Movement VII from "Continuums & Chasms" (U.S. premiere)
About this Piece
According to his website, Pateras "has developed a performance language which simultaneously embraces and berates pianistic technique. Switching between prepared and non-prepared piano from performance to performance, he uses Nancarrow's player piano studies as a starting point, attempting to play the impossible and failing happily. Combining that with his love of electronic noise, the music that results is based primarily in physicality, gesture, and texture." The composer has provided the following note for Movement vii from Continuums & Chasms:
"This excerpt from a larger suite primarily explores the textural and psychoacoustic possibilities of the fully prepared piano - that is to say, every note is altered by some kind of object placed between or on the strings.
"This particular preparation is an arrangement I have been working on since 2001. Formulated by my own extensive exploration, as well as the occasional tip from my contemporaries Erik Griswold and Cor Fuhler, it completely transforms the sonic capabilities of the grand piano, tailoring it to my own performance language.
"Timbre is the primary structural parameter in this work. The piece develops through particular regions of sound while the surface density remains constant, attempting a kind of electro-acoustic music where the overall cause and effect is generally ambiguous. The rapid finger pattern variations create constantly transforming textures, performed to a loose but fixed plan containing specific sensory goals."
09/06