Monday, April 28, 2014

Unfinished pieces (1)

Some pieces just don't seem to get finished. For example,  I've been working on a piece with the title SAWING A GRAND PIANO IN HALF.  Two problems have arisen in trying to finish this piece.  The first is a purely compositional — indeed, a formal — question:  Should the sawing be done beginning with the treble side or with the bass side?   The second question is one of stage magic mechanics:  Once sawn in half, severing all wires, how does the piano appear to be instantly reassembled and playable without the use of smoke, mirrors or a second piano?  

1 comment:

Elaine Fine said...

You could project a hologram of a piano onto a plain box on the stage, I suppose, and when you are finished, have a piano elevated to the place of the box on the stage. You would need more than a saw to make it through the frame, though.