Album Notes

Read the 5 star review at the bottom of the page!

Drew Schnurr about Infinite Pianos:

In the spring of 2004, I was approached with an interesting proposition: create a musical composition for multiple pianos to be performed live at the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado. The theme of the conference was ambient:interface.

Infinite Pianos is the musical articulation of my reflection on that theme.

I began by thinking about the significance of the piano keyboard to the process of composition; the keyboard is an interface used to elicit unearthly music from an earthbound framework of wood, wire and hammers. This structure is crucial to the expressive power of the instrument. The piano, compelled into action by keys of black and white, releases the composer's internal musings and brings them to life. Over centuries, enlightened designer/craftsmen have wrought this magical device to manifest musical inspiration. The piano is both simple and complex, beautiful and tempermental. The sheer refined inevitability if it's design commands respect.

How could I express this musically? I sat at my piano and closed my eyes before the majesty of the instrument. I imagined Bach experimenting with various chord structures... I felt something tangible, the piano's powerful physicality, which is both open and supporting. Moved by its sensous elegance, I began to play. Out of this feeling emerged a note sequence - repeating, pattern building upon pattern, circle upon circle. As the sequence emerged, it became the framework for the rest of the movement.

This movement ('Sequence') became the foundation for the rest of the composition. I built each movement from patterns that evoked impulse, color, memory, or medium. I used ostinato in each movement, emphasizing the rhythmic nature of the piano to create sonic texture as much as melody. Repetition underscores the dramatic visual aspect of multiple pianos being played.

Composing the final movement, I was conscious that musical memories are different from memories that are non-musical in nature. My memories of music have a unique, almost mystical clarity. For the final movement I wanted to express this internal whisper - each variation rising more detailed and powerful until memory itself becomes crystalline, illuminated from within.

The power of creative experience sustains itself through time - it is unending. Infinite Pianos is both the literal and metaphorical expression of elements found in the act of creation. It is music as both the interface and medium through which I experience life itself.

Drew Schnurr