Pianist pushes instrument’s limits
Monahan’s ‘experimental music’ creates pieces that push the boundaries of convention
There’s more than one way to play a piano.
But Gordon Monahan doesn’t want people to think he’s necessarily playing an instrument.
His piece Piano Mechanics uses a typical baby grand. Along with the more typical twinkling of keys with his fingertips, Monahan will slam his elbow and forearm onto the piano or reach in to pluck and vibrate the piano strings with his bare hands.
“Rather than thinking of it as a musical instrument that’s played by a pianist, I’m thinking of it as a mechanical device that can produce sound,” Monahan said.
With a chuckle, he described himself as a “sound artist and composer.”
Born in Kingston, Ont., he studied music at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick after taking physics at the University of Ottawa.
Monahan made a name for himself as a composer of “experimental music,” pieces that push the boundaries of conventional musical thought.
He doesn’t go as far as John Cage’s prepared piano pieces, which use items like screws and weather stripping stuck into the piano to alter the sound, but he listed Cage as one of his inspirations.
And one of his best-known works doesn’t use traditional musical instruments at all. Monahan’s piece Speaker Swinging features, as one could guess, a series of speakers swung around in circles over the heads of the performers to generate sound as art in the acoustic space.
“I’m not completely abandoning the idea of doing music,” Monahan said. “I’m trying to expand in terms of the philosophy and the conceptual approach, to try to include more than what we normally think of being defined as music.”
Now, Monahan’s work will be featured at the Remai Art Gallery and in the local Strata New Music Festival in Saskatoon. Monahan was invited to lead off the music festival with a performance of Piano Mechanics on Friday, June 1. Also, the art gallery invited him to create a sound installation exhibit.
For a city Saskatoon’s size, Monahan said a festival like this could help people understand what this style of music is about.
“I think it’s really valuable, particularly for the community,” he said. “They ’re creating something that hasn’t already existed before. To have a chance to perform and have a small exhibition here, too, was a nice opportunity.”
The Strata New Music Festival runs June 1 to 10. For more information, see sasknewmusic.com
Tohavea chance to perform and have a small exhibition here, too, was a nice opportunity.