As Modern Music Days’ Regional Concert Series heads to the Victor Pasmore Gallery for the second date in its calendar, Iggy Fenech sits down with pianist Tricia Dawn Williams to discuss the programme for Transition, a concert that merges piano works with video-art, electronic music and gesture control technology to create an interdisciplinary performance.

It’s easy to look at instruments and forget that they were once cutting-edge technology; that a piano was once as ‘new’ and as ‘futuristic’ as a synthesiser or a chill-out DJ session. In a way, however, one of the reasons why instruments like the piano have never become ‘things of the past’ is because they are always evolving, shaping music in new ways for new audiences.

For pianist and technology enthusiast Tricia Dawn Williams,  the piano creates endless possibilities. And Transition will feature her with a programme of compositions that explore almost 100 years of music that broke new ground in the piano repertoire.

“I named this project Transition because the selected works in the programme shift the traditional portrait of the piano to a new dimension,” Dawn tells me as we take a seat at the café we met at between her many appointments. “The earliest work in the programme is The Voice of Lir by American composer Henry Cowell, published in 1922. Although this work is purely acoustic, it comes across as radical and avant-garde as it did almost a century ago when it was written, with its use of fists and elbows on the keyboard to create tone clusters.”

Besides Cowell, two other works by American composers are featured in the programme: Piano Counterpoint for piano and tape by Steve Reich, in which the live instrument is accompanied by four other piano parts on a pre-recorded track, and Makrokosmos by George Crumb. Throughout the latter, sounds produced from the keyboard are combined with an extraordinary assortment of ‘inside-the piano’ effects, which the audience can follow and appreciate via a live camera projection.

Transition also includes two works that combine the piano with video-art. In Pounding, for piano and video, composer Ruben Zahra creates a visual narrative to the rhythmic character of the score where the intensity of the percussive clusters in the music are juxtaposed with scars on the face of a model. Meanwhile, in Transit, for piano and video by Michel Van der Aa, the movement of the pianist interacts theatrically with the video projection. As the focus shifts between the video and the virtuoso performance of the pianist, the film footage shows us an old man trapped in his own house as he struggles with loneliness, verging on insanity.

A programme of compositions that explore almost 100 years of music that broke new ground in the piano repertoire

“Then there is Suspensions by Japanese composer Atau Tanaka,” adds Dawn.

“This composition is a big part of the story for Transition, as it was Atau who sent me the sensors and the software required to bring this piece to life.”

In Suspensions, Dawn manipulates and triggers electronic music in real time with her gestures. The Myo band interface Dawn will be wearing on her forearms captures electrical signals caused by muscle tension to create a motion-capture sequence assigned to control specific music events within the score. It took many try-outs to get the performance right but Atau was incredibly pleased by Dawn’s interpretation when he invited her to the Goldsmiths University of London for a work session on the piece.

“Transition is a project that I put together for international touring. I wanted to create a package that is different and daring. I am not interested to compete internationally with a classical repertoire because there are great pianists in every city who can play that music. Transition is not just a piano recital… it’s a full-blown performance,” she tells me.

Transition will fittingly take place at the Victor Pasmore Gallery, which is among Malta’s most important (yet least known) spaces for the modern art movement. Its collection of paintings by British artist and architect Victor Pasmore, found within his summer house in Gudja and his house in Blackheath, London showcases the artist’s work during his time on the island. Today, the collection is managed by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, and is housed within a 1640s-gunpowder magazine (‘polverista’) in Valletta’s outer fortification walls and within the footprint of the Central Bank of Malta.

This fusion of music and space is also part of the ethos of the Regional Concert Series, which on top of bringing contemporary and 20th century music to communities across Malta and Gozo, it also aims to highlight heritage sites within each region.

“As a musician, it’s always wonderful to perform in unique venues such as the Victor Pasmore Gallery while, for audiences, it’s an opportunity to experience a heritage site through the narrative of a music performance,” Dawn concludes.

Modern Music Days, which is a collaboration between the Malta Association of Contemporary Music, the Manoel Theatre and the Valletta 2018 Foundation, is organising four more concerts between June and November 2018 in different historical sites around Malta and Gozo.

Transition is part of the culture programme of Valletta 2018 European Capital of Culture and is being organised in collaboration with the Central Bank of Malta, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti and The Victor Pasmore Gallery. Tickets are available from the booking office of the Manoel Theatre or online.

www.teatrumanoel.com.mt;

www.modernmusicdays.eu