The Grand Piano

San Francisco 1975–80

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“The Grand Piano continues to amaze” David Meltzer

Berkeley & San Francisco Performances

The Grand Piano performed at the University of California Berkeley in the Holloway Poetry Reading Series on November 18th 2011:
 


Two days later, we performed at California College of the Arts in Small Press Traffic's reading and performance series. Eight of the ten Grand Piano authors participated in the performances – Rae Armantrout, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Ted Pearson, Kit Robinson, and Barrett Watten.

Both performances included substantial discussion with and among the authors and audience. At the University of California, poet Jasper Bernes facilitated discussion. Bay Area writer David Buuck led the discussion at the Small Press Traffic event.

The Score

The performance score was created especially for these events by Carla Harryman and Ted Pearson and is available to download as a pdf file. Organized musically, it enacts both polyphonic and individual soundings drawn from The Grand Piano books.

The score includes solo sections, 2-person scripted dialogues, and structured group improvisation. Its affordances and constraints provide each participant multiple ways to devise her own script and interact with collaborators in performance with temporal precision. Download the score.


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“A vital contribution” James Sherry