Crystal 2025 by Dan Senn	Granite Twenty-Five Short Sections for Piano and Fixed Audio, or Solo Piano
Crystal Granite is comprised of 20 short sections for piano with improvised backing tracks, these supplemented by 5 related solo works minus the accompaniment. These 25 works, demonstrated in the rightmost column as mp4 files, may be presented in any order, number or combination, by a single or multiple performers and even interspersed with other pieces. This collection of works derived from a single recorded improvisation by the composer using two found objects, a piece Swedish crystal striking a thin plate of Italian granite. Crystal Granite, completed in February 2025 at Studio FMErá in Watertown, WI, was first developed in Prague in 2022 and based on found object improvisations recorded in 2015. The methods used in this project, however, were not implemented until 2023-24 while making experimental films ---where standalone mediums were systematically merged without a loss of integrity to either artifact. Thus, the slowly unwinding provenance of CG is attributable a nascent problem concerning the spontaneity experienced when improvising on found objects and then the transfer of this to traditional musical instruments using established scoring methods. This is explained further in the center column. But an interesting irony exists here as this spontaneity arises from commonplace objects, with a studied lack of rehearsal applied, all in pursuit of an artifact intended for in a "serious" concert environment. John Cage's work often offended in this way. Moreover, CG demands a high level of traditional performance skill, lots of rehearsal time, this originating from an artist who entered experimental music as a potter. Cage at least had piano lessons. --------------- Dan Senn is an interdisciplinary artist working in music composition, event production, kinetic sound sculpture and installation, experimental and documentary film. He has been a professor of music and art in the United States and Australia and travels internationally as a lecturer, performer and installation artist. He lives in Prague where he directs the Echofluxx Media Art festivals, and Watertown, Wisconsin, in the USA, with his partner-collaborator, Caroline Senn. Dan's work moves freely between expressive extremes and languages depending upon the aesthetic joust at hand. Dan is co-founder of Roulette Intermedium in New York City, Cascadia Composers of Portland Oregon, and the Echofluxx media festivals in Prague.	Composition Process The recorded crystal + granite improvisation was divided into 20 short sections with the intention of adding a piano line that would key off a midi analysis of the same. To achieve this, this was dropped over a temporal “netting” in Sibelius that quantized pitch and durational data to equal temperament, quarter note equals 120 bps with the smallest value of 1/64th notes. This resolution captured the ebb and flow of live performance while being on the edge of human recognition. Even so, for most performers, this level of nuance remained unplayable begging the question of whether one could capture and transfer this treasured spontaneity. Here is where I confronted the plasticity of musical gestures in human perceptual---one tolerant of micro-adjustments without a loss of "coolness" when knitting together related mediums. With performability paramount, during the video editing, the granular rhythms of the initial improv trace was adjusted in support of the simplified notation. Thus, the effect of this "micro-knitting" was to maintain the integrity of the found object improvisations, it's spontaneity, while providing improved accessibility in the piano parts. Stage Setup The banner at the top of this page is a closeup of the Swedish crystal glass used as a mallet in the Fixed Audio parts lying over the Italian slab of granite. Dan-Senn.com	Demonstration Videos    Listen to score videos with headphones. 01 - 0'42" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 02 - 1'06" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 03 - 1'04" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 04 - 0'56" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 05 - 0'55" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 05 - 0'55" | Solo Piano vs | PDF 06 - 0'50" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 07 - 1'04" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 08 - 0'42" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 08 - 0'42" | Solo Piano vs | PDF 09 - 0'56" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 09 - 0'56" | Solo Piano vs | PDF 10 - 1'00" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 10 - 1'00" | Solo Piano vs | PDF 11 - 1'14" | Score Video+Piano+Backing-Demo | PDF 11 - 1'14" | Solo Piano vs | PDF 12 - 1'20" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 13 - 1'06" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 14 - 0'42" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 15 - 0'46" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 16 - 1'08" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 17 - 1'16" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 18 - 1'20" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 19 - 0'54" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF 20 - 0'52" | Score Video+Piano+Backing Demo | PDF Performance Score Videos and Score PDFs may be requested via email here. Sound Engineering Options Performances may be controlled by the pianist using a computer attached to a flat screen in the score positon on the piano, or an iPad-like device mounted above the piano keyboard. Audio connections from this device to the soundsystem willneed to be made. For private rehearsals, a pair of self-powered studio monitors with 4” woofers mounted on the left and right sides of the piano will suffice (see image to the left) but for chamber concert performances the speakers should sport 12” woofers or larger to capture the full fidelity of the pre-recorded audio. For large venues, the piano may need slight amplification using a discrete sound system beneath the piano to maintain the instrument's position within the stereo field. A nimble and talented sound engineer might be emplyed to maintain a balance between the live and pre-recorded parts whether the piano is or isn’t amplified.