Constellations

Constellations is a 3.5-minute musical work for solo toy piano and toy percussion performed by one player. The work explores how the sound of the toy piano can be combined and blended with other toy timbres to enhance and expand the sonorities of the instruments. This work is part of a growing interest in expanding the limits of composing for the toy piano by involving additional elements, especially experimental components. While dominant processes of composition for instruments is commonly connected to carefully crafted formal instruments, this work is innovative by using all instruments sold as toys for children which are then used as objects of formal art practice. The conceptual approach to sound and music in this work draws on reproduction of constellations and the 'sound' of the stars. This connects with a history of philosophy which considered the "harmony of the spheres" and sounds available from considering the ratio and placement of the stars in the sky (Cavarero, 2005).