Lecture on Chopin
A piece for pianist, two page turners and speaker.
the pianist is presented with 20 A3 sheets of music, each been covered with the complete etudes (studies) of Chopin.
I cut out every single bar, individually, and reordered them in several different ways, sometimes for a purely visual effect and sometimes because of correlating materials within the bars themselves.
The Page Turners present the pianist with a new page every 2 minutes, gradually getting more active and involved - screwing up the music, throwing it, putting it close to the eyes of the pianist, shouting in the pianists ears to put them off etc. It becomes a hugely theatrical piece.
The Speaker has a lecture, carefully timed (also on scribd) which was written by going through a trashy American novel and extracting all words which began with the letters C, H, O, P, I and N.
The structure of the lecture is dictated thus: a new section reflects a new chapter in the novel. The number of words in that section and in the whole piece were weighed up and the timing structure reflects this.
The actions of the Speaker and the Pianist are not linked or forced - they just happen - and go together.
At the very end of the piece the light that the Speaker was using should be thrown and smashed the the floor at exactly the same time the lights are switched off.
Lecture on Chopin was written in 2008, is 40 minutes long and has been performed in part and in full at the Guildhall School and Oxford University.
Lecture on Chopin
A piece for pianist, two page turners and speaker.
the pianist is presented with 20 A3 sheets of music, each been covered with the complete etudes (studies) of Chopin.
I cut out every single bar, individually, and reordered them in several different ways, sometimes for a purely visual effect and sometimes because of correlating materials within the bars themselves.
The Page Turners present the pianist with a new page every 2 minutes, gradually getting more active and involved - screwing up the music, throwing it, putting it close to the eyes of the pianist, shouting in the pianists ears to put them off etc. It becomes a hugely theatrical piece.
The Speaker has a lecture, carefully timed (also on scribd) which was written by going through a trashy American novel and extracting all words which began with the letters C, H, O, P, I and N.
The structure of the lecture is dictated thus: a new section reflects a new chapter in the novel. The number of words in that section and in the whole piece were weighed up and the timing structure reflects this.
The actions of the Speaker and the Pianist are not linked or forced - they just happen - and go together.
At the very end of the piece the light that the Speaker was using should be thrown and smashed the the floor at exactly the same time the lights are switched off.
Lecture on Chopin was written in 2008, is 40 minutes long and has been performed in part and in full at the Guildhall School and Oxford University.
Lecture on Chopin
A piece for pianist, two page turners and speaker.
the pianist is presented with 20 A3 sheets of music, each been covered with the complete etudes (studies) of Chopin.
I cut out every single bar, individually, and reordered them in several different ways, sometimes for a purely visual effect and sometimes because of correlating materials within the bars themselves.
The Page Turners present the pianist with a new page every 2 minutes, gradually getting more active and involved - screwing up the music, throwing it, putting it close to the eyes of the pianist, shouting in the pianists ears to put them off etc. It becomes a hugely theatrical piece.
The Speaker has a lecture, carefully timed (also on scribd) which was written by going through a trashy American novel and extracting all words which began with the letters C, H, O, P, I and N.
The structure of the lecture is dictated thus: a new section reflects a new chapter in the novel. The number of words in that section and in the whole piece were weighed up and the timing structure reflects this.
The actions of the Speaker and the Pianist are not linked or forced - they just happen - and go together.
At the very end of the piece the light that the Speaker was using should be thrown and smashed the the floor at exactly the same time the lights are switched off.
Lecture on Chopin was written in 2008, is 40 minutes long and has been performed in part and in full at the Guildhall School and Oxford University.