Back in 1986 I wrote a music theater piece titled “American Pi”. It was premiered (actually, its only performance) at Stanford University in spring 1986 (when I was on the music faculty there, and also director of the new music ensemble). It’s short, about 3 minutes long. And, it has singers singing a melody from the digits of pi, although I used a minor scale, and thus my melody was:
3 1 4 1 5 9:
Eb C F C G D
In fact, the singers in the piece actually SING the numbers themselves (and it makes sense in the absurdist story portrayed). I have a video of it, if you’re be interested in posting here, although with the piano/vocal score. It’s a minimalist tour de force, and actually comical (if you can imagine a comical music theater piece about pi).
If anyone is interested, the performing forces required include male and female singers (although they mostly speak, sing little), and piano accompaniment. And, it DOES require the woman to get a pie (actually, pan with whipped cream) in the face at the end of it.
The opening notes sound almost identical to Regina Spektor’s “Samson”. Such a beautiful melody, end further evidence that both art and math may be more inter-connected than we think….
My math teacher challenged us to see how many numbers we could memorize of pi……you should try it!!!
Back in 1986 I wrote a music theater piece titled “American Pi”. It was premiered (actually, its only performance) at Stanford University in spring 1986 (when I was on the music faculty there, and also director of the new music ensemble). It’s short, about 3 minutes long. And, it has singers singing a melody from the digits of pi, although I used a minor scale, and thus my melody was:
3 1 4 1 5 9:
Eb C F C G D
In fact, the singers in the piece actually SING the numbers themselves (and it makes sense in the absurdist story portrayed). I have a video of it, if you’re be interested in posting here, although with the piano/vocal score. It’s a minimalist tour de force, and actually comical (if you can imagine a comical music theater piece about pi).
If anyone is interested, the performing forces required include male and female singers (although they mostly speak, sing little), and piano accompaniment. And, it DOES require the woman to get a pie (actually, pan with whipped cream) in the face at the end of it.
pnahay at sprynet dot com
The opening notes sound almost identical to Regina Spektor’s “Samson”. Such a beautiful melody, end further evidence that both art and math may be more inter-connected than we think….
Nice but I want to hear it resolved. It left us hanging!!!
this a great site. Thanks for letting us use it.
i’ve heard the same thing but it was played on drums
WOW I thought that was awesome! I play piano and never thought of doing THAT! WHOA! So cool.
-G
I thought the idea behind it was very cool. Mabey if you added a little more “funk” to it, it would be much better. Cool, though!
it was alright maybe if you wouldve taken the moving ball out of it it would be cool