SEAMUS

Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States

  • Conferences
    • 2023 Conference: Call for Hosting and/or Assist
    • 2022 Conference
    • Past Conferences
  • Opportunities
    • CREATE grants
    • ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Award
      • FAQ
      • Previous Student Award Recipients
    • Allen Strange Memorial Award
    • SEAMUS Award
  • Works
  • Articles
    • Newsletter
  • Members
    • 🟢 Member Directory
  • About
    • History
    • Officers and Staff
      • Past Presidents
    • Why Join?
    • Inclusion and Diversity

Wunderkind

July 9, 2016

toy piano and fixed electronics

Composer: Timothy Roy

Year of Composition: 2012
Instrumentation: toy piano and electronics
Type of Electronics: Fixed

Number of Channels: 2
Duration: 10'
Video Component: None

Recording

“Wunderkind” is a well-known German term historically applied to a person who possesses an extraordinary talent or brilliance (particularly musical) at an early age.  The creative impetus for this work was the desire to explore the intellectual workings of a developing child prodigy, the electronic component used to expand the palette of such a restricted instrument while representing the mind’s ear of the child.  The opening cadenza begins clumsily as the “child” seemingly explores the instrument for the first time.  Musical ideas begin to mature, congeal, and find meaning.  The fixed media playback begins after two minutes of solo, and a complex and harmonically-saturated sound world emerges from and interacts with performed gestures, meant to be perceived as imagined musical structures, astonishingly advanced for a mere child.  All of the sounds in the fixed media were created by recording and processing my own toy piano.

Wunderkind was awarded First Prize in the 2013 Prix Destellos competition, mixed media category.

Login to SEAMUS

Join Us!

Membership in SEAMUS is open to all interested parties and brings lots of exciting benefits. Click the button below to join. Click here to renew your membership.
Join Now!

Connect with SEAMUS

  • Email
  • Facebook

© 2022 SEAMUS, All Rights Reserved · Site Design by Punkt Digital · Policy Statements

  • Contact Us
  • Board Officers & Staff
  • Policy Statements