The Banshee (1925) is a

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

composition by American composer

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

(1897–1965). It was the first piano piece ever written to be performed entirely free of the keyboard, using only manual manipulation of the

strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

within the instrument to produce sound via the flesh and nails of the

finger A finger is a limb of the body and a type of digit, an organ of manipulation and sensation found in the hands of most of the Tetrapods, so also with humans and other primates. Most land vertebrates have five fingers ( Pentadactyly). Chambers ...

.MARIA CIZMIC. "Embodied Experimentalism and Henry Cowell's The Banshee." ''American Music'' 28, no. 4 (2010): 436-58. doi:10.5406/americanmusic.28.4.0436. Cowell stated that his inspiration in creating the "

string piano String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965) to collectively describe those pianistic extended techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, instead of or in addition to str ...

" method of playing came from a desire to reinvent the landscape of piano technique, finding new usages and sounds for old instruments without necessarily inventing new ones. In addition to the string piano method changing the technical execution of producing sound, performance of ''The Banshee'' also required the performer to play the instrument in a new orientation, standing in the crook of the piano perpendicular to the strings, rather than seated at a bench. This process of re-education was an intentional element of the piece, making conservatory-trained pianists re-assume the role of a new student, forced to individually pick out the notes on the strings to learn their placement. Due to this performance style, ''The Banshee'' was also a disruption of the contemporary expectations of piano recitals, intended to create discomfort for the audience as well as the

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. Notated an octave higher, the score specifies 12 different methods for playing the strings, including the scraping of fingernails, using the flat of the hand, and the flesh of the fingers.

References

External links

The Banshee
video of performance by Joan Cerveró and Víctor Trescolí 20th-century classical music 1925 compositions Compositions by Henry Cowell Compositions for solo piano Compositions that use extended techniques Modernist compositions {{Classical-composition-stub