The Martlet

Even many non-musical types know that inside a piano is a series of strings attached to a wooden board. Each string corresponds with either a black or white key, and when struck, produces a pleasing sound. We often refer to these sounds as music. But what happens when you remove the keys (or even the piano) altogether? Musical innovation.

“Inside Pianos,” a collaborative project at Open Space on Oct. 3, investigated that question. Percussionist Jeffrey Allport and pianists Gust Burns and Andrea Neumann were behind the project, which drew a small but attentive Victoria crowd.

Along with the altered piano soundboards, their arsenal consisted of various volume and delay pedals, an E-Bow, drums (floor tom and snare, only), lids, SOS pads, marbles, roach clips, clothespins, tuning forks, kitchen forks, springs and an aluminum foil pie tray. Oh, and a small, neon green, battery operated device, which Neumann explained was originally used in combination with a short pencil to create a kind of vibrato-handwriting. Conventional? Hardly.

Both Neumann and Burns concentrated on their piano soundboards, Neumann with various metal objects and Burns with wooden sticks differing in length and width held vertically between strings that he rubbed up and down to create frequencies. Allport explored percussion in a similarly unique way, using friction between objects to create oscillations, with different objects producing different sound levels and qualities.

Throwing away not only traditional mediums but song and note structure as well, the trio concentrated instead on the frequencies, resonances, pitches and reverberations of their instruments. They focused on the texture of sounds, as well as the momentum these sounds can build together. They are extremely careful and delicate with their instruments, and appreciate the importance of silence within a piece, proving that the spaces between notes or sounds are often as important as the sounds themselves.

It may seem like static or noise to many listeners, but in listening carefully, you become appreciative of the subtle fluctuations in pitch, the undulating hums and the overall ambiance created. As classically trained musicians (Neumann studied piano in Berlin), the creators of “Inside Pianos” are well versed in musical theory and explore many concepts in new and innovative ways.

The pieces are very gradual, sparking curiosity often with a single quiet sound and subtly building on it throughout. They are wave-like, with relatively high intensity portions interspersed with sections where it seems that there is little more than white noise. There are even recurrent themes or patterns if you are careful enough to notice them. The attentive listener notices that many elements of classical music are discernible even through the strange mediums used.

The project is very much an experiment with the listener’s ability to discard their expectations of how music should be presented. The isolated piano soundboard after which the project is named is very much representative of the project itself, taking the essences of music, and removing the forms under which we recognize it. It manipulates our expectations and associations, and presents us with something raw and internal to music. “Inside Pianos” shows us that the instrument is merely a vehicle for expressing music, and not necessarily the source itself.