Both Nils Frahm and David Klavins were looking for ways to open up the piano. Frahm sought to change what the piano affords, by modifying it. But to redo modifications for every concert was a time consuming affair. Klavins, on the other hand, became disappointed with conventional piano building practices. His own approach aimed to design pianos with new affordances, specifically to afford the sound of single-strung pianos for concert purposes. Still, “I was looking out for - without knowing it – (…) somebody who is really interested in utilizing what I would invent.” While Frahm was interested in novel ways to use pianos, Klavins was unconsciously looking for someone interested in a single-strung piano.


It was the 370 piano that brought together Klavins and Frahm to exchange ideas about piano making. Initially, both men were unaware of each other’s practices. But, objects like musical instruments possess acting power to mobilize people around them (Bates, 2012). According to Klavins, after Frahm got to know about the 370, he “expressed his wish to work with the piano, which meant he wanted to record.” Klavins decided to invite Frahm, who accepted the invitation. Befitting his ecological approach, Frahm travelled to Tubingen without any music that he had written in advance; the space and the instrument were to take part in the creation of the music. As he explained: “It seemed wrong to write songs on a normal piano and bring them to an exceptional piano and think that they would work. I thought it would be a good challenge to be guided by the resonance of the previous note before I played the next one” (Frahm in Masters, 2015). The result was “a session of four days at the location where he then recorded the album (Solo, red.).” 


During the recording sessions they discussed their approaches to change the affordances of the piano. As Klavins was “servicing the piano” over the course of the recording sessions, they “were constantly in touch” with ample opportunity to discuss their approaches. Klavins talked about his goal “to build a piano that only has one string per note”, while Frahm expressed “a love for small instruments” (Frahm in Wallace, 2014). They found common ground in their approaches:


At some point he complained about "how come pianos are so damned heavy, you can’t take the piano with you. It’s a pity, because, you know I get all kind of kinds of junk pianos presented on my concert tours and it would be so nice if I could travel with my own piano." So that was when I mentioned that I had this idea many years ago, that actually the Una Corda could be a solution to make the piano much lighter and more beautiful sound in the piano, on the expense of loudness, that would be the only sacrifice. 


But for Frahm loudness appeared not be a problem, as he was already used to amplify the standard pianos, to adapt these to the aesthetic environment. As Klavins recalls, Frahm replied: "O that sounds interesting, we should discuss it, because loudness doesn’t make any difference to me. I amplify the piano as I need it, so that is no point for me." 

 

One of Klavins’ earlier creations thus brought him together with Frahm to discuss their approaches and from which the Una Corda would spring. Klavins’ principle idea to design pianos with the una corda principle could be unified with Frahm’s desires to have a small and portable instrument. 

 

References



  • Wallace, W. (2014). On redesigning the piano: An interview with Nils Frahm. Electronic Beats. Retrieved from http://www.electronicbeats.net/on-redesigning-the-piano-an-interview-with-nils-frahm/

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