Mystical Piano by Dosia McKay

I have been wanting to compose a piano album for a long time. I envisioned it would be colorful, abstract, and experimental, perhaps even inaccessible and academic at times. The primary goal was to use sounds exclusively generated by the grand and upright pianos and to simply have fun.

The piano mechanism is carefully balanced to ensure the hammer strikes the string at the optimal speed, causing it to vibrate and produce the familiar sound. But the instrument is capable of so much more. The strings can be plucked, strummed, and scraped. They can also be dampened or wrapped with small resonating objects. The produced fundamentals and the partials of such experiments can then be digitally isolated, elongated, or modulated to generate new articulations and textures. Many of these unique sounds can be found on this album.

Can this music be performed in a live setting by a single performer? Not likely. It was never meant to be. A pianist will always be limited by the number of timbres one can simultaneously employ, by the number of fingers, and by the stretch of the hand. As I composed, I gave myself freedom to paint the sounds without such constraints. As the music swirled in my imagination, I followed it wherever it led. I worked with a digital pen on a large canvas and painted layer upon layer, each note drawn by hand, meticulously timed, adjusted, and synchronized with the others. Those of you who know my previous albums composed with electronic and synthesized sounds will be familiar with these concepts, and the same can be applied to acoustic sounds.

But enough about techniques.

As with much of my recent output, I find that the music continues to speak mystically to me and through me. When it comes to the creative process, I have given up on bringing my preconceived ideas and find that the attitude of abandonment and curiosity lead me to more unpredictable and transformative places. I much prefer it this way. At the same time, I observe that the more I relinquish my ideas, the more personal and autobiographical the music becomes. Every artist struggles with how much to reveal and how much to conceal, but ultimately, we are called to convey and to illustrate our emotions so that others can find in them their own reflection.

Mystical Piano is a portrayal of my arduous faith journey. Along the way, I have experienced some epiphanies and triumphs, but more acutely, doubt, detours, and despair. I have not arrived yet, but I feel that I continue to arrive.

DM
Jan, 2025

Dosia McKay is an American composer of music for concert stage, film, modern dance, and multimedia. Her portfolio includes works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choir, symphony orchestra, as well as synthesized sound. A versatile writer, Dosia fluently weaves elements of classical harmony, avant-garde, ambient soundscapes, and the lyricism of folk melodies of her native Poland.

dosiamckay.com
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