The Extensible Toy Piano Project
It has a deceptively simple mechanism--plastic hammers hitting steel rods. Yet, the toy piano produces a rich and quirky sound palette. John Cage brought the instrument from a treasured plaything to a bona fide musical instrument with his Suite for Toy Piano (1948). Our aim is to bring the instrument into the 21st Century. To that end, we're offering the electroacoustic composition community a complete set of high quality recordings of a classic Schoenhut upright toy piano.To encourage the creation of electroacoustic compositions that use both live and pre-recorded toy piano, we're sponsoring a composition competition. The project will culminate in a festival in November 2005 with concerts that will feature the winning compositions, and a symposium.
Festival: Friday, November 4 & Saturday, November 5, 2005
Clark University
Traina Center for the Arts
Worcester MA USASelected Works : the winners of our composition competition
Symposium Participants & Abstracts
Featured Performers:
John McDonald, Phyllis Chen and the Callithumpian Consort
with Nancy Newman, Sima Kustanovich & Olga Rogach, Naoko Omuro
Keynote Address:"The Toy Piano in a Post-Prohibitive Age."
Kyle Gann, composer and music critic for The Village Voice
Call for Participation
Music (download as pdf) | Symposium (download as pdf)
—submission deadline for both: July 15, 2005
Contact information:
Project directors:
David Claman (College of the Holy Cross) <dclaman@holycross.edu>
Matt Malsky (Clark University) <mmalsky@clarku.edu>
This project enjoys the support of the Group for Electronic Music (a joint
endeavor by Clark University and The College of the Holy Cross). Special
Thanks to:John
Shirley; Magnetic Flux Music.
site last updated:10/10/05
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