Download: Anna Thorvaldsdottir's 'Scape' Performed by Pianist Cory Smythe
b'This week\\u2019s Meet the Composer Bonus Track is a world premiere recording of Anna Thorvaldsdottir\\u2019s piano work\\xa0Scape. Scape, like many of Anna\\u2019s works, uses extended techniques to create unique, otherworldly textures. For this piece, Anna demands quite a bit of playing INSIDE the instrument, as well as a few somewhat unconventional preparations to the instrument itself. Prepared piano basically means a piano with stuff in it, screws, thimbles, tin foil, pieces of paper, the type of thing that\\u2019ll make a piano technician start to sweat. The first couple people to do this type of thing were crazy Americans,\\xa0Henry Cowell\\xa0and\\xa0John Cage. Definitely take a moment to check those guys out, if you have a sec. Anna, very much in keeping with her timbral language, uses these techniques to carve out massive swaths of sonic texture, creating a huge universe in a relatively limited time frame. A couple weeks ago, Cory Smythe, pianist for the International Contemporary Ensemble, stopped by the Q2 Music studios to create the beautiful world premiere recording.'