the bitKlavier Commissions: Jenny Beck
Held
Before looking at Jenny Beck’s bitKlavier commission, check out her beautiful new album, Up To The Surface, set to be released next month:
Much of Jenny’s music is characterized by intense attention to detail within meditative, ambient sonic spaces, as is evident in the soundscapes on Up To The Surface. This is true of much of her instrumental music as well—including Jenny’s bitKlavier piece, “Held”—where the performers themselves are invited to engage with the materials in a mindful way, a kind of “process” music that is as much about the process of the musicians in the moment as it is about the notated materials.
About “Held,” Jenny says:
“Held” is built on bitKlavier’s ability to sustain a note much longer than a piano can, and then play back a reverse echo of a note at many times its original length (the “Nostalgic” preparation). Some notes are held for long portions of time while others dance around them. As the piece goes on, the intonation shifts so that pitches rub against each other in delicious and unsettled ways. These elements, along with the distinct timbre of the Rhodes piano, create a continually shifting kaleidoscope of tones.
There is a kind of performance virtuosity here, but it is not the kind that spreads its feathers, attempting to impress; rather it is a kind of virtuosity of attention, where staying in the moment, engaging with the sound and the instrument and listening closely, is prioritized. Listen to Adam’s recording:
“Held,” by Jenny Beck, performed by Adam Sliwinski:
It’s also interesting to listen while following the score, or to perform it yourself, where a different kind of attention is necessary than when simply taking in the sound itself: how long should the opening notes held?; now, listen to the emergent Nostalgic-preparation tones; how to place polyrhythmic notes across the hands, and how to feel them?; take in the beating “rub” created by the change in tuning; when to breathe, and when to move forward?—these are all points of focus that shape our experience when attending to this piece with the performer’s engagement in mind. So, check out the score as well:
And here is the bitKlavier gallery if you’d like to try it yourself!
Yussss!!!