Talkback IV (2010)

To purchase the score and performance materials, please get in touch.

Instrumentation: piano, and real time digital signal processing

Duration: 12 minutes

World Premiere: September 18, 2011, presented by Electronic Music Foundation at Greenwich House, NYC

Other Performances:
June 4, 2013, Kathleen Supové (piano) and Guy Barash (live electronics), Turtle Bay Music School, NYC
December 12, 2013, Kathleen Supové (piano) and Guy Barash (live electronics), Eavesdropping: Pianos, Spectrum, NYC
March 18, 2014, Stephane Ginsburgh (piano) and Guy Barash (live electronics), City University London Concert Series, London, UK
March 18, 2014, Kathleen Supové (piano), Cardiff University Concert Hall, Cardiff, UK
March 21, 2014, Stephane Ginsburgh (piano) and Guy Barash (live electronics), Résonances Festival, Académie de Musique de Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium
May 21, 2014, Kathleen Supové (piano) and Guy Barash (live electronics), Roulette, Brooklyn, NY

Composer Note:
Talkback IV for piano and computer is the fourth in a series of compositions for solo instruments and real-time digital signal processing.

With Talkback, I explore extended techniques, enhanced timbre, and other sonic features that are characteristic of the instrument by magnifying and amplifying otherwise subtle nuances and bringing them to the foreground.

Talkback, just like in online media, is a response to something more substantial: western tradition, the canon. It is smaller but often as significant as it is a sincere manifestation of the zeitgeist. Real-time interaction between the piano and the computer is a form of dialog. Very similar to forms of communicating on the Internet—posting, tweeting, blogging, etc.—it is filtered, yet very real.