A family-friendly show filled with surprises…

Saturday, September 5, 2:00 p.m.

UCSD’s Geisel Library, main floor, Seuss Room

Free! Come early to this show, or else you’ll end up sitting on the floor (the toy piano performers have to sit on the floor, though, so you’ll be in good company). Featured: new works from local composers and songs from The Cat in the Hat Songbook.

Questions? (858) 822-5758

http://artslib.ucsd.edu

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Serious music for toy piano?

The first composer to write a “serious” piece for toy piano was American composer John Cage. His Suite for Toy Piano, written in 1948, uses nine consecutive white notes of a piano keyboard. This is significant because some toy pianos only have white notes (the black notes are sometimes merely painted on as a reference point so that players will know where “C” and all the other notes are.) Composer George Crumb used toy piano to great effect in his chamber music piece Ancient Voices of Children (1970). The score of this piece even shows a diagram of where to place the toy piano on stage.

Here in San Diego, toy pianos are celebrated with great fanfare in the month of September (because John Cage’s birthday is September 5!!) at UCSD’s Geisel Library. It is there that Scott Paulson and his colleagues at the UCSD Arts Library host an annual toy piano festival. Composers visit the Library and pick a specific toy piano from the collection, and a piece is written specially for that instrument. Some toy pianos only have nine notes, some three octaves—so each piece has its own special charm and special limitations.

The Toy Piano Collection at Geisel Library consists of actual instruments, recordings, extant literature and commissioned scores. In 2001, because of the Toy Piano Collection’s activities, the Library of Congress issued a special call number and subject heading for Toy Piano Scores: M 175 T69

UCSD has a history with toy pianos that pre-dates the annual toy piano festival. Composer Robert Erickson, a founder of UCSD's Music Department wrote a piece for toy pianos and bells that was premiered on California's PBS television stations in 1966, just months before Erickson's arrival at UCSD.

California's PBS television stations featured The Toy Piano Collection at Geisel Library in January, 2000 with a 30-minute segment edited from a day-long personal visit from popular host Huell Howser. This segment repeats often and visitors often refer to the segment when coming to the Arts Library.

Hope to see you at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 5, 2009 in the Seuss Room of UCSD’s Geisel Library for the Ninth Annual Toy Piano Festival.