Emerald City Music: Evolution

This epic performance tells the tale of the world’s most loved and versatile instrument, the piano. Listeners will follow its physical evolution and the iconic music written at each stage of technological development:  from the harpsichord through the forte-piano, contemporary piano, prepared-piano, and modern-day instruments like synthesizer. Early composers like Thomas Tallis (1505-1589) and  Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) were defining masters of the instrument, inspiring the likes of Beethoven and Chopin to write more challenging and dynamic music as the technical ability of the piano developed during the Industrial Revolution. Pianos soon became progressively larger, louder, and with a wider range of octaves (five by the 1790s and seven by 1820). Enter John Cage, who for a time resided in Seattle creating music that again redefined the abilities of the acoustic piano by “preparing it” by placing objects in the instrument to alter the tonal ability. The evolution of modern-day technologies again reinvented the keyboard to infinitely expand the range of the instrument via the computer-aided synthesizer.

JORDAN Machine Poem no. 2 for piano and synthesizer

SCARLATTI Sonata in A Major K.212/L.135/P.155

RAVEL Gaspard de la nuit I. Ondine

BEETHOVEN Sonata in E Major, Op. 109

GLASS Piano Etude No. 2

CAGE Selections from Sonatas and Interludes: Sonata No. 1; interlude No. 3; Sonata No. 5

TALLIS Felix Namque II

CHOPIN Polonaise No. 6, op. 53 “Heroic”

Artists:

Henry Kramer, piano

Mikael Darmanie, piano/synthesizer

Vicky Chow, piano/prepared piano

Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord

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