Schiller's Piano

Programme note:

In 1942, Schiller’s furniture — a desk, chairs, cupboard, and piano — were transported from his house in Weimar to the nearby Buchenwald concentration camp. In the workshop at Buchenwald, the prisoners were forced to make replicas of Schiller’s furniture. These would be displayed in Schiller’s house, while the real artefacts were stored underground. The aim was to safeguard Schiller’s furniture from Allied bombing while continuing to present the replicas as totems to Germany’s history.

The prisoners were forced only to re-create the outer shell of the piano. The version of Schiller’s piano at Buchenwald is a counterfeit that makes no music. Its interior is a void.

In Schiller’s Piano, the performer plays piano and sampler together. The sampler uses sounds taken from the raw elements of piano construction: the manipulation of wood, brass, felt and wire. Schiller’s counterfeit piano materialises in many states of being, real and imagined, untouched and destroyed.

Full scoring:

Piano db. MIDI Keyboard (solo)
3 First Violins
3 Second Violins
3 Third Violins
3 Violas
3 Cellos
2 Double Basses

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
MIDI Keyboard (at least 49 keys)
Stereo PA System: 2 Speakers and 2 Subs
3 Monitors (one for soloist, two for orchestra)
Amplification (Piano)*
Amplification (Strings)*
Mixing Desk (at least 4 inputs)
Laptop running Ableton Live (to be operated by soloist)
Audio interface for laptop
Small table for laptop
Laptop running CueLab (to be operated by sound engineer)