Jane Antonia Cornish - Ocean
Jane Antonia Cornish - Ocean
By the end of the piece, one is so enamored with the calmness that the final bar comes and goes without any notice.
Composers have tried their hand to musically emulate the roaring waves of the ocean time and time again throughout all of history. Thus it comes to no surprise that Jane Antonia Cornish’s Ocean does the same. What is surprising is her method of achieving such sonorous ripples: writing a work for six grand pianos. Her new album "Sierra" is a collaborative effort with Bang on a Can's pianist Vicky Chow, and comprises of a collection of music for multiple pianos. Published by Cantaloupe Music, "Sierra" is five tracks of Chow overdubbing and accompanying herself on pianos, culminating in the wild ride of the titular track.
Ocean distinguishes itself from the album by its sense of perpetual motion. Chow expertly navigates the challenge of recording herself six times, with the result sounding as one giant grand piano, rather than six separate instruments. Cornish is truly able to achieve an ocean of sound using only the piano. Ocean stirs up an anxious sense of nothingness; it is musically hypnotizing to the degree of forcing a numbness onto the audience. By the end of the piece, one is so enamored with the calmness that the final bar comes and goes without any notice.
An important conversation to have about albums such as "Sierra" is the rising impracticality of concert pieces in live performance. Ocean is a piece which will only successfully exist in this overdubbed performance. Not to mention the basic impracticality of obtaining six pianos, but the blend created for the album is dependent more on the mixing board than on the players.
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