Saloon Wars for 4 Disklavier Pianos and Stereo Tape Playback (2013)

Gaddis' fascination with the player piano reflects a concern over the growing mechanization of art and commerce. The sentiment foreshadows many of the issues facing artists working at the intersection of art and digital technology, including concerns with copyability and artificial intelligence.

Saloon Wars dramatizes Gaddis' quote to a zany yet apocalyptic end, a bizarre post-human scene in which several player pianos "battle it out" until one is left standing. Composed for four disklavier pianos (computer controlled pianos), Saloon Wars remixes over a dozen popular ragtime-era songs, fusing these fragmented performances with electronically processed material.

Saloon Wars is written for 4 Disklavier Pianos and Electronic Sounds in 2014, initially composed for Qubit New Music's "Machine Music Concert" at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center in the Lower East Side, New York City.

"I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.” - William Gaddis