Nose to the Keys

Nose to the Keys

The back story on performing the music of David Rakowski with your nose on the internet.

Written By

Amy Briggs Dissanayake

[As many of you know, I do a bit of trawling around the internet from time to time. This week, David Rakowski and Amy Briggs Dissanayake seemed to be everywhere—this week’s YouTube new music celebrities. When a reader wrote to NMBx hoping to find out more about these videos, I went to the source, and Amy was kind enough to indulge my request for the backstory.—MS]

David Rakowski and I made video recordings of some of his piano etudes between 2002 and 2004, in various stages of preparation for the Bridge recordings. I know he’s also recorded Marilyn Nonken doing a bunch of them. These are informal recordings; most of them were made in the recital hall at Brandeis University on their old Steinway D (lovingly referred to as “Tubby”). We recorded “Martler” at the American Academy just after the final session for that first Bridge recording, with Judy Sherman in the background; and a couple of others were made here in Chicago prior to a recital.

At the time, I didn’t think much about Davy video-recording them. Anyone who knows Davy knows that he’s a techno-geek, and he’s also fascinated with the visual aspect of the performance of his music— piano etudes especially. He began showing the movies to students, houseguests, and in lectures and presentations when I couldn’t be there (which was most of the time). He showed them to anyone who would watch and sent me copies of DVDs in various incarnations. I began meeting people (usually composers) who would say, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen you before, playing with your nose!” I was happy that “Schnozzage” was getting some play. It may look silly at first, but it can be strikingly effective, and in my opinion, it’s one of his most beautiful etudes.

The YouTube thing started because I was getting my website ready a couple of months ago, and I wanted to include a few of the videos. Davy emailed me the links to the etude movies on his website, and then decided, for the hell of it, to put a few up on YouTube. He emailed me the links the next day. The next thing I knew, he’d added, and added, to the first few. To be honest, I’m not completely sure how many there are of me playing at this point, but it’s okay.

There are some that are better, performance-wise, than others, and I’m sure I could find many I’d like to re-record. But I think the informality of a “venue” like YouTube is quite wonderful; especially in this age of hyper-controlled, edited media. I think they are especially fun because of the visual component that you don’t get on a CD; whether really blatant, like “Schnozzage” or “Fists of Fury,” or more subtle, like the crossing-hands etude, “Martler,” or the etude on glissandi, “A Gliss is Just a Gliss.” As for viewer response, I have had emails from old friends who stumbled on them as well as from people I don’t know. I’m not sure how much interest among other pianists the movies have generated, but I’d be interested to know. Since they are etudes and incorporate some degree of technical/physical maneuvering, I imagine that the movies could be a good resource for someone trying to choose between etudes, or in deciding whether to tackle them in the first place. As for the permission question, I was always fine with it; I’ve always felt close to this music and loved performing it, and was happy to make the movies. I’m glad that they are there as representations of a substantial part of Davy’s work, and as the performer, I’m happy to be represented, too.