Nancarrow, and OTTO LUENING

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Thank you, Daniel Wolf, for clearing up some of the Nancarrow
misconceptions. [By the way, from WHERE are you writing... are you in
Germany??]

I have to say that some of my ideas concerning Nancarrow's "intent" (here
we go again!) comes from the Continuum program notes of a few years back...
Maybe he had in mind to use the player piano before he went to Mexico [are
you SURE about that??!], in any case, the isolation would certainly
contribute to his enthusiasm for this direction... I think that's
inarguable...

By the way, by NO MEANS did I mean to suggest that Nancarrow was "looking
for fame!" NOT AT ALL. Anybody could tell he was absolutely not that kind
of composer... I simply meant that frequently, for better or worse,
composers become recognized because of some "gimmick" or novelty that they
stumble upon along the way. Often, it's not even the best work, but the
recognition comes from the novelty... This does not mean that it is
intentionally "sought after."

Another good example is my former friend, composer Otto Luening (1900-1986)
, whose name rarely appears on this list. This is too bad, since Otto was
VERY involved in acoustic experiments, electronic music and just intonation
experiments. He used the overtone series as his PRIMARY means of
generating all harmony, even in his 12t-ET works. In this sence Otto
Luening was BASICALLY a microtonalist... Maybe most of you know that he
also wrote the first preface to Harry Partch's "Genesis of a Music." The
"fame" thing worked the same way with him, however. Although he didn't
seek it, his moderate "fame" -- well, he even made it to the "Today Show"
-- came from his work in ELECTRONIC music, even though it was a small
percentage of his total output.

I personally feel this is a lucky occurrence, as in the case of Nancarrow.
Because of some "novelty" the composer's name and other music receives
exposure. Yes, I agree, there are some composers who bang on cans (whoops,
I'm in trouble now!) to attract attention and "fame" but Nancarrow and
Luening were certainly not in this tribe...

Thanks for the update on the Gann book. He mentioned he was doing one a
couple of years ago. However, I have never seen a copy in any bookstore.
It must be that people are buying it up fast (??) In any case, does anyone
have the book and the publisher's name and address. I would like a copy...

Joseph Pehrson

Joseph Pehrson wrote:

> Thanks for the update on the Gann book. He mentioned he was doing one a
> couple of years ago. However, I have never seen a copy in any bookstore.
> It must be that people are buying it up fast (??) In any case, does anyone
> have the book and the publisher's name and address. I would like a copy...

http://amazon.com

> --

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