Thirty Minutes for diplacusis piano, by Andrew Hugill
"One can look at seeing; one cannot hear hearing" (Marcel Duchamp, 'Box of 1914').
But in Thirty Minutes for diplacusis piano you can hear the composer hearing.
Diplacusis is a medical condition in which the two ears hear two detuned pitches from a single note. Hugill experiences this as a result of Meniere's Disease. In 2019, he built a digital piano that reproduces what he actually hears when a normal piano is played.
Thirty Minutes is his attempt to make something creative and beautiful out of what is otherwise a distressing phenomenon. The pieces are short and minimal in character because the sounds can become uncomfortable.
'Thirty Minutes' had its first performance at the second 'Aural Diversity' concert in November 2019. The audience was invited to come and go, listening in a variety of ways. The pieces were played in a random order in two installation-like sessions.
Click HERE for more information about the project as a whole.
Click HERE to find out more about composing for the diplacusis piano.
