It might seem that there would be little to comment on in evaluating a "performance" of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano; after all, don't you just insert the piano roll in the mechanism and hit "play?" Apparently it's nowhere near as easy as that -- there are few extant player pianos mechanically capable of executing some of Nancarrow's scores, some of which call for playing a melody of 200 notes per second. Nancarrow also had very precise ideas about the sound he wanted, and the hammers of a piano had to be ...
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It might seem that there would be little to comment on in evaluating a "performance" of Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano; after all, don't you just insert the piano roll in the mechanism and hit "play?" Apparently it's nowhere near as easy as that -- there are few extant player pianos mechanically capable of executing some of Nancarrow's scores, some of which call for playing a melody of 200 notes per second. Nancarrow also had very precise ideas about the sound he wanted, and the hammers of a piano had to be prepared in order to produce the right sonority. He also left no tempo markings on his piano rolls, so the modern performer is left with those choices, having as a reference only recordings of Nancarrow's own performances in which his tempos varied maddeningly from performance to performance. Thankfully, Jürgen Hocker of the International Society of Automated Musical Instruments has devoted himself to the preservation and restoration of the composer's meticulously hand-punched piano...
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Add this copy of Player Piano 3: Nancarrow Studies for Player Vol 2 to cart. $22.60, new condition, Sold by Importcds rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Sunrise, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by MDG.
Add this copy of Player Piano 3: Nancarrow Studies for Player Vol 2 to cart. $31.80, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2007 by Md&G Records.
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Add this copy of Player Piano 3: Conlon Nancarrow Vol. 2 - Studies 13-32 to cart. $58.26, new condition, Sold by Entertainment by Post - UK rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from BRISTOL, SOUTH GLOS, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2007 by MDG.
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