Piano as Percussion

As a trained percussionist, Ryan Sawyer '23 has played a lot of unusual instruments, but never an outdoor piano until he encountered this installation. Playing outdoors is not unfamiliar to him; he has played in several drum lines and says that he prefers playing outside because the sounds disperse in the open air, which makes it easier to hear the instruments. With this piano, the outdoor venue has changed the piano in ways that allow Ryan to experiment with its unpredictable mechanics and changing timbres. Ryan brought along a few different sets of mallets, made from yarn, rubber, and wood, to play the piano as one large percussion instrument. In the second video below, he explains the varied responses he can produce with each mallet's size, shape, and material.

Ryan tells me that his pianist friends have lamented the piano's disintegrating interface: they try to play Chopin, he reports, and are disappointed that the piano doesn't work properly. But of course it doesn't, Ryan tells me, you can't expect it to play like a normal piano. It's the ways it doesn't respond as you'd expect it to that make it interesting.

Days in place: 49

Weather: warm and overcast, 54°F