Piano Pieces
Steven McDaniel
composed 2012, released 2015
To hear the album, click on either image.
My very good friend the painter Tajinder Bhui asked me to create some music to reflect her work and accompany her exhibition at Queen Mary, University of London, in March 2012. Her pictures are extraordinary and powerful; totally contemporary and abstract yet full of warmth, emotion and colour. Indeed, Tajinder says that emotion is what this particular series of works express, but refuses to explain further, leaving it to the viewer to make their own response.
The music I created all sprung from my improvisations at the keyboard, performed with these beautiful paintings in mind. Capturing an inspired performance as it happens provides rich source material for later manipulation. Recording the MIDI information (data about the pitch and velocity of each note strike), allows endless manipulation possibilities, while retaining the feel of the playing. Some of the improvisations were almost complete in themselves, just needing a little tidying up to overcome slips of the fingers. Others provided starting points for much more ‘composed’ pieces.
The aim was to use computer technology to create highly realistic audio productions to sound and feel as if the pieces were being played on real pianos by real concert pianists in a real environment, to completely represent what I was imagining. I hope one day to actually make this happen in a live performance.
