Knuckleballs and sliders
It’s high summer, which of course means baseball… which of course means Annie Gosfield… Or at least her 1997 piece Brooklyn, October 5, 1941. You can read about it over at the NewMusicBox archive; seems to me that it’s still the only piano piece out there using two baseballs and a catcher’s mitt (though if you know more I’m happy to hear about it). I just wanted to share this lively performance by Jenny Q Chai, taped live at The Stone. Afterwards head to Jenny’s YouTube channel; you’ll find a lot of other wonderful performances of things off the beaten track.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp4q-tAULis[/youtube]
My first encounter was when Barney Childs and Phil Rehfeldt came up for a concert of works they’d commissioned; I don’t know remember if it was a piece by William Penn or Harold Budd; I think the balls they used inside were bigger, like croquet balls. A few years later in grad school I wrote a piece for flute and piano that used a third performer dropping tennis balls inside while the pianist plays. Makes a really pleasant sound.
There’s a piece by Randy Hostetler, “8”, which requires an 8 ball to be used while playing.
http://livingroom.org/randy/randyrm.htm
I’m a pianoteacher myself and 25 years ago I started my pupils make new sounds on the piano. But I never thought of letting them hold a ball !!! 🙂 I really loved this video and did put her on my favorits on YouTube.