# Conlon Nancarrow



## aleazk

From wikipedia:

Conlon Nancarrow (October 27, 1912 - August 10, 1997) was a United States-born composer who lived and worked in Mexico for most of his life. He became a Mexican citizen in 1955.
Nancarrow is best remembered for the pieces he wrote for the player piano. He was one of the first composers to use musical instruments as mechanical machines, making them play far beyond human performance ability. He lived most of his life in relative isolation, not becoming widely known until the 1980s.
Composer György Ligeti described the music of Conlon Nancarrow as "the greatest discovery since Webern and Ives... something great and important for all music history! His music is so utterly original, enjoyable, perfectly constructed, but at the same time emotional...for me it's the best music of any composer living today."

His music?... here you have:devil::devil::






(a retrograde canon)


----------



## BurningDesire

Nancarrow is awesome, one of the earliest I'm familiar with to take advantage of the possibilities sequencers give to composers. Frank Zappa tried to introduce him to the Synclavier in the 1980s, so he wouldn't be limited to just the timbre of the piano, but he was to busy at the time. I can see the influence on Ligeti definitely, with Ligeti's arrangements of many of his keyboard works for player piano and barrel organ. Can you believe he hand-punched those piano rolls? Amazing.


----------



## starthrower

I have the Wergo CD of his string quartets and some piano pieces. Fine music!


----------



## Noak

I love him! One of the most fun composers I've heard. Lost works, Last works is a great album.


----------



## Manxfeeder

I get a kick out of his music. I can't follow all those canons, but it's a glorious noise. I wonder how it sounds on his original piano.


----------



## Crudblud

An acquaintance of mine just uploaded this today. Charles Amirkhanian (of Other Minds and formerly KPFA radio) in conversation with Nancarrow on topics including music, music technology and politics. From 1977.


----------



## Vaneyes

No can do Nancarrow.


----------



## Head_case

Hmm.

I only know him from his string quartets (he wrote a few).

All I can say, is that he is as weird and irregular as Ferneyhough, Corigiliani, Harvey, Johnson, Powell, and maybe even Laderman (although I like Laderman's chamber music a lot). That's not to say it's a bad thing, it just hasn't gelled yet for me. Maybe another 100 years, someone reading this thread will think what a barbarian comment that some head_case made about such fantastic music lol

If in doubt - feel welcome to subject yourself to torture:






The first part strikes me as that guy who wrote a piece about November turkey pudding or something or other.

His vaunted string quartet no.3 is a little less than barbaric:






Although many will point, out, that the Magyar string quartet music of Bela Bartok, was dissed as 'barbaric' when it first came out.

But this is a different barbaric. Whereas I like American weirdo-ism innovated music like Coates (she can be very graceful), the music shifts into that gallic sonority with pizzicati and sliding harmonics (check out 2.43min on from the third strinq quartet). What is the point of the frenetic barbarism, disconnected from the Pendereckesque movement thereafter?) It does pull on the strings - both the chords and the heart strings. But in what way?

I have no idea how others come to such a rapid eulogy of this American composer.

I is shrill struckillings (cue popeye laugh: 'nyuck nyuck nyuck!')

Now....this is beautiful.


----------



## Crudblud

Study No. 50 is pure rhythmic intensity. Fantastic.


----------



## Manxfeeder

Crudblud said:


> Study No. 50 is pure rhythmic intensity. Fantastic.


I'll listen to that as soon as Beethoven's 1st finishes on my CD player.


----------



## aleazk

I happen to like those string quartets, particularly the first one. Maybe I'm a head case.


----------



## elgar's ghost

I have a Naxos disc that features various works from 1935-1986 including the first string quartet - I suppose it's almost like a Nancarrow 'starter-kit'. Interesting stuff, but, as with other modern American composers like Babbitt and Druckman of whom I only have one disc, it has never - at least not yet - sent me scurrying for more.


----------



## lorelei

This post brings back memories... My first composition teacher introduced me to him. I remember listening to the player piano pieces and just wondering how they were played, until My teacher told me it was player piano. I remember being confused and asking him, "what is a player piano?" He then proceeded to explain how it works, and I was mind-blown. Still prefer to right for humans to play though


----------



## Guest

So I know that Nancarrow studies have been realized in other formats by various ensembles, but has anyone yet recorded these studies with modern midi piano programming? There are a few recordings out there, such as the NEOS Xenakis disc, that demonstrate how far we've come with high quality midi renderings, and no composer deserves such a recording more than Nancarrow!


----------



## tortkis

Trimpin converted Nancarrow's piano rolls to MIDI format, but I don't know if he did it for all the studies. A couple of studies (No. 50 & 51) were recorded on this disc, played on pianola.

Nancarrow: Lost Works, Last Works


----------



## starthrower

Here'a link that actually works.


----------



## thejewk

https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/studies-for-player-piano

This link was posted in the bargains thread in one of the other subsections, but it might be of use to those directly looking here for information in the future. Glorious recordings of an incomparable series of studies.


----------

