Large Piano Magnified
1st broadcast: CBC Radio 'Two New Hours', 1985
While developing my composition Piano Mechanics in the early 1980s, I came to the realization that the piano can be used as a device to imitate electronic sounds by employing specific playing techniques, without the use of actual electronics or amplification. However, since the outcome is conceptually related to aspects of electroacoustic composition beginning in the 1950s, this association led me to conceive of composing a tape collage piece using individually recorded piano sounds edited and mixed together. In 1985 I was commissioned by producer David Jaeger to compose a new piece for CBC Radio, and I decided to use a 16-track analog tape recorder, made available to me through CBC Radio, to record and mix a number of isolated piano sounds. I worked with David Jaeger and recording engineer Stretch Henderson over a period of several weeks to produce this piano recording in the form of an audio collage.
photo by David Hlynsky
©Gordon Monahan 1985