Saturday, February 12, 2011

Nancarrow: Studies For Player Piano


The present studies, by Conlon Nancarrow, were composed for specially altered player-pianos in the composer's possession, and the present recording was supervised by him at his studio in Mexico City. The contents of the studio are now in Basle, Switzerland at the Paul Sacher Foundation.

Largely unknown until late in his life, Nancarrow wrote wonderfully appealing music, written for mechanical instruments able to realize his fiendishly difficult rhythmic experiments. The Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conlon_Nancarrow) provides some valuable information.

The complete Studies for Player Piano were released on Wergo, though I do not know the circumstances of the recording. In any event, recordings of this music are not commonplace, to say the least, so the present post is more than justified. Ligeti thought Nancarrow was the most important musical discovery since Webern and Ives, and if you listen carefully, I think you will appreciate that enthusiastic recommendation.

Link to all files

14 comments:

  1. Hi - good to see you back! Hope you're doing well.

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  2. Thanks, Buster. I feel like I've emerged from hibernation, and it's good to work on some music again.

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  3. Welcome back! And what a new start... I do love the music of Nancarrow, so I'm very glad with your upload! Best wishes, Satyr

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  4. Thanks for the kind words, Satyr. It's good to be back. I started the Nancarrow as a Christmas project, but with one thing and another, it ended up as a valentine.

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  5. I am a big fan of Nancarrow's music.
    Many thanks for this valuable post !
    Centuri

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  6. Thanks, Centuri. I like this record a lot, and since it did not seem to have been re-issued, I was pleased to be able to post it. We owe the post to my friend, another big fan of Nancarrow, for whom I did the restoration.

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  7. Thank you very much for these really rare share!

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  8. WMS.Nemo: Thanks. It's always nice to put up something that's a bit rare.

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  9. A favorite and a monument. Thanks so much.

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  10. Really useful blog.Good work keeping this updated!Thanks a lot!Movers Austin Texas

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  11. Zena: Thanks for stopping by. Glad you like the blog. I should be able to start posting to it again in a couple of weeks, finishing the Bach Sacred Songs I started earlier.

    I have friends in Austin. If they ever move, I'll point them in your direction.

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  12. Do you have more information about this record? The tags on the files are pretty scanty and it's not clear what issue it's from.

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  13. Strong post, a good entry point for me to Nancarrow.

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  14. Thank you very much !

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