Love begets automation of a time past...

Say what?

OK, semi-off topic: I mentioned about Bill's "love song" that it is good timing for Valentine's Day. And what did my lovely spouse give me as a token of her affection, this 21st V-Day together?

Yes, you guessed it: the Wergo 5-CD box set of the complete Conlan Nancarrow "Studies for Player Piano".

Yowzah!!

She hadn't ever heard this stuff (for me it goes back to college days), and she freaked, laughing at the mad craziness of music of such zany complexity and moxie. If ever anyone of us will grumble at a tool like a sequencer that doesn't do what we want it to, simply think of Nancarrow patiently punching piano rolls to get mind-bogglingly intricate canons, with subjects separated by ratios; blues and boogie-woogies that sound "as if Jimmy Yancy, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum were all ecstatically jamming together in heaven" (from James Tenney's excellent 60+ page booklet). Over 60 studies, encompassing nearly 5 hours of insanely great music.

To cap off my enthusiasm, here is part of Tenney's summation as to why Nancarrow will be viewed as one of the most significant composers of the last 100 years:

"On the one hand, there is enough in these pieces in the way of systematic intellectual organization to satisfy the most mathematically abstruse 'constructivist'. On the other hand, there is enough lyrical freedom, rhapsodic invention, and sheer fantasy to warm the heart of the most outrageously romatic 'intuitionist'".

Oh, the places we can go with music, when we stop accepting limitations...

Happy Valentine's Day to any who cares,
Jon

yes, he was unique- im so glad he got one of those "genius" fellowships.

this seems to be the only dedicated website on him:

http://www.tomate.com.mx/nancarrow/

unfortunately the soundfiles dont seem to work, but there are some mp3s on:

http://www.news.mpr.org/features/199710/29_bakera_nancarrow/index.shtml

and here:

http://motion.state51.co.uk/reviews/495.html

then this came up, which is fer sure in the spirit of Nancarrow:

http://www-ccrma.stanford.edu/%7Emburtner/polyrhythmicon.html

theres a couple of mp3s on the "selected works" page.

Enjoy your present Jon!

Dante

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jonathan M. Szanto [mailto:JSZANTO@...]
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 1:59 AM
> To: CMM
> Subject: [MMM] Love begets automation of a time past...
>
>
> Say what?
>
> OK, semi-off topic: I mentioned about Bill's "love song" that it is good
> timing for Valentine's Day. And what did my lovely spouse give me as a
> token of her affection, this 21st V-Day together?
>
> Yes, you guessed it: the Wergo 5-CD box set of the complete Conlan
> Nancarrow "Studies for Player Piano".
>
> Yowzah!!
>
> She hadn't ever heard this stuff (for me it goes back to college
> days), and
> she freaked, laughing at the mad craziness of music of such zany
> complexity
> and moxie. If ever anyone of us will grumble at a tool like a sequencer
> that doesn't do what we want it to, simply think of Nancarrow patiently
> punching piano rolls to get mind-bogglingly intricate canons,
> with subjects
> separated by ratios; blues and boogie-woogies that sound "as if Jimmy
> Yancy, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson and Art Tatum were all ecstatically
> jamming together in heaven" (from James Tenney's excellent 60+ page
> booklet). Over 60 studies, encompassing nearly 5 hours of
> insanely great music.
>
> To cap off my enthusiasm, here is part of Tenney's summation as to why
> Nancarrow will be viewed as one of the most significant composers of the
> last 100 years:
>
> "On the one hand, there is enough in these pieces in the way of
> systematic
> intellectual organization to satisfy the most mathematically abstruse
> 'constructivist'. On the other hand, there is enough lyrical freedom,
> rhapsodic invention, and sheer fantasy to warm the heart of the most
> outrageously romatic 'intuitionist'".
>
> Oh, the places we can go with music, when we stop accepting limitations...
>
> Happy Valentine's Day to any who cares,
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

Dante (and all),

You can sample about 50 audio clips from the collection I just got, which means you'll get about 50 minutes of appetite-whetting on the Amazon.com listing for the Nancarrow/Wergo box set:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000042OHX/qid=1013672628/sr=1-7/ref=sr_1_7/103-9099967-2386218

(watch the line-wrap)

Hell, just start with the first piece (Study No. 3a) and I guarantee you'll be amazed and smiling...

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@y..., "Jonathan M. Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> wrote:

/makemicromusic/topicId_2062.html#2062

> Yes, you guessed it: the Wergo 5-CD box set of the complete Conlan
> Nancarrow "Studies for Player Piano".
>
> Yowzah!!
>

***That's a really great gift, Jon. I've always *loved* Nancarrow
going back to the late 70's when I first hear his music before it
became so widely known.

I'm not sure if he has anything much in "alternate tunings" but it
makes little difference, since he's such an individualist.

I remember a *great* concert that Joel Sachs did in New York in the
mid 80's and Nancarrow was *here* for it. That was unusual since it
was hard for him to travel to the States, since, as you know, he got
on the wrong side of the "authorities."

But just the idea of going on like that, and using the player piano
instead of performers -- due to his disdain for their limitations and
the inability to get good performers in Mexico City -- was an
incredible feat. And, ironically, what might have been a liability
turned into his greatest asset, since the key to his fame was the
fact that he did something that nobody else did...

He makes Harry Partch, with his comparatively larger number of
performances, seem almost "outgoing..." :)

J. Pehrson