the bitKlavier Commissions: Molly Herron
Orchesography. or, the Art of Dancing meets bitKlavier
Musical instruments have long been a particular fascination for Molly Herron, composer of the next commission for bitKlavier. She has collaborated with instrument builders and wrote her dissertation at Princeton on the complex relationships between composers and musical instruments. She also plays the viola da gamba, which you can hear on her glorious album Through Lines:
About her commission for bitKlavier, Molly writes:
Long ago I came across a digitized version of a manuscript called “Orchesography. or, the Art of Dancing,” by John Weaver, published in 1706. Orchesography is a word for dance notation and according to the manuscript, “the whole Art” of dancing “is explain’d; with compleat Tables of all Steps us’d in Dancing, and Rules for the Motions of the Arms.” I found the language in the manuscript both precise and poetically evocative of specific ways that a body can move. Music is usually connected to motion for me, and as I read through the manuscript, musical ideas started popping. When Dan asked me to write for bitKlavier, I felt that it was the perfect format for these ideas because of the ways that bitKlavier expands the range of techniques available on the piano. Each movement: An open Step outwards, Sink and Rise in moving, and The Presence of the Body, takes its title from Weaver’s text and aims to give a sense of embodied motion and sensation.
Here is the cover of Orchesography:
Like much of Molly’s music, these pieces have an inviting sense of elegance and curiosity, and I find that each induces an internal film that I watch while listening, hazy but vivid all at once, sensational yet subtle—I don’t know these dances, but the suggestion to imagine one is enough, especially after examining the figures and instructions in the Weaver.
Cristina Altamura was particularly delighted to take on these pieces, given her own background in dance.
As a former dancer, I SO enjoyed leaning into the dance instructions Molly included. The piece really took off when I removed my “pianist hat” and started to think like a dancer visualizing how I would choreograph it. I was able to indulge in the exquisite nature of the micro-gestures that Molly really understands how to do so well.
Each of these make subtle use of bitKlavier’s capabilities; on hearing alone, it might be unclear that there is anything other than a conventional piano at work (though the last one, The Presence of the Body, has a delightful and unmistakable tuning wobble, from bitKlavier’s spring tuning; and the end of the first one time travels in a distinctly bitKlavierien way). Here they are, with their accompanying pages from the Weaver:
Molly Herron: An open Step outwards, performed by Cristina Altamura
Molly Herron: Sink and Rise in moving, performed by Cristina Altamura
Molly Herron: The Presence of the Body, performed by Cristina Altamura
If you’d like to try these, or just look at the score, here are the bitKlavier galleries and pdf:
Dance on!
<3!!!!