New Piano and Theremin duet.

Hello all.

A few months back, I made a thread asking a few questions about the theremin techniques. After that I wrote a piece for piano and theremin. And now I'm presenting it to you. :)

www.nikolas-sideris.com/stuff/sea.pdf

This is it.

A few words about the composer (me). My name is Nikolas Sideris, 31 years old and I'm almost done with my PhD in composition, in Royal Holloway, University of London. I've written various stuff, concert hall music, or music for media and I am making a living out of composing!

About the work above. It was written for a competition, no idea what happened to it. But I would like to get it performed.

So here's the 'request': Anyone interested in playing the theremin part? I could produce a realistic piano part, but not the theremin. If you have a friend and would like to perform it, by all means.

There is no budget, this work is for my PhD, no money involved whatsoever.

So that's the 'request'.

Either way, my hope is that it is an interesting concept and music, enough for you to keep it and see if you like it or not. After all, it now bellongs to the repertoire of theremin. :)

Nikolas, I had a look on the piece. It looks ...hmmm... interesting, although I do not yet know if and how I will be able to play it.

I think it would be much more easier for me and others if we had already a recording of the piano part. Couldn't you play it and put in online for download as a mp3 file?

That's a very good idea indeed!

I'll get on it, but it might be a few days before I'm done.

Thanks for checking the score out! :)

Hey - an audio example would be better for me as well. From the looks of the score it'd be a lot of fun to play, and I can get to London fairly easily.

Whoops, quick note:

I'm not in London currently, but I will be around next week for a few days. I didn't change my profile.

But either way if I do make the piano part and make an mp3 of it, you could always record your own part whenever you want at your own home/studio convinience. Other wise we could meet up next week at some point, only that I don't have any means, anymore, to record anything. We could have to (I would have to) rent a studio, or some place, or equipment to get it done...

Thank you so much Nikolas for making the score of your new work available. It's always good to see new theremin works in finished score, I know several of us will be reading through it. By all means if you record the piano part please let us know.
Congrats on the completion of this piece, and hopes for many more!

I'd like to give that piece a go too. The audio track would also be of extreme help to me since I don't see to read music. Thanks for sharing your work with us. ;)

I like the notation style a lot and am so impressed he got it into a standard PDF. Ah modern technology sometimes I almost love it.

It's one of those pieces as I read through it I realize I have to make a lot of choices and for a performer that is so empowering, but without the composer at your side you don't know if it was what they heard in their head. Still even with the classical rep. my teacher often said the score is just a chart, the music is what you hear; your job is to discover and realize the composer's intent but it may never be what they heard when they wrote it.

Most of all it is encouraging to me to see new Theremin works in full score and in "print" of some form. I wish the big Theremin scores of the past, Herman's and Fuleihan's, along with the all new works like Linda Kernohan's Concerto (http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=3210&F=715) and several others writing for Theremin could all get into print and be easy to buy and study. Publishers just do not seem interested. And it's a bit of a shame when a theremin part get's into a new opera or opera based symphony only for use as a sound effect any non-musician can execute.

Nicolas--

I just printed out the pdf and am excited about trying it out on the theremin.

I too would very much appreciate an mp3 of the piano part to help learn the piece.

Many thanks for your work.

Eliot

Thank you for all the welcoming posts and interest. I just hope that the piece will be as interesting as it may seem...

omhoge you are getting accross MANY interesting points, some of which I have thought of myself!

Now, the deal with this case is that, there is no pianist around the forums. If one of you had a friend, it would be tons preferable to study it together and give me your 'results'. You see I'm a big fan of the performer in the end. Why should you know what the composer thinks, or had in mind? I mean, ok, of course there are some standards, I'm not talking about such things as dynamics, or pitches, but in this case and this score, the rhythm is rather undefined (first of all it is marked rubbato, which alone makes it rather free and a lot of the theremin part is graphic notation, or non tempo phrases (the first 2-3 phrases). This simply means that the theremin IS the soloist, no doubt there, and that he will guide the pianist ultimately.

I do think that in the end music IS what you hear. I may be an academic, etc and doing a Phd, but never the less I do think that, especially in this age of technology, internet, and mp3s, music is carried out by a lovely lousy format such as mp3 (or ogg at better cases).

_____________ Enough with the theoritical blah blah from me ______________

I am working on the piano part and hope to have it ready by the beginning of next week. After that I'm flying out of my studio, so no work next week.

I will post it here in an mp3 format (*ahem*) and hope to see some of you taking a chance. Anyone able to record his playing alongside the piano mp3 is most welcome to do so

_______________

omhoge:

I worked on the score in Finale 2000! (which is 9 years old by now). I know it like the back of my hand and love doing such graphic notations. It may take a while but I do think it looks very nice. Especially if there is a reason for putting them there in the first place!

CU later all! :)