MUSIC

This is What Happens When You Strip a Piano to Its Elemental Parts

Classical pianist Jennifer Wright has found a new instrument—an old piano, stripped to its bare parts, played with everything from shot glasses to wire brushes. She calls it the Skeleton Piano, and it's gracing a Portland stage near you this weekend.

By Fiona McCann October 1, 2015

Landfill Rescue

"I found an old, junk piano that was destined for the landfill, and had seen better days," says Wright, who calls the transformed instrument a "sound sculpture." (Photo by Matias Brecher)

Disassembling

"I spent a long time pulling off the outside pieces, so there’s no external structure any more," says Wright. "It’s really just the skeletal remains. It's just the soundboard, and all the mechanics are there, and just enough of the wood on the front that holds up the key bed." Wright also added certain elements in the process of creating the Skeletal Piano. "I amplify it and hook it up to guitar effects." (Photo by Matias Brecher)

Removing Parts

Wright even continues the process as part of her performance. "I pull out the top two keys and use them as percussion mallets to create sounds all over the piano, and then a few more keys come out later in the piece," she says. "They all end up back in by the end of the piece." (Photo by Matias Brecher)

The Tools

Wright uses a variety of tools to play the Skeleton Piano, among them a violin bow, shot glasses, wire brushes, timpani mallets, picture wire, scrap wood, a homemade bottle cap mandolin rail, cannibalized hammers and keys, a tambourine stick, magnet strips, and a junkyard cymbal. (Photo by Matias Brecher)

Showtime

"I’d started writing a couple of movements of what I'd intended to be a longer suite of movements for this Skeletal Piano, to highlight the new performance techniques I’d found," says Wright. "What I ended up doing was finishing the suite—it's seven movements long, so it’s now about 40 minutes of music. I’ll be performing the entire thing for the first time live on stage [at Skeleton Dances], right in the middle of the stage, and the dancers will be using all of the space around the piano, interacting with me and the piano, for the entire suite. We also have a wonderful video artist, Takafumi Uehara, and he has created the most amazing video art that’s being projected in the background." One thing she's keen to stress: the music is not as arcane and avant-garde as it may sound. "I’m really drawn to tonal music, and I like to write things that are very rhythmic, that have a strong pulse," she says adding that much of what she'll be playing is inspired by rock music she listened to in her college years. (Photo by Matias Brecher)

Classically trained pianist Jennifer Wright was having a moment. After over almost two decades of classical performances and teaching, she was ready to shake things up—to write her own pieces, to play new music, to take pianos apart. She started to look for free pianos on Craigslist to deconstruct with her students—in part to help their understanding of the instrument, its mechanics and design—and in the process her lesson became an art project and a new vehicle of musical expression.

The Skeleton Piano made its musical debut in March of last year, and is now becoming a permanent fixture on the performance scene in Portland. This week, it will take center stage in two back-to-back performances at BodyVox, showcasing Wright’s original work Obscure Terrain, a seven-movement suite composed specifically for her newly-designed instrument.

The music will be combined with a choreographed performance from the Agnieszka Laska Dancers, and video art by filmmaker Takafumi Uehara. For more on the construction and workings of the Skeleton Piano, check out our slideshow above.

Skeleton Piano Dances will be performed at BodyVox, 1201 NW 17^th Avenue, October 3 and 4.

Music, BodyVox

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This is What Happens When You Strip a Piano to Its Elemental Parts

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