At the beginning of the 20th century, pianists and composers (amongst them Henry Cowell, who is considered to be the forefather of these revolutionary innovations) began to look and listen beyond the „keyboard edge“ of the piano by exploring its boundaries – hereby always in search of new instrumental possibilities to fulfill their sonic ideas. They ventured directly into the strings of the instrument. An amazingly enriching journey of discovery began. Appropriate playing techniques were explored, that had little to do with traditional piano playing and required special skills, as well as a musical repertoire of their own.

The project SAITEN - TASTEN ('Strings - Keys) now presents a collection of 21 new interior studies for the 'other' piano, written between 2017 and 2020. In their miniatures developed for the project, composers from eleven different countries explore a wide variety of playing techniques in the interior space of the piano, opening up magical sound worlds of playing directly on the strings.