Description
Composer: Adam Scott Neal
Instrumentation: Solo Toy Piano
Format: Downloadable PDF
Length: 10 pages total (including cover and front matter)
Size: 8.5 × 11 in.
Preview
Recording
Program note:
hammers, for toy piano, emphasizes the noisy mechanical aspects of the instrument. This piece was composed for Amy O’Dell. This piece’s materials stem, in part, from the third and fifth movements of my Studies for Old Toys (2012), which you can hear here. I also researched and wrote about toy pianos in my dissertation. In particular, I have been intrigued by Karlheinz Essl’s series of pieces for the instrument, which increasingly focus on the noise and mechanics of the instrument. Toy piano pieces certainly entered the compositional zeitgeist of the early 2010s, with many (to my ear) focused on the instrument’s place as a signifier of “childhood.” I wanted to avoid that in this piece as much as I could, thinking of it as more of a machine, albeit a playful buddy of a machine.
Performances
- Santiago Velásquez, Toy Music Festival Seoul, South Korea 11/1/24
- Santiago Velásquez, Bogotá, Colombia, 3/1/23
- Alina Ezhakova, Pyshma, Russia 12/18/22
- Alina Ezhakova, Yekaterinburg, Russia 10/13/20
- Jorge Nicolás Manrique, Rioja Filharmonia, Zaragoza, Spain 11/12/19
- ASN, East Carolina University, featured with choreography by Marissa Nesbit, 10/27-29/17 (4 performances)
- Amy O’Dell, Florida International Toy Piano Festival, 1/17 (2 performances)
- ASN, Faculty Recital, East Carolina University 9/23/16
- Amy O’Dell, Highlands, NC, 7/27/16
- ASN, Charlotte New Music Festival, 6/12/16
- ASN, NACUSA Conference, University of Tennessee, 5/20/16
- Amy O’Dell, Cicada Consort Marathon Concert, University of Alabama 3/26/16
- Amy O’Dell, Atlanta, GA 2/26/16
- Amy O’Dell, Atlanta, GA 7/31/15
- Amy O’Dell, Atlanta, GA 7/16/15
About the Work
hammers is an original composition for advanced pianists interested in toy piano, extended techniques, and minimalism. The piece is available exclusively as a digital download (PDF score and parts) directly from the composer’s catalog.
