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Solo
2023
Amplification
Marimba
- Program Notes
- --AMPLIFICATIONS-- a series of improvised compositions, utilizing multiple pianos as resonating bodies to extend the sustain of various instruments. with various metal implements scattered throughout the piano bodies, the strings sympathetically reverberate along to the improvisatory sounds of each instrument, at times a whisper, at times a roar. microphones are placed inside the body of the piano capturing a large, harmonious reverberation, a ghostly chamber ensemble of one. credits released October 16, 2023 marimba, viola da gamba, music box, multiple percussion, desk bells, sebastian suarez-solis audio, sebastian suarez-solis photo, sebastian suarez-solis recorded at California Institute of the Arts on Oct. 13-15, 2023. --MARIMBAideefixe-- 2 prepared pianos + 5.0 octave marimba with the marimba, i found that the pianos were quite receptive to many of the notes and harmonies i would play. even though the marimba is tuned to 442, or maybe because of it, notes would pop out and rattle metal discs and bells inside the piano, sometimes the same note, sometimes a more distant one. the marimba makes the pianos roar, swell to life, a sort of homunculus, a marionette. a bell swirls around inside the body of the piano, providing a rounded, tumbling ostinato. a ghostly chamber ensemble. i describe the track as an idée fixe as the main motivating phrase is such a focus of my playing. the piano seems to like it very well. a note about barlines: This piece is constructed in two voices which move independently. For this reason, barlines are modified to preserve the nature of the voices. You will see that, often, barlines do not match up until the end of a phrase. This might make more sense when listening to the recording. Visually, it aims to help the performer notice distance, silence, and the space between instances, where more traditional notation may not. The phrases played, though disjunct, are imitations of a baroque style, extemporized in a baroque fashion.
- Recording Notes
- NB: If pressed for time, please check out the top of page 7 to letter H; on the recording this occurs at [5:52 - 7:30]. This work utilizes piano body amplification: two pianos are placed in front of the marimba, with their lids up so as to trap outgoing sound from the marimba in the body of the pianos. Brass objects are paced inside the pianos, resting on the strings; the strings themselves are left free to vibrate with the insertion of pedal wedges into the damper pedals. The pianos are now giant aeolian harps, taking any sound from the marimba and amplifying it via the sympathetic vibration of the strings. Integral to the performance is the positioning of the microphones (whether recorded in-studio or recorded live), which are placed inside the holes of the soundboard of the pianos, capturing a natural ~12s reverberation of the original sound source.
- Performer Credits
- Sebastian Suarez-Solis