Duration: 7 min.
This work was commissioned by Piano Spheres as part of a memorial concert for Frederick Lesemann and Susan Svercik. When I first met Rick Lesemann in the early 1980s he had recently completed an electronic composition so notorious that I remember the founder of Piano Spheres, Leonard Stein, booing its performance. Hammer Phase was inspired in part by the phasing technique of Steve Reich but featured relentless slaps of resonant electronic octaves, the “hammer,” which ricocheted off surrounding buildings when we performed outdoor electronic concerts. Syncopated riffs were then layered above but in loops with whose lengths were a ratio of 63:64 to each other. In a ironic nod to then dominant four-on-the-floor disco beats, the result seemed danceable but lop-sided, repetitive but never the same.
In this homage to Rick and his piece, I have invented my own phasing between two live musicians, both hammering only on the black keys of the piano or keyboard. Instead of Rick’s wry but well behaved process, the parts here become progressively unhinged, though still barely under the control of the hammer and the phasing technique. The pitches are also retuned from the standard piano temperament, a choice not found in Hammer Phase but which Rick explored in other electronic compositions. I hope the result evokes the exuberance and excitement I found in bending the numerical constraints of technology with Rick.