Keyboard, audio, video
The text of the piano piece No. 7 by Wolfgang Rihm was played on microphoned keyboard.
All played notes were made to audio files internally in the computer.
These files were sent away from the concert hall according to the inverted distribution plan of GEMA:
57% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of GEMA,
29% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of Universal Edition and Schott Edition,
14% of the tones - by mail to Wolfgang Rihm.
The emails contained the following text:
Hello and congratulations!
Copyright law hinders creativity and you are one of several listeners to today's premiere of Keyboard Piece II "Spam" by Anton X for Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Piece No. 7, microphoned keyboard and internet connection.
You can hear a piano tone from Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Piece No. 7. You will find the sound in the attachment to this e-mail.
The keyboard piece is an indication of the current state of copyright law, which should be reformed at least in the field of art music: In the context of today's copyright terror, free use and recontextualisation of existing works of art is only possible in the form of complete alienation.
The procedure of alienation underlies the piece by Anton X: the text to be played on a microphoned keyboard is exactly the musical text of Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Piece No. 7. The keystrokes of the keyboard are amplified by the contact microphones attached to the keyboard's housing and made to sound through three loudspeakers. The key noises are the only thing that can be heard in the concert hall.
The actual played tones of Rihm's piano piece are sent away from the concert hall according to GEMA's inverted distribution plan:
57% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of GEMA,
29% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of Universal Edition and Schott Edition,
14% of the tones - would also have to be sent by e-mail to Wolfgang Rihm personally, but Mr. Rihm does not have an e-mail or it is top secret and is not disclosed.
Therefore, all samples to be sent to Mr. Rihm will be burned on one or more CDs after the performance and sent to him by post.
You are one of the recipients of these samples.
The performance of the piece took place at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen on 28 May 2013.
Philipp Hövelmann was at the keyboard.
- A piano piece in three movements was created from the notes sent to Mr. Rihm. The piano piece is dedicated to Wolfgang Rihm. The letter is enclosed with the transmission:
Dear Mr. Rihm,
I am sending you 683 notes from your Piano Piece No. 7.
This letter is a part of my Keyboardstück II "Spam" for Wolfgang Rihm's Piano Piece No. 7, microphoned keyboard, live video and internet connection.
Copyright law hinders creativity. My keyboard piece is a reference to the current state of copyright law, which should be reformed at least in the field of art music: In the context of today's copyright terror, free use and recontextualisation of existing works of art is only possible in the form of complete alienation.
The procedure of alienation underlies my piece: the text to be played on a microphoned keyboard is exactly the musical text of your piano piece. The keystrokes of the keyboard were amplified by the contact microphones attached to the keyboard's body and made to sound through three loudspeakers. The key noises are the only thing that can be heard in the concert hall.
The actual played tones of your piano piece were sent away from the concert hall according to GEMA's inverted distribution plan:
57% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of GEMA,
29% of the tones - by e-mail to the employees of Universal Edition and Schott Edition,
14% of the tones - by post to you personally.
The performance of the piece took place at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen on May 28th, 2013.
Philipp Hövelmann was at the keyboard.
You can find a short documentation of the project at https://youtu.be/qXZxTNoTa9M.
Yours sincerely,
Anton X
Bremen, May 31st, 2013
