Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging: Three Contexts for a Microtonal Prepared Piano
(2025)
author(s): Matt Choboter
published in: Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen
Can an acoustic grand piano be sonically and conceptually reimagined so as to re-negotiate its foundational assumptions around tuning and timbre? Why should the piano continue to be so accustomed to only one tuning system? In contrast, how can “pure sounds” (ratios found in the harmonic series) co-exist with ethnically diverse microtonal tunings?
Spanning a period from 2020-2022, “Unburying, from Liminals, Emerging” explores a microtonal prepared piano in three artistic contexts. These include: a solo project called “Postcards of Nostalgia; a chamber ensemble consisting of saxophone trio, percussion and piano; and a “percussion ensemble with soprano saxophone called Juniper Fuse.
Dialoging with a newly invented tuning system, what emergent properties might we find when magnetic piano preparations are used to evoke specific timbral effects from Balinese Gamelan and Indian Karnatik music? Collectively, how can this expanded notion of “piano” merge with spatialization to facilitate interactive experiences for audiences? How might a process-oriented Jungian-inspired dream work communicate itself so as to distill and coalesce a fertile musical landscape?
Microtonal Piano Solos
(2019)
author(s): Saman Samadi
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition represents a collection of Saman Samadi's piano pieces for which he used an innovative microtonal pitch organization derived from Persian classical music. An album consisting of the recordings of these eleven pieces, performed by the composer, was published on digital music platforms on the 7th of January, 2015.
Chamrosh
(2019)
author(s): Saman Samadi
published in: Research Catalogue
This exposition represents a collection of Saman Samadi's solo and chamber works for saxophone. The first four pieces were composed since the year 2015 during which the author explored various techniques to score timely structured improvisational compositions. That same year, these works were premiered by saxophonist Anthony Izzo, pianist Saman Samadi, and LX Saxophone Quartet in Brooklyn's Shapeshifter Lab as well as W10 Performing Arts Center. On the contrary, "Scheherazade", Saxophone Quartet No.2, composed in the Spring of 2017 and dedicated to Clémentine Scheherazade Samadi, was written through a precisely detailed fixed-notated score. This piece was commissioned and premiered by LX Saxophone Quartet at Lincoln Center NYC, on the day Scheherazade was born, the 22nd of June, 2017. On the 17th of July, 2017, the recording of this performance, and on the 7th of December 2018, an album consisting of the audio recordings of the compositions from 2015 have been published on digital music platforms.
Creative performer | Performing creative
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Arend Jan Hendrik Strootman
connected to: KC Research Portal
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Results contribution lectorate 'music, education and performance' KC 2020-2021
