Last week for a course I am taking, we were assigned to create a piece of abstract/conceptual music. My piece was based on the concept of frustration. Practicing the piano and playing a page of endless trills earlier the other day, I threw my hands on the keys in despair and that is where the idea came from. I started thinking of unconventional ways to use the piano and I decided to write a piece without using my fingers. I started thinking about frustration: a primitive emotion that makes us act out in abrupt almost slightly violent ways. I used the two things that frustrate me the most: music and distance, as the conceptual basis for my piece. I took my frustration with trills out on the rythm and used that rhythmic idea for the structure.
The keys I play with my fists or flat hand are derived from a postcard I recieved in the mail. I used a letter my friend from Barcelona sent me a few days ago to decide what notes to aim for with my fists. I took the card and circled each word that began with the letter of a note name. Because we have two different types of accents in the Catalan language (like French) if the word had an accent pointing to the right, I interpreted that as a sharp and the left as a flat. I also interpreted q's as the note C due to the fact that when spoken they produce the same sound. There was a line in the letter that contained no note names so I play a chromatic descent hitting whatever notes I happen to on the way down. The sound actually didn't turn out to seem too chaotic, maybe due to the structure of the rhythm...I'm not sure. All I can say is that after trying to compose using my fists, my hands ended up hurting and I can see why the technique is not used in common practice!
When I told my friend about the piece, he said the idea reminded him of Carles Santos. I had never heard of him so I looked it up and found this amazing video. It's really pretty amazing what he does!!
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