TORZAM

 

TORZAM geht von ARMZOT bis ZAMTOR jeder RATZMO MARTOZ und TAMOZR

a sound installation by Alvin Curran with computer realization by Luca Spagnoletti
Mannheimer Mozartsommer, July 2010


Torzam, Schwetzingen, sample. Video by Susan Levenstein, 4:00

In a beautiful spot in the Baroque garden of the Schwetzingen palace a 3x4 meter wooden garden shed with one door and one window stands amid selected flowering plants.

Inside an upright piano (a Yamaha Diskklavier = a digitally automated piano that plays by itself with moving keys) sits on three upturned buckets along with a few chairs, some garden tools, flower pots, sacks of potting soil, hanging dried flowers and herbs... The only other instrument, a small Macintosh computer is completely hidden from view with all the wires and cables.

The music, played by the Diskklavier without amplication, is an original computer composition created anew in the moment, every moment, based on fragments of materials from Mozart's piano music including his first composition, and his last published work i.e. the Andante in C and the Requiem plus piano sonatas, bits of symphonies, and operatic arias (some obviously in transcription) played by Susan Levenstein... The computer uses these materials in a fanciful and interesting way to freshly "recompose" an entirely original and unending musical work for piano, an unending flow of Mozartian musical sound and beyond, so that the public may enter the Gartenhaus at any time and leave at anytime and never hear the same music on repeated listenings. Of course the piano sound is audible outside the shed as well......

 

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