In the Hands
Paul Cantrell’s music
blog & podcast
Piano music old and new from a devoted amateur,
all free to listen to, download, and share.

Improvisation: Niobrara

The Niobrara River starts in Wyoming and flows through Nebraska. Wikipedia tells me that the original native name in the Omaha-Ponca language, Ní Ubthátha khe, means something akin to “water spread out horizontally” or “wide-spreading waters.”

I did not know that when I chose the title; the word’s music simply seemed to me to fit my piano’s music. Though it’s accidental, it seems to me that the visual fits.

Niobrara
Paul Cantrell, piano, improvisation

I later produced a remix of this piece, with an electronic feel (even though this acoustic piano recording is the only sound source).

(“Niobrara” is “ararboin” spelled backwards. Does this mean that, if you play this music backwards, Ararboin is the piece you’ll get? I’m not sure. Try it and find out.)

Comments

Joel

Ararboin seems to be missing a lot of the texture that Niobrara has. I wonder if reversing the audio breaks some of the assumptions of the MP3 compression algorithm, or if reversed piano just inherently sounds simpler.