(HD) Alvin Lucier: Nothing is Real for piano, amplified teapot, recorder, & mini-sound system
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- Опубліковано 9 лис 2024
- kriskerzman.tum...
HD version
I am playing this ethereal and subtle work on my 2010-2011 recitals. I filmed my last performance in October, however, the technical challenges of playing and recording in addition to getting the amplification right were too great. So I restaged a recording in the chapel at Loyola High School, Los Angeles, where I teach.
A few words of unsolicited advice for others wanting to play this piece:
I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different speaker/teapot combinations to find a pair that best expressed the harmonics. As a general rule, I found that the rounder teapots worked best, but they tend to have small lids, making it difficult to get the speaker inside.
I used Blu-Tak to affix the speaker to the bottom of the pot. For this particular pot, the spout was too small to get the plug through, as well. So I had to cut the wire, thread the line through the teapot, then reattach it to another line.
I have tried several different mics to amplify the pot, too. Generally, small diaphragm condensers work best. I had many problems, however, with feedback. For this video, I used a Shure SM58 directly into a powered JBL speaker. The very good off axis rejection of this mic eliminates feedback, but it is not very sensitive. For the recording, I placed a portable Sony recorder close-by and mixed it into the soundtrack as best I could with iMovie.
I will be performing the work again in November.
According to Lucier:
In the Spring of 1990, Aki Takahashi asked me to write an arrangement of a Beatles song for her. She had just finished recording the complete piano music of Satie for Toshiba-EMI, the success of which had prompted them to ask for a collection of Lennon and McCartney tunes. She agreed, on the condition that she could invite composers of her own choosing to write the arrangements.
Not wanting to pin myself down to a specific song, memory or feeling, I asked her to choose one for me. She selected Strawberry Fields Forever. When I asked why she chose that particular song, she replied that the line, "nothing is real," reminded her of my music.
During this work, fragments of the melody are played and sustained as clusters. The performance is recorded on a cassette tape recorder. After the last fragment has been played, the tape is rewound and played back through a small loudspeaker hidden inside a teapot.
During the playback, the lid of the pot is raised and lowered, changing the resonance characteristics of the pot. Twice during the performance the pot itself is lifted off the lid of the piano, causing the resonances to disappear completely.
Nothing Is Real was commissioned by Toshiba-EMI Ltd., Japan, and is included on their Eastworld Compact Disc, TOCE-6655, HYPER BEATLES 2. It was written expressly for Aki Takahashi.
Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier's Website
alucier.web.wes...
Music with Roots in the Aether
www.ubu.com/fil...
Discussion of Nothing is Real and other works:
www.wnyc.org/sh...
Buy the score here: Material Press
www.materialpre...
Video performance of Phyllis Chen playing Nothing is Real
www.phyllischen...
Margaret Leng Tan plays Nothing is Real on the Other Minds website. Also hosted on the internet Archive.
www.otherminds....
Student and educator use for curriculum-based instruction and portfolio
@neeeiiiilll Thank you so much for watching and the nice compliment! I find the work to be quite magical. It is tricky to play live- to get the amplification levels right is not that easy. Yet, I have found that it opens up an aesthetic world to people who might never have listened to music like this before.
Que voilà une étonnante, sinueuse version "flamby" de cet admirable & surréaliste titre de John L. :) De sublimes images sur la fin . Le pianiste est impayable ! :)
I just got a chill from nothing is real.. up and down my spine wow!
Tricky to perform well (and build the right thing in the teapot!), and very very nicely done, performed in a perfect setting so one can more readily be transported with the marvel of it. Thanks
@mattpolofka : one more thing. through experimentation, I discovered that the rounder the teapot, the better the overtones. Definitely try out the teapots before you buy them. I brought my cellphone to stores and played music through the speaker to check how they rang. There was a lot of variation. For this piece, specifically, you also need to hear the music coming from inside the pot. The thickness of the teapot walls had quite an effect on the volume.
@wtficantgetausername i think the piece explores "hidden" music. Modifying the recorded sound with the teapot creates a dream-like sound world that wasn't readily apparent in performance. Specifically, I think the teapot suggests an Alice in Wonderland kind of surrealism which works with the psychedelic "Strawberry Fields". The work has a theatricality about it as the audience waits to see what is going to happen next. The overtone wash surprises every time!
With due - and great - respect, my vote is for Alvin's ingenuous performance. Well, of course, he is, after all, the composer. And we, composers, tend to perform in a way very speciale...
Thank you so much! It really does take quite a bit of fiddling around every time you do it so that the overtones can be heard. A small diaphragm condenser will amplify the sound very well, but the feedback is tough to deal with. In a resonant hall, I tend to use an SM 58 for the off-axis rejection
how nice! What a great interpretation!
Planning on performing this in the future; I really appreciate your recording and your useful commentary on teapots!
@MuseDuCafe Thank you so much for your comments! I think the theater of the "demo" part is such a surprise live, though. When I have performed it live, there are always audible gasps at the amplified overtones. You are right about the trickiness of crafting the teapot and amplifying the thing. I found that you get the best overtones from the roundest pots. Thanks again!
I've since come around to being in agreement with the theater and 'reveal' aspect of it, and agree it is the perfect choice of 'how this one should go.'
Part of the piece was played on the BBC R3 'Words and Music' Programme tonight -19h00 (two separate excerpts). That's how I discovered this mysterious, haunting recording.
That's awesome! I will look up that broadcast
You know, I kept waiting for you to play the recorder until I got to around 8:51 and said, Oh, THAT kind of recorder.
Liked the soundscape of the teapot.
@danielanezgarcia Thanks for watching! You are a terrific pianist.
@MrJrpjazz Amen. Thanks for the comment!
Lucier has taken "Strawberry Fields Forever" to new sonic heights.
@mattpolofka It was, if you mean recording the piano during the piece. I used a Sony D-50 to record the sound as a whole.
@MrJrpjazz Ha, I was thinking the same thing! Mumbling "Nothing is real..." while listening :)
Great!!!!!
i do not understand. Please explain the purpose. I am curious
This is a really cool piece. I might give it a try, it'd be a cool technique to use with my own music if I can get manage it. Was that a zoom h2 you used to record it?
Is there a more professional recording of this anywhere? Not to say that your performance ISN'T great, I really enjoyed it and it definitely makes me want to explore some more of Alvin's work, it's just that at some times in the video the background noise is louder than the music itself and I'd love to hear just the music by itself
I'm sure there are, I haven't investigated it. In a studio setting you could really isolate the teapot sounds. However, it is the nature of the piece to hear all of the background because you are listening to very quiet sounds in an amplified closed teapot!
strawberry fields forever!!!
6:01 Looks more like Music on a Long Thin Wire. Eh? Eh? :D
lol
Pieces like this really show off Lucier's sense of fun and exploration. And great performance! I would have loved to sit in on one of your classes.
Thank you so much! Sorry I didn't see this earlier.