Erika Dohi

The modern piano is a keyboard instrument with 88 black and white keys, producing 88 distinctive notes when played by a pianist. But what happens when a composer wants to expand that sonic palette when creating new work? That exact dilemma is tackled head on by maverick composer Georg Friedrich Haas in his latest composition, which is performed at the Armory in its highly anticipated North American premiere. This sonically adventurous spatial work is realized as a concert installation in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, where the audience is surrounded by a chamber orchestra and 50 micro-tuned pianos. Each upright piano is tuned in the smallest of increments—the amount of difference between sounds that is audible to humans—to allow all pitches to be possible. And when paired with the phenomenal musicians of the Klangforum Wien as an acoustic amplifier, this ambitious new composition creates an immersive sound world that envelops listeners in a variety of sonic environments, from chillingly tender melodic motifs to the thunderous roar of a looming weather storm. This unforgettable experience showcases Haas’s focus on the human dimension in his experimentalism while creating a new way of listening.