aworks :: "new" american classical music

String Quartet No. 1 (ca. 1945). Conlon Nancarrow #nancarrownation

In the midst of work and elder care, I managed to use up my current allotment of concert attendance last week, when I managed to stay awake enough to make it to two of the three performances of Einstein on the Beach. So this weekend I may not be able to drive across the Bay as Berkeley continues its run of great performances with the Nancarrow at 100:
A Centennial Celebration.

Nancarrow Nation converges to honor the late composer! Fun at Hertz Hall!

And if you would like to proclaim your Nancarrow Nation allegiance, the Kickstarter pledge site could always use your donation in the next 67 hours.

Sarabande & Scherzo (1930). Conlon Nancarrow /oboe and bassoon!/

You know it's been an exhausting week when listening to the Ensemble Modern's version of Conlon Nancarrow (for piano, oboe, and piano), helps you to relax. Maybe KDFC should add this to their playlist...

Circus Galop for Two Player Pianos (1991-94). Mark-André Hamelin

I picked up a CD yesterday titled Player Piano, Vol. 6: Original Compositions in the Tradition of Nancarrow. Prior entries in the series include Jürgen Hocker's re-recordings of Nancarrow's Studies.

I'm only on to the first work in the CD -- Mark-André Hamelin's Circus Galop for Player Piano -- and I am bowled over. Here's the YouTube version:

Studies for Player Piano No. 34 (1965-77). Conlon Nancarrow

The Arditti Quartet string version of this study is delightful, in a choppy kind of way. Kyle Gann characterizes the study:

Study No. 34 - Canon 9/10/11; actually, within these three tempos are other tempo relationships at tempos of 4/5/6

Studies for Player Piano No. 51 (1992). Conlon Nancarrow

Last night, I greatly enjoyed the Arditti recording of Conlon Nancarrow's String Quartet No. 1. I was all ready to blog about how in contrast, Nancarrow's pieces for player piano, although fascinating, are tedious to listen to since they are so monochromatic. But I've just heard Study No. 51, with its crescendo in density and I withdraw my objection. I'm starting to love this stuff, regardless of instrumentation.

Studies for Player Piano No. 6 (1946-60). Conlon Nancarrow /aws 2007.2/

Continuing my slow-blogging of last night's Alarm Will Sound concert at Stanford...

No. 6 started with a stripped down ensemble on stage. Then the various players offstage walked up. All that moving around was both dramatic and distracting and in this case, it humanizes the experience. But when they marched down the auditorium aisle for the strangely affecting Aphex Twin piece Gwely Mermans, they looked like zombies. I guess zombies are people too.

And while Nancarrow's music is more about analytical precision than emotional expression, I found myself surprising touched by the playing of the clarinetist Elisabeth Stimpert (as I was last year by clarinetist Bill Kalinkos).

In a weird coincidence, I happened to listen to Ligeti's Chamber Concerto yesterday afternoon, unaware AWS was playing it that night.

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aws-related posts on aworks: 2007.1  2006.1 2006.2 2006.3 2006.4 2006.5
current score of the big game: stanford 0 cal 0 with 15 minutes remaining in the first quarter

Studies for Player Piano No. 2a (before 1950). Conlon Nancarrow /aws 2007.1/

I felt obliged to attend tonight's Alarm Will Sound concert at Stanford given it was close to home, featured favorites like Ligeti and Aphex Twin, had a premiere of a John Adams piece that was a sequel to his Chamber Concerto that I saw in the North American premiere in 1992, was a follow-up to last year's lively AWS concert at UC Berkeley, and had two instances of my current interest in Nancarrow player piano transciptions. So I did.

And in a nice gesture, the University illuminated Hoover Tower in crimson red in honor of their guest and Harvard graduate John Adams. Ok, maybe that wasn't their intent, given tomorrow is the Big Game versus Cal. (As football rivalries go, not that exciting. It's like watching Goldman Sachs take on Morgan Stanley, except less physical and more wacky).

Wacky versus substantive was the overall theme for the night. Alarm Will Sound, noted for their unconventional and hip performances, got things off to a rollicking start with the transcription of Nancarrow's Study No. 2a, a simple blues riff transformed into rhythmic complexity. AWS pushed this even further by walking around the stage while they played, kneeling, lying prone etc. It was entertaining and the music was presented in an accessible way. But is it really legitimate and worthy? I need to think about this...

Studies for Player Piano Nos. 31 and 33 (1965-9). Conlon Nancarrow /music for vulcans/

The Arditti Quartet have a new recording on Wergo of the music of Conlon Nancarrow -- two of his string quartets, some transcriptions of his player piano studies, and two other pieces.

The Arditti play with their usual rigor and intensity despite the obvious difficulty of this music. However, the studies in particular sound like neither a string quartet nor something for player piano. If I heard this in a blind listening test, I doubt I would begin to recognize it. And yet on first listen, I am fascinated...

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prior aworks nancarrow posts

Toccata for Violin and Player Piano (1935). Conlon Nancarrow /mainstream contemporary/

I haven't completely absorbed the premise behind this new "Sonic Rebellion" album from Naxos but for $3.99, you get tracks from Glass, Penderecki, Nancarrow, Cage, Werner Henze, Scelsi, Riley, Wuorinen, Varèse, Crumb, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, Plaetner, Adams, Rautavaara, and Pärt. Consider it a contemporary music starter set although it's still not safe enough for mainstream classical radio...

Via Renaissance Research.

Study No. 2a (194x/2002). Conlon Nancarrow/Evan Ziporyn

Via their newsletter, Bang on a Can publicizes an upcoming Zankel Hall concert, with among other works, an Evan Ziporyn arrangement of four of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies, as well as music by Julia Wolfe, Thurston Moore, Don Byron, Martin Bresnick, and Fred Frith. That's a stimulating set of composers.

The Ziporyn arrangement consists of 2a, 3a, 3c, and 11. I see that he has also arranged Kurt Cobain's Lithium.

Last night, I was thumbing through Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the 90s and Robert Christgau had this to say about the Bang on a Can arrangements of Brian Eno's Music for Airports:

And although I pray postdance knob-twisters don't fall for the Gregorian goo goo girls who douse "1/2" with blanc-mange, the lovely textures will make them drool. Or anyway, sweat. Perspire. Exude. A-.

Having never eaten blancmange per se, I don't know if Christgau is spot on or not although I find this edition of the Consumer Guide has a rather complicated notation for ratings. I can recommend the Bang on a Can CD, though.