Emerald City Music Presents: EVOLUTION

This epic performance tells the tale of the world’s most loved and versatile instrument. Listeners
will follow its physical evolution and the iconic music written at each stage of technological
development: from the harpsichord through the forte-piano, contemporary piano,
prepared-piano, and modern-day instruments like synthesizer. Early composers like Thomas
Tallis (1505-1589) and Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) were defining masters of the
instrument, inspiring the likes of Beethoven and Chopin to write more challenging and dynamic
music as the technical ability of the piano developed during the Industrial Revolution. Pianos
soon became progressively larger, louder, and with a wider range of octaves (five by the 1790s
and seven by 1820). Enter John Cage, who for a time resided in Seattle creating music that
again redefined the abilities of the acoustic piano by “preparing it” by placing objects in the
instrument to alter the tonal ability. The evolution of modern-day technologies again reinvented
the keyboard to infinitely expand the range of the instrument via the computer-aided
synthesizer.