Duration: 15 min.

The piano is a particularly mechanized instrument, more indifferent to human physiology than the flute or the violin, for example, which readily become one with their performer. It is only joined in its technological madness by the organ and a few keyboard or percussion instruments. As mechanics became electrified and miniaturized, the piano underwent all the transformations that are usually inflicted on the avatars of technoscience: DIY (the famous prepared pianos), electrification (which brought joy to popular music of the 1970s), roller automation and even robotization (the piano that plays itself is now an old invention – the robot pianist is an even more dubious one).

In the three movements of electric moments, I wanted to pay homage as much to the history of the piano as to its ability to produce sounds. Rather than using it as a theoretical instrument, which we teach in addition to another discipline as we learn to use a domestic object, I tried to use it as a synthesizer, an instrument that creates sounds. Despite its almost classical form, this solo is not a sonata, and cannot be heard that way; it is the progression of experimentation that can be carried out with sound synthesis technology, a collection of timbres and frames which I hope the listener can enjoy at the rhythm of their pleasure of sounds.

electric moments is dedicated to Catherine Chaufard

Premiere

April 2, 2012 by Catherine Chaufard, in the auditorium of the Nancy Conservatory, commissioned by the Urban Community of Grand Nancy.

Bibliography

Les avatars du piano, Ziad Kreidy, Editions Beauchesne, 2012