TINSEL TOWN REBELLION Peaches III Notes and Comments |
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"Let's hear it for another great Italian, Conlon Nancarrow, ladies and gentlemen. |
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It's Studies | ||
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Conlon Nancarrow |
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Through his astounding Studies for Player Piano, Conlon Nancarrow has carried the notion of polytemporality (music with simultaneously varying tempos in different voices) to the very limits of human perception. | ||
Born in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1912, Nancarrow was active in his early years as a trumpeter, playing jazz and other types of popular music. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music from 1929-32, and later studied composition and counterpoint in Boston with Nicolas Slonimsky, Walter Piston, and Roger Sessions (1933-36). He values most his work with Sessions: "The only formal studies I did that were important were the studies I had in strict counterpoint with Roger Sessions. That was the only formal training I ever had. And they were rigid! I'd do this strict counterpoint exercise, and then I'd take a piece of my music and say to him, 'What do you think of this?' 'Very interesting; where's your counterpoint exercise?'" Nancarrow also cites Bach and Stravinsky as seminal influences. | ||
In 1937 Nancarrow enlisted in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. On his return to the United States in 1939 he became involved in the New York new music scene, contributing several reviews to Modern Music and associating with other composers such as Elliot Carter and Aaron Copland. | ||
Nancarrow has always been a dedicated socialist, which made him politically unacceptable in the United States. This was brought plainly home when he applied for a passport and was denied. Angry at such treatment, he moved to Mexico City in the early 1940s where he has lived ever since, and now as a Mexican citizen since 1956. | ||
Nancarrow returned to the player piano partly because of Mexico's extreme musical isolation. Another more compelling reason was his long-standing frustration at the inability of musicians to deal with even moderately difficult rhythms. He goes so far as to say that "As long as I've been writing music I've been dreaming of getting rid of the performers." With the advent of the phonograph, the player piano has been relegated to the status of an object of nostalgia. But not so for Nancarrow, who since the late 1940s has composed almost exclusively for the instrument. | ||
The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, Nancarrow's complete Studies for Player Piano have been released on compact disc by Wergo (Germany), produced by Charles Amirkhanian. | ||
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Let's hear it for another great Italian, Al DiMeola, ladies and gentlemen. |
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Vinnie, Butzis, Vinnie's girlfriend, Butzis' girlfriend, Patty, Denny, uh, |
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CC | ||
Al Malkin once again | ||
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"Ed, another Vinnie, Arthur, Al DiMeola, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for coming to the show, hope you enjoyed it. On behalf of Alvin Lee, see you next time." |
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What could it mean? | ||
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Any proposal? I'd like to hear! |
Provocation, compilation and design © Vladimir Sovetov, 1994-2004 You could download, copy and redistribute this material freely as long as you keep copyright notice intact and don't make any profite on it. |