current work in progress:
Piano Squared
for solo or multiple pianos
with/without electronics
Piano Squared is the second in a series of pieces employing magic squares in the construction of the score. Versions can be made for solo piano, piano and tape or multiple pianos or any of the aforementioned with live electronics.
Piano Squared is a semi-indeterminate score where the performers prepare a version based on a set of rules stemming from the navigable routes of an 8×8 grid of musical fragments. A prepared version of the work constitutes a collaborative interaction between the performers preparing a version and the composer. Many features of the work are determined during the performers preparation of a version such as the duration of the piece, structurally significant confluence points, juxtaposition or uniting of material types.
The Score:
click and zoom to get a better look:
Downloads
pdf of A1 score of “Piano Squared” for solo or multiple pianos with or without electronics
http://rob.goto10.org/pno2/pno2-draft-A1.pdf
Note: This score is 90% complete – i always wait for interaction with performers before the last 10% gets completed. The main issues at the moment are organising the registers of certain units according to the fixed plan and also finding an alternative to the “scott bowing” of row 6.
This score needs to be printed A1 – the pdf is for screen reference only.
If you are interested in preparing and performing a version contact me by email and i will have an A1 hardcopy posted to you – it is also possible to request a hardcopy of the score through the Contemporary Music Center of Ireland http://www.cmc.ie
Documentation:
Many thanks to Harvey Heinz for his inspirational website on recreational mathematics http://www.magic-squares.net/
video documentation
I have prepared a introductory video which goes through the basics of how the piece works and how a performer makes a version of the piece. There are links to all the pdf documentation that is currently available on this page and much of the documentation is included in this page also.
This video does not intend on being extensive it just serves as a basic introduction and to show that it is not at all complex to prepare a version of the piece. Further videos will follow which will cover other aspects of perfomance the focus of this video is introduction to some of the structural and temporal ideas that make the piece work. Its about 12 mins long.
documentation for new work for piano / multiple pianos from rob canning on Vimeo.
“do not adjust your set…” there is no sound with this video it is just a slide presentation.
if you don’t like flash you can download the ogg theora video file here:
http://rob.goto10.org/pno2/pno2-video-documentation_part1.ogv
and then play it with a nice player like VLC – you can also play it directly in your browser if you have firefox 3.5 or later.
Basic intro to tape/electronics options:
docs part II – intro to electronics – for new work for pianos from rob canning on Vimeo.
Download .pdf documentation
Workshops / Education / Open Code
All this work was made with 100% Free Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) If you are interested in workshops in FLOSS with an emphasis on FLOSS composition and notation tools and the GNU/Linux pure:dyne operating system this can be arranged contact me by email.
As well as this composition being open in many ways so is the software and code that i used to make it: If you would like to look at the source code that was used in making this piece you can find it here:
https://code.goto10.org/svn/rob/sqpno/
web documentation
in progress… nasty text alignment in section 2.3 Possible routes though the score- video doc will make it clear though.
http://rob.goto10.org/pno2/performance_instructions.html
