Karlheinz Essl's first piece for toy piano, composed 2005 for Isabel Ettenauer, became a signature piece for this instrument.

The primary aim of this piece is an attempt to break up the restricted sound world of the toy piano - not by superficial means of additional sound processing, but by the sound of the instrument itself. This is achieved by a sound file which is played back by a small loudspeaker which is hidden inside the toy piano; this creates a perfect blend between the sounds of the instrument and the sounds from the loudspeaker. 

Info and score: http://www.essl.at/works/kalimba.html

Whatever Shall be

Kalimba

Kalimba (2005) - for toy piano and playback

The music of Australian-Filipino composer Anthony Moles has been described as being ‘full of mechanistic drive and flair’ (Move Records) and yet ‘containing moments of lapidary stillness at its centre’ (The Music Trust).  The Sydney Morning Herald called his fiendishly difficult piano piece Diabolic Machines ‘a virtuoso showstopper’.

Anthony’s music has been performed by some of Australia’s leading soloists and ensembles, including the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble and Halcyon.

Born 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerha and musicology in Vienna. Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own electronic instrument m@ze°2, develops software environments for computer-aided composition and creates generative sound and video environments. Since 2007 professor of composition for electro-acoustic and experimental music at the University of Music in Vienna.

Karlheinz Essl performs on a laptop computer that he has transformed into a live electronic musical instrument. The result is exciting and musical. You just won't hear these sounds anywhere else. He performs solo and in duets and trios, responding with sensitivity to fellow musicians, producing fascinating sound transformations, creating spontaneous surprises, and moving quickly from loops to cacophony to tiny clips of vocal sounds to all kinds of textures and ideas. He does all this with his m@ze°2(Modular Algorithmic Zound Environment) performance software. (Joel Chadabe, CDeMusic, Januar 2002)
