment (c.20min) in order to include a wide array of works. Listen, enjoy and share!

Soundcloud

DETAILS

1. Eli Simic-Prosic, I/O
   for diskclavier and effects.
   
2. Jaslyn Robertson, A Ship Full of Scientologists
   for electronics (MaxMSP patch & midi keyboard). Performed by Jaslyn Robertson.
   
3. Daniel Portelli, Hyperbodies
   for robotic piano. Performed by robotic piano named RHEA – made as part of a workshop at the University of Huddersfield run by Prof. Peter Ablinger and Prof. Winfried Ritsch, 19-25 October 2015.
   
4. Melody Eötvös, Six Piano Minikins
   for piano solo. Piano: Kornilios Michailidis. Premiered March 2013, Auer Hall, Jacobs School of Music, Bloomington IN, USA.
   
5. Ethan Connor McAlister, Sunday Afternoon
   for piano solo. Piano: Louis Nicoll. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Tom D’Ath.
   
6. Kevan Atkins, Earthquakes Behind Closed Doors
   for piano and live electronics. Performed by Kevan Atkins.

YouTube

DETAILS

1. Thomas Misson, Saturday Night Tuberculosis
   for solo piano. Piano: Jack Barnes.  Recorded at University of Tasmania by Caleb Miller.
   
2. Jocelyn Ho, Sheng
   for piano, mobile phones, and playback with luminescent attire “Bio-Lux” by Nobuho Nagasawa with Hul Arnold. Piano: Jocelyn Ho, visual artist: Nobuho Nagasawa,  Fashion designers: Bopha Hul, Troy Arnold.  Software engineers: Drew Petersen, Alex Petersen, Pierre Depaz.
   
3. Peggy Polias, Time II from Picnic at Hanging Rock Suite
   for piano solo. Piano: Maggie Pang, recording engineer: James Passfield, producer: Cameron Lam. Choreography and video work “chrono…logic” by Louisa Poletti.
   

Hear something that catches your attention? To find out more about a soundcloud recording, click on the track name in the playlist and then again on ‘view track’. For the youtube features, the ‘playlist’ button will bring up a track listing which you can use to skip back and forth between the works.  If you want to check out the playlist and works in more detail, there is a button at the bottom right of the picture taking you directly through to YouTube. To find out more about a particular composer, click on their name in the ‘Details’ section above.

We’d love to hear about your listening experience! Share your thoughts or send messages of support to our featured composers and performers in the comment box below. We also encourage you to click through to Soundcloud and YouTube to like, comment and subscribe to Making Waves as well as the composers, performers, and presenters featured.

The Keyboard Waves playlist will be featured until 1 December 2016. All previous playlists from 2015 & 2016 are available in our blog archives for the life of the project, so please do explore the website for previously featured sounds.