Uploaded October 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
PSAPPHA ENSEMBLE
Benjamin Powell - piano
Tim Williams - flower pots
The film of this performance was made possible through the support of the Granada Foundation.
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
!Please use headphone for the best audio quality!
A phenomenon of nineteenth-century musical culture, the étude emerged as an instrumental genre designed to showcase the technique and virtuosity of a star performer while retaining a didactic function. The most famous piano études by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Ligeti are celebrated, however, not just as showpieces but also for the ways in which they push boundaries of expression, inviting us to reimagine the sonorities that might be drawn from familiar concert hall instruments. In this composition I have employed the étude genre as a vehicle for presenting an unusual type of percussion instrument – a set of flower pots. Pitted against the piano, these flower pots are played with beaters in much the same way as a mallet instrument would be. As studies in sound, my three études respond to some of the expressive conventions of nineteenth-century piano repertoire while teasing out the musical capabilities of an everyday object. Three études for piano and flower pots was written for Psappha’s 2018-19 Composing For scheme and played by Tim Williams (percussion) and Benjamin Powell (piano).
Learn more about Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade: ninfeacruttwellreade.com
PSAPPHA ENSEMBLE
Benjamin Powell - piano
Tim Williams - flower pots
The film of this performance was made possible through the support of the Granada Foundation.
Learn more about Psappha: psappha.com
!Please use headphone for the best audio quality!
A phenomenon of nineteenth-century musical culture, the étude emerged as an instrumental genre designed to showcase the technique and virtuosity of a star performer while retaining a didactic function. The most famous piano études by Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Ligeti are celebrated, however, not just as showpieces but also for the ways in which they push boundaries of expression, inviting us to reimagine the sonorities that might be drawn from familiar concert hall instruments. In this composition I have employed the étude genre as a vehicle for presenting an unusual type of percussion instrument – a set of flower pots. Pitted against the piano, these flower pots are played with beaters in much the same way as a mallet instrument would be. As studies in sound, my three études respond to some of the expressive conventions of nineteenth-century piano repertoire while teasing out the musical capabilities of an everyday object. Three études for piano and flower pots was written for Psappha’s 2018-19 Composing For scheme and played by Tim Williams (percussion) and Benjamin Powell (piano).
Learn more about Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade: ninfeacruttwellreade.com
