Daniel plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on my piece, “Tree Songs,” in a video by friend Colleen Bozuwa.
“Tree Songs” is comprised of saplings I painted white and screwed to a piano I painted black. By attaching saplings to the piano, it appears to have the forest reclaim it, or perhaps people will see the piano as growing among a bunch of saplings. There is a beautiful rhythm to a grove of saplings clustered in a forest. The repetition of these vertical elements should compliment the black and white keys of the piano.
The piece was installed outside the Montshire Museum in Norwich, Vermont for the month of July. It was part of Dartmouth College’s celebration of the Hopkins Center for the Arts’ 50th anniversary, “Hands on Pianos.” Mine is one of 50 pianos that were altered by artists and installed throughout the Upper Valley. See more images of the creative process on the official Hands on Pianos website and in a previous post on this blog.
Tags: celebration, community, creativity, music, youth
JAY MEAD!!! I so loved watching you put your art together as Daniel played Moonlight Sonata – wow! It was like hanging out with you a little bit, and Moonlight Sonata is something we listen to all the time in our house as my husband is an avid jazz pianist who is doing a lot of Beethoven this summer… our version of this would be me doing dishes and him playing on the keyboards in my kitchen. Hope you are well and happy – lots of love to you and yours! x lisaj
Love the interweaving of creation and performance in the video and glad to see the final product (at least virtually)!
This piece got a lot of interaction in July. Hundreds of hands tickled the ivories.