Liliʻuokalani’s Piano
Liliʻuokalani’s Piano is a new project which seeks to addresses issues of access, archive, music technology, through the development of new work.
The two major stages are:
open-access virtual instrument creation / archive creation
the development of new work to share the possibilities of what it could be used for with diaspora and other musicians around the world.
I have prototyped the first phase using Kontakt 8 to make a virtual instrument with recordings made from the sounds of the last Queen of Hawaiʻi's koa piano. The physical piano is currently housed at Washington Place, the Queen's last home. Because of its location, the piano is not accessible to most local Hawaiian musicians, let alone diaspora. To make it more accessible to everyone, I want to create a new version of the virtual piano using open source technology.
As stated above, the second phase is to commission new works that integrate the virtual instrument: asking King Britt to make a new work using Ableton Live integrating the virtual instrument, and Nina C. Young to develop a new Spatial Audio work utilizing Max MSP. I will integrate the piano into a new work of my own. Finally, Gahlord Dewald will create a new work using the Monome Norns, an open-source sound computer that uses Lua and SuperCollider.
The project makes the sound and story of this unique instrument available to Hawaiian diaspora and others outside of Hawaiʻi. It imagines that archive can be dynamic and living in the hands of engaged artists.
Most virtual instruments that are readily available for purchase or as part of DAWs imply excellence through association to Europe or New York—such as the e-instruments series that can be bought as a pack through Ableton named Studio Grand Uptown, Downtown, and East Village.
Liliʻuokalani's Piano challenges the performing arts field to imagine virtual instruments that hold cultural significance in their communities as important just as much as their sound.