What will/have/had being heard at a given moment with what had/have/will [already] been heard [2022]
for Solo Piano or [Four hands] with Electronics
Commissioned by Neustart Kultur & Alexander Schimpf
Instrumentations: Piano Solo or Four hands
World Premiere: November 2022
Alexander Schimpf
Musik im Alten Magazin, Hannover, Germany
Duration: 10 minutes
Concert history
Alexander Schimpf, May 2026 Göttinger Abende Zeitgenössischer Musik e.V., Göttingen, Germany
This piece is composed based on the theory of “Uncanny Valley”. In aesthetics, the “Uncanny Valley” is a hypothesized relation between an object’s degree of resemblance to a human being and the emotional response to the object. The concept suggests that humanoid objects that imperfectly resemble actual human beings provoke uncanny or strangely familiar feelings of eeriness and revulsion in observers. “Valley” denotes a dip in the human observer’s affinity for the replica, a relation that otherwise increases with the replica’s human likeness.
The composer approaches this theory in terms of four different hypothesized aspects; the first one is a disparate concept between actual acoustic musical contents by a performer VS the imitation of acoustic musical materials and/or distorted pre-recorded musical objects by electronics. The second one is a gap between actual physicality and gestural configuration by a performer VS unlimited musical gestures by electronics. The third one is an estrangement between the old perceptional sonic relationship, which is familiar to the listeners VS an oddly disconnected gestural configuration. The fourth one is a disparate idea between being emotion VS becoming sensation. The composer believes these relations ambivalently provoke “oddlyfamiliar feelings” to the audience. Towards the end of the piece, the audience might psychologically perceives more familiar with these odd or unfamiliar with these likeness.
Hunjoo Jung 