Earl Brown’s Forgotten Piece in Moholy-Nagy’s Light-Space-Modulator (2012)

for piano and live-electronics with live-controlled video playback
commissioned by the Earl Brown Foundation
flexible duration
WP September 2012, St. Georgen
Rei Nakamura, Annesley Black

Edition Juliane Klein Order No.: EJK0583

Score Preview (Publisher, pdf)
Annotations (Publisher, pdf)

The pitch material and proportions stem from Earle Brown’s Forgotten Piece (1954). In this composed interpretation of the piece, the pianist and sound artist follow an additional graphical score controlled live (or pre-composed by means of a list) by the sound artist in Pure Data. The visual material from the score stems from Lazló Moholy-Nagy’s piece Ein Lichtspiel – Schwarz-Weiss-Grau, which uses footage from his Light-Space-Modulator, a rotating sculpture, which, in motion, filters and reflects light and projects shadows.

The video projection of Moholy-Nagy’s work is used as another layer of the graphic score, to be interpreted by the performers. The sound artist can control (live or pre-programmed) which material from the film is to be played.

Annesley Black