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KLAVIERKLANG: An Experimental Music Video

KLAVIERKLANG, is a cinematic tone poem that follows a young girl in post-war Germany who grows up loving the piano. She takes piano lessons—but instead of freeing the girl to play, the lessons make her frightened of making mistakes. The girl’s ears shut down, making music an uninspiring chore.

Later as a young woman, she travels to central British Columbia, to a ghost town and an abandoned house. There she spots a piano—perfectly ruined, a piano on which no note could be a mistake. She learns to listen again—and the girl and her music are free.

Acclaimed composer/activist Hildegard Westerkamp and renowned pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa combine their personal encounters with the piano to create the story of the girl in KLAVIERKLANG. Interweaving the challenges and wonders of mastering the piano, the girl’s journey allows Westerkamp and Iwaasa to explore the liminal space between music and sound.

In a celebration of the piano as an extraordinary instrument, Iwaasa plays both its keys and plucks its strings, as if exploring a sound sculpture. Her non-linear spoken narrative interacts with intricate soundscapes evoking Westerkamp’s childhood in Germany. These are layered and digitally manipulated with Iwaasa’s recorded reflections on the piano, “this creature, this instrument, that you think you know.”

Filmmakers and installation artists Nettie Wild (director) and Michael Brockington (editor) capture this performance, interpreting the composition’s drama with lyrical imagery coloured and shaped by the music itself.

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