Gordon Monahan
Piano Mechanics / Large Piano Magnified (LP)
FormatLPLabelPrivateGenreExperimental
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condition (record/cover): EX+ / EX-
Gordon Monahan played the piano as a resonating machine. Piano Mechanics, performed with no amplification at all, is a catalogue of what happens when trills, tremolos and abrupt stops are pushed until combination tones and ghost melodies rise out of the frame; the track titles read like lab notes (Melody Concealed by a Tremolo, High Trills Becoming Combination Tones).
Large Piano Magnified moves the microscope closer, into high-frequency residue, metal and wood, the lateral boundary of a plucked string. Self-released in Canada in 1986, co-produced by the CBC with David Jaeger and designed by Bruce Mau, it sits in the same family as Alvin Lucier and Charlemagne Palestine, with a Canadian pragmatism of its own.
| Piano Mechanics | |||
| A1 | Abrupt Stops | ||
| A2 | Solitary Waves And Far Away Sounds | ||
| A3 | Trill With Hand Controlled Pitch Release | ||
| A4 | Solitary Waves | ||
| A5 | Melody Concealed By A Tremolo | ||
| A6 | High Trills Becoming Combination Tones | ||
| A7 | Fingers And Arms Becoming Four Hands | ||
| Large Piano Magnified | |||
| B1 | Wave Of A Single Harmonic | ||
| B2 | High Frequency Residue | ||
| B3 | Shapes Emerging Along High Tension | ||
| B4 | High Frequency Particles | ||
| B5 | Metal And Wood | ||
| B6 | Fast Trill With Hand Controlled Pitch Release | ||
| B7 | Malleability | ||
| B8 | Shifting Planes Of A Fully Resonating Piano | ||
| B9 | Lateral Boundary Of A Plucked String | ||
