Pianistic Translations
In doing research on the player piano, a certain temptation has come up many times. Given the popularity of the phonograph as an object of academic inquiry (and the persistence of its basic working principles), it is basically mandatory that I compare the pianistic reproduction I’m looking at to phonographic reproduction.
So first, there is a question: What kinds of things am I comparing? I just called my topic “pianistic” reproduction, which is basically a working term meaning “with discrete notes and attacks, like a piano.” “Phonographic” reproduction, on the other hand, would mean “like a phonograph.” Basing my terms specifically on the technologies is not ideal: like a piano in what way? like a phonograph in what way? Jonathan Sterne did the hard work for the phonograph and ended up with “tympanic reproduction”—sound reproduction that is modeled on the eardrum (like all microphones and speakers). That seems to collect together iPods, phonographs, 8-track tapes, etc. in a meaningful way—based on a foundational shared principle. At the moment, my only parallel move would be to alter “pianistic” so that instead of referring to “piano” the technology, it refers to “pianism” the mode of engagement with keyboard instruments. This is a little obtuse, still working out terms, but I hope you get the idea.
Click through for a bunch of examples, after the jump.
Olivier Messiaen talks about birdsong in this short clip (from some source I don’t know). Hearing his vocal imitation of the bird, a recording of the bird itself, and then his representation of it on the piano is really wonderful. It’s like a short media studies essay on the various types of sound reproduction.
To hear more examples (and see comparisons of spectrograms and sheet music), see here.
To read more about the work these birdsongs were used in, Oiseaux Exotiques, and to see a video of a performance conducted by Pierre Boulez, see here.
(video via immanent discursivity)
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