Godfried-Willem Raes
"Schroeders dream"
for robotic toy piano and voice (bocca chiussa)
This piece for my newly finished little robot <Toypi> was written on special request for Moniek Darge. It takes profit of the quite unique possibilities of an automated toy piano, particularly with regard to the extremely high possible note repetition speed. The singer follows the high voice of the heard pitches (not always equivalent to the scored notes because of the very high inharmonicity so typical for toy pianos), but only bocca chiussa singing is allowed. Any text is only in the imagination of the performer. The setting is a bit theatrical and makes reference to the peanuts comic strips, where we encounter Schroeder with his toy piano dreaming of great Beethoven performances and admired by female curly haired groupies...
The piece is about 6 minutes long.
Link to <Toypi>
Premiered: September 2008 - Gent, Logos Tetrahedron.
An alternative version -Schroeders second dream- was worked out for dancing viola player Dominica Eyckmans. Here the vocal part is played on the viola and some wind sounds, produced by our thunderwood robot and controlled by the gestures of the performer captured by our invisible instrument, were added.
Premiered: December 2009 - Gent, Logos Tetrahedron.
P.S.: Voor uitvoeringen van dit stuk moeten noch mogen auteursrechten worden betaald. Elke poging tot inning van auteursrechten naar aanleiding van publieke uitvoeringen van dit stuk, inklusief opnames ervan, kan gerechterlijk als poging tot afpersing worden vervolgd
