This Is Not a Piano, Vol. 3 (PDF, Complete)
The complete third Volume of the ‘This Is Not a Piano’ series (PDF, Digital Download). Contains the following pieces:
21 Hands II
17 Hands II
12 Hands II
19 Hands II
14 Hands II
20 Hands II
11 Hands II
7 Hands II
From the Preface
This Is Not a Piano has been composed with the aim of systematically establish new repertoire for multiple pianos. The music is constructed via the layering and repetition of short cellular ideas, with each piece being named after the number of hands needed for a performance. A certain amount of ambiguity and flexibility has been applied in regard to this latter aspect, as different solutions may be opted in for some pieces.
After a number of years composing with repetitive musical structures and experimenting both with the possibilities afforded by multi-tracked recordings and live looping, a natural language had begun to emerge, giving predilection to certain forms and contrapuntal aims.This Is Not a Pianowas born out of this journey, together with an intellectual urge to systematize.
The name of the collection acts both an open homage to Magritte’s “famous pipe”, in an attempt to embrace a similar stance in a world where the recorded medium takes on a vitally cogent reality, as well as an ironic word-play with the fact that not “a” single piano is employed. For each piece one may in fact utter ‘this is not a piano, but many’ or also ‘this is no piano at all’ and come much closer, in both cases, to an objective truth.