Gradus: For Fux, Tesla and Milo the Wrestler (Three Rungs)

Name: Gradus: For Fux, Tesla and Milo the Wrestler (Three Rungs)
Start: 2024-12-14T20:00:00-08:00
Location: 1412 18th Ave, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98122

Schedule

Sat, 14 Dec, 2024 at 08:00 pm

UTC-08:00

Location

1412 18th Ave, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98122 | Seattle, WA

Neal Kosaly-Meyer, composer/pianist
8 PM
Sliding Admission, $5-$20
Gradus: for Fux, Tesla and Milo the Wrestler had its beginning as a short instruction that came into my head some time in the mid-80’s: “Learn to play the piano one note at a time.” What would it mean to do that? I imagined working through the keys of the piano, pitch-by-pitch, devoting an extended improvisation session to each single pitch and to all possible combinations of pitches. In 2002, with the assistance and with the piano of Keith Eisenbrey, I embarked on the project in earnest, starting with the A’s.
After about thirteen years of regular sessions I had completed working through all combinations of all A’s on the piano. Keith did some math at this point, and noted that to actually work through all possible combinations of all pitches on the piano would take more time (SIGNIFICANTLY more time) than the universe had already been in existence. In order to continue the project, I accepted that I’d need to be more selective: Going forward I would devote eight sessions to each remaining pitch, combining them with the pitches already worked-through in chance-determined constellations.
By this point I’ve worked through all the A’s, all the E’s, all the C#’s, all the G’s, all the B’s, all the D’s and the five lowest F#’s. Tonight’s performance, lasting two hours (continuously–no intermission) will include three rungs: first the fourth G down, for 20′, then the third through sixths A’s, counting up, the second through fifth E’s counting down, all the C#’s, G’s, B’s and D’s, and the five F#’s counting up, for 40′, and finally the fifth B and the seventh B counting up, for 60′.
Gradus is all about listening: listening to the many ways one can play a single pitch, listening to the harmony, drama and counterpoint that can be found between a very few pitches, transferring the kind of listening demanded by one or few pitches when listening to many pitches, and definitely attending just as attentively to the silences between and around pitches.