“No Strings Attached” was composed in 2007 for the Auchincloss Piano, invented by Dr. Howland Auchincloss, in Cazenovia, NY.  This colorful new instrument contains digital samples of historic keyboard instruments as well as samples of new ones, all within a traditional fortepiano keyboard and design.  The music combines and fuses the old with the new, creating new sounds based on old ones, fully realizing the capabilities of this new instrument.  It is in five movements, each one capitalizing on a different sound capability of the instrument.  There are Belgian harpsichords, fortepianos, virginals, harps, drawbar organs, and other keyboard instruments combined and processed.  The music itself is sometimes playful, sometimes reverent, but almost always flowing and moving forward.  The lines combine and mix together bringing the ancient to the present and the future into the past.

-MM