P.O.P.System®
Piano Overtones Production System
System for the production of piano harmonics by Mauro Bagella

 

The P.O.P.System - Piano Overtones Production System is a mechanical system that allows you to easily prepare all the strings of any grand piano to deliver any of the harmonics of each string. With this system, the pianist is freed from the manual production of the harmonics and can play freely with his usual technique. With P.O.P.System the piano becomes a kind of "programmable" tool, which can be modified in pitch and timbre depending on the series of harmonic sounds.

The P.O.P.System was born from a poetic need inspired by the charm and the intense emotional charge of the harmonic sounds of the piano and the consequent desire to use them without any restriction. The harmonious sounds are hidden within other sounds, audible only when something or someone shows them, like the colors "hidden" within light which are visible when it passes through a crystal prism .

The P.O.P.System consists of a central tube which bears a telescopic rod with an adjustable top, ending with a suction cup, and rod with a spring at the bottom, fitted with a rubber base.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It thinness permits the lower rod and rubber base to slip between the upper cords and reach and prepare even the cords below.
 
 
 
 
The positioning is achieved by placing the rubber base on the cords and fixing the suction cups to the inner wall of the piano lid.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The preparation can be removed easily and quickly without any damage to the piano.
 
 
 
 
Patented in the early nineties, in 1994 the P.O.P.System was officially presented to Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, in Rome at the Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio and in Naples at the science fair Futuro Remoto.
 
 
 
 
The telescopic rods of the P.O.P.System come in 5 different sizes
and are available individually or in boxes of 10 pieces.

E-mail for more information
 
 
In 2002 the Graffiti label released the CD Il Libro degli Armonici, a collection of piano pieces and P.O.P.System performed by Ciro Longobardi.
The CD was reissued in 2008 by the publisher Galzerano.
 
The CD can be found or ordered in Ricordi-Feltrinelli Media Store
and in all leading Italian bookshops
 
 
     
 
Rome, Sala Casella, XXV Season of Concerts of “Musica Verticale”, 2002.12.06,
Il libro degli armonici, world première
 
 

In June 2008, in the Sala dei Medaglioni del Conservatorio "S. Cecilia "in Rome as part of a series of lectures on the prepared piano, a seminar-workshop was held on the POPSystem in which piano, composition and electronic music students attended.

 
 
     
 
 
 
 
Compositions with P.O.P.System
 
 
Mauro Bagella
- Una dolcezza inquieta (1990)
for piano, P.O.P.System and sound recordings
Cd:
- Mauro Bagella, Zone di confine , Artis (ARCD 024)
- Manuel Zurria - Oscar Pizzo, Musicisti contemporanei , Edipan (PAN 3039)

- Cose di vento (1991)
for flute (+fl sol), prepared piano, P.O.P.System e sound recordings

- Di cielo e di terra (1993-95)
for flute, bass clarinet, violin,cello, prepared piano, P.O.P.System, prepared guitar, midi guitar, sound recordings and live electronic sound

- Nel paesaggio urbano (1993)
for piano, P.O.P.System, 2 midi keyboards, percussions, sound recordings and video

- Sottili veli di nebbia
for piano, P.O.P.System and electroacoustic elaborations
Cd:
- Mauro Bagella, Il libro degli armonici, Galzerano (GLZ 101)

- Il libro degli armonici (1994-2001)
for piano, P.O.P.System and electroacoustic elaborations
Cd:
- Mauro Bagella, Il libro degli armonici, Galzerano (GLZ 101)

 
The P.O.P.System has also been used by the composers Arvo Pärt, Aldo Clementi, Giulio Castagnoli, Mario Garuti, Stefano Gervasoni and Giovanni Verrando.
 

Arvo Pärt - Pari Intervallo (new version 2010)
for piano overtones, bottles and bass marimba

Aldo Clementi - Due canoni (1994-95)
for flute, violin e piano

Giulio Castagnoli
- Tre Tanka (1990)
for flute and piano
Cd:
Manuel Zurria - Oscar Pizzo, Musicisti contemporanei , Edipan (PAN 3039), 1992

Mario Garuti - ...con lume arsa (1994)
for flute and piano

Stefano Gervasoni - Studio di disabitudine (1999)
for piano

Giovanni Verrando (2002) - Second born unicorn 1, 2
for piano

 
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