crook'd: for bassoon and live electronics

Seeing the Past Through the Prism of Tomorrow

Irrational Rationalities (2015) is loosely inspired by Alvin Loving's painting Rational Irrationalism (1969).Loving was a cubist painter who concentrated on spatial illusionism, and at first glance, his painting appears to be a series of simple hexagonal shapes intertwined with each other. However, upon closer examination, one begins to see the irrational nature of the work, as none of the lines actually create completed shapes. Much like an M. C. Escher print, a line that at first appears to be the top of a shape is later seen as the bottom, or the side. The lines in Loving's painting interact with each other and themselves, creating a series of illogical geometric shapes.
Irrational Rationalities explores a similar play but from the opposite direction. The piece is comprised of three distinct thematic ideas, all of which are perfectly rational in isolation: an invented folk tune; weaving polyrhythmic polyphony; and violent – almost cubist – chords. These three thematic ideas are then irrationally layered upon each other and taken out of context, challenging the notion of passive listening.

This work was commissioned by ensemble mise-en. This live recording is of ensemble mise-en's premier performance. 

Irrational Rationalities

A MIDI mockup of the first movement to my Concerto for Piano. 

Score available upon request.

www.keithkirchoff.com

Concerto for Piano: I

Irrational Rationalities for piano, trumpet, percussion, and electronics. Commissioned by ensemble mise-en, revised for the SPLICE Ensemble.

Performed by the SPLICE Ensemble:

Keith Kirchoff, piano
Sam Wells, trumpet
Adam Vidiksis, percussion

Irrational Rationalities (Trio version)

"Monochrome" for bass clarinet and marimba, commissioned by Transient Canvas. Live performance, performed by Transient Canvas:

Amy Advocate, bass clarinet
Matt Sharrock, marimba

Monochrome

Sam Wells, trumpet

“If only the trumpet were more like a woodblock!” is a sentiment probably shared by… no one. Regardless, Cross Pollination is an exploration of rhythmic monotimbral qualities of the trumpet. Throughout, both the trumpet and electronics play a single pitch class – B. 

Many special thanks to Sam Wells, Dan VanHassel, and Christopher Biggs for their help with this piece.

Cross Polination (2017) for trumpet and live electronics

This is a live performance of Antheil's "Jazz Sonata." I found a bunch of old takes I did of his music back in '08, but I never actually edited the recordings because I didn't like the sound of the piano.

Five years later, I'm listening to these tracks, and though I'm still bothered by the instrument, I actually like a lot of what I'm hearing in the playing. 

So I am trying to decide whether the quality of the piano is good enough to turn this into a commercial record. Keep in mind, this is completely unedited raw footage, so there's a little help that will come with some EQ (and some editing to clean up some of the messy passagework), but the core sound will remain the same.

What's your opinion? 

George Antheil: Jazz Sonata

This is a live performance of Antheil's "Airplane Sonata." I found a bunch of old takes I did of his music back in '08, but I never actually edited the recordings because I didn't like the sound of the piano.

Five years later, I'm listening to these tracks, and though I'm still bothered by the instrument, I actually like a lot of what I'm hearing in the playing.

So I am trying to decide whether the quality of the piano is good enough to turn this into a commercial record. Keep in mind, this is completely unedited raw footage, so there's a little help that will come with some EQ (and some editing to clean up some of the messy passagework), but the core sound will remain the same.

What's your opinion?


George Antheil: Airplane Sonata

Five of Liszt's late piano works, performed live at Banff.

Trauer Vorspiel (Liszt)

la lugubre gondola I (Liszt)

la lugubre gondola II (Liszt

RW -Venezia (Liszt)

Am Richard Wagner's Grabe (Liszt)

As early as high school, I had fallen in love with the toy piano.  I resolved to purchase one as soon as possible, and midway through college, I finally purchased my first Schoenhut "concert grand" toy piano.  A 37 key wonder, the instrument was a very diminutive grand piano, striking metal rods instead of strings, and reminding everyone who saw it of Schroeder from Peanuts.  I quickly immersed myself in the (then) small toy piano repertoire, and composed two pieces myself for toy piano.  

Several years later, I commissioned composer Matthew McConnell to write a concerto for toy piano and orchestra - one that would challenge the notion of the toy piano as a cute, quaint, humorous toy.  He succeeded with this challenge better than I could have ever hoped, and I have since had the honor of performing this piece twice.  The last time was in 2005.  Since then, though his concerto has ballooned in popularity thanks to the wonders of YouTube, my toy piano has sat relatively unused in my studio.

Then in 2010 I received an unexpected flurry of toy piano related requests.  Three different pianists (in the USA, Canada, and Australia) scheduled performances of my earlier toy piano compositions.  Two different pianists (in the USA and Germany) commissioned me to write new toy piano pieces.  French pianist 
 Jérémie Honnoré contacted me regarding an article he was writing on toy piano music, and Polish author and multi-instrumentalist Pawel Romanczuk interviewed me for inclusion in his upcoming book chronicling the history of the toy piano.  Perhaps there was something in the water, but it became clear the toy piano was on the rise.

With this much attention suddenly on the instrument, I wanted to write something that challenged the notion of what a toy piano could or could not do.  By now, nearly everything has been explored on this instrument, including various keyboard and extended techniques.  What I felt had been explored very little was the instrument's unique overtone structure and the potential in fusing this with electronics.  This piece, then, explores the percussive capabilities of the toy piano and the rich overtones created when the keys are violently struck.  Roughly 75% of the electronic material heard is derived directly from the toy piano.

Keith Kirchoff

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