Magnetic Resonance (2017) composition for magnetic resonator piano and 8-channel electroacoustic sound, dur: 11’38”
- Submitting institution
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De Montfort University
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 33101
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
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- Year
- 2018
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
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- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
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- Criminology
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- Interdisciplinary
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- Number of additional authors
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- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
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- Reserve for an output with double weighting
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- Additional information
- Magnetic Resonance was composed for pianist Xenia Pestova playing Andrew McPherson’s magnetic resonator piano (MRP), developed at Queen Mary University of London. The MRP is a self-contained assembly of hardware and software installable on any grand piano. A set of electromagnets, one placed above each piano string (save for the highest and lowest octaves) forces strings into resonance when a damper is lifted. Control of amplitude via a foot pedal enables fade in/out. Without contact between magnets and strings, the piano can also function normally and thus as a hybrid instrument. Precise synchronisation with electroacoustic sounds is via a MIDI piano bar (integral to MRP’s design). Magnetic Resonance addresses a problem in spectral composition imposed by the piano’s natural morphology (Nonken, 2014, The Spectral Piano: 111) as the inherent decay of piano sound limits the extent to which renewal of sonic energy enables spectral merging. Timbral plasticity is linked to extension of sound over time and in Magnetic Resonance the instrument’s potentially attackless sonority enables subtle interactions and blends between the live instrument and structured, ‘sculpted’ electroacoustic spectral forms—enhanced by capacity for glissandi between notes and play on a string’s upper partials. Magnetic Resonance projects a performance model of the piano as a source of spectral and gestural matter spreading away from the body of the instrument into a wider three-dimensional space. A perspective on spectralist thinking is extended by interplay between embodied instrumental sound production and disembodied acousmatic sonority, with inevitable ambiguity between these two polarities. The piano assumes a dramatic role, with declamatory gestural phrases breaking out of the spectral web, resolving into coalescence with the electroacoustic sound field. Progressive timbral modulations and more fleeting correspondences of pitch and spectral content are features that drive discourse.
Premiered Birmingham Conservatoire 20.2.18. First Prize, Musica Nova, Prague, 2018.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
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- English abstract
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