The Decomposing Piano
May 27, 2011
This is a radio piece about the story of a piano at the Queen's University Grad Club for many years. The piano suffered a broken leg when it was moved over a doorstep to participate in a show across the hall. Unrepairable, the broken piano was placed in our backyard.
Soon, the action became stiff and unusable, so we removed it and painted the strings for its centennial anniversary.
Using authentic audio collected from the last three years of the piano's life, a radio piece was created to commemorate its story and aired on CBC's Living Outloud as one of four commissioned pieces surrounding the theme About Time. It was then played in 8 Channels surround audio for the Radio Without Boundaries Conference, part of the Deep Wireless Festival hosted by New Adventures in Sound Art in Toronto.
August 20th, 2009
February 18th, 2011.
The following spring: The tension once built within this piano's frame, relaxes, with each passing season.