Music for Computer-Controlled Pianos

A CD and Surround-Sound DVD of music composed for computer-controlled pianos, recorded on a concert grand Disklavier generously made available by Yamaha Artist Services. Available at JRI Recordings.

Another track from the CD, Scott Joplin Collage, animated using Stephen Malinowski's Music Animation Machine:

Reviews

First thought: Why setup four computer-controlled pianos? One pianist is perfectly capable of conveying the gist behind Prelude, the first track off composer Gordon Green’s CD/audio DVD release Serpentine Sky. But hell, if you were privy to a crowded room of computer-controlled pianos, or in this case just one top of the line Disklavier, here multitracked, why not go nuts? Besides, Green doesn’t seem interested in “the gist” anyway, he’s after specific textures—things that we’d find eerie if a live pianist were at the ivory helm. In the tradition of Nancarrow, impossible riffs fly by at lightening speed, executed with perfect accuracy. Add Green’s spatial treatments of up to six pianos and the results are dizzying. Green’s puréed Patriotic Collage, for example, is like Ives under the influence.

New Music Box (https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/Patriotic-Collage/)