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IMPOSSIBLE BRILLIANCE FESTIVAL PROGRAMME 21 – 22 APRIL 2012 the Music Of FESTIVAL PROGRAMME 21 – 22 APRIL 2012 the music of CONLON NANCARROW IMPOSSIBLE BRILLIANCE Contents Southbank Centre has always celebrated musical mavericks Introducing Conlon Nancarrow 2 and masterminds, and Conlon Nancarrow can be said to fit into both these categories. His music, written for mechanical player pianos, is largely impossible for humans to play as it Conference: Nancarrow in the 21st century 4 experiments with rhythms, speeds and harmonies. But whilst our hands would stumble over his notes, our ears are given real Trimpin and sound sculptures 4 pleasure in the sounds that he has produced. This weekend we are very lucky to welcome Rex Lawson and SATURDAY 21 APRIL Wolfgang Heisig, both internationally renowned pianolaists, to Southbank Centre to perform Nancarrow’s music on exact replicas of the player pianos he would have used. The sounds Complete Studies For Player Piano 6 you hear this weekend are as close as we can get to the sounds Nancarrow would have heard, working in his studio in London Sinfonietta 10 Mexico City. Dominic Murcott, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music Film: Virtuoso of the Player Piano 14 and Dance, the London Sinfonietta and Southbank Centre have worked together to produce a festival for Nancarrow enthusiasts, jazz lovers and people who are totally new to this SUNDAY 22 APRIL music and just want the thrill of witnessing a piano playing with no one at the keyboard. Complete Studies For Player Piano 16 Nancarrow’s music continues to inspire performers, artists and writers as we can see this in the programme this weekend Arditti String Quartet 20 with artwork by Trimpin, arrangements of Nancarrow’s studies performed by London Sinfonietta, and new music from students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Dance and Music. Trinity Laban Contemporary Music Group 23 If you enjoy getting to know this modern composer, don’t miss our festival Jubilation: the music of George Benjamin on 12 and 13 May. The London Sinfonietta will be back along with George Benjamin himself to celebrate another influential I was fooled by a Player Piano 24 composer of the 21st century. Jude Kelly OBE Southbank Centre Artistic Director Welcome to Southbank Centre and we hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. The Music of Conlon Nancarrow: If you wish to make a comment following your visit please contact the Impossible Brilliance is presented Visitor Experience Team, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London by Southbank Centre, the London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250 or email [email protected] Sinfonietta and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. We look forward to seeing you again soon. Festival Artistic Advisor: Dominic Murcott 1 Introducing Conlon Nancarrow Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) is from the ‘entertaining’ (4:5 in Study #14) invariably mentioned alongside the great to the ‘irrational’ (√2:2 – Study #33) to the ‘ This festival is the American musical innovators such as ‘hilarious’ (1/√π:√2/3 - Study #41A). first time that the Charles Ives, John Cage and Steve Reich, whose compositions are free from the For Nancarrow fans a mythology has complete story is told constraints of European traditions. built up around the man that is almost As John Adams put it they ‘burnt the as beguiling as the music itself. Born through his music’ house down and started over’. Of these, to middle class parents in Texarkana Nancarrow remains ubiquitously admired Arkansas, he played trumpet in jazz bands together some of the finest Nancarrow by musicians and other artists but the and orchestras as a youth before rejecting scholars to explore his continuing, and density and complexity of much of his his father’s ambitions for him to become indeed developing influence. music, plus the fact that the majority an engineer by studying composition of it is written for the player piano – in Cincinnati and then Boston. Having Southbank Centre’s Head of Classical an instrument that was becoming already caught the attention of Aaron Music, Gillian Moore says: ‘It has always antiquated even when he began using Copland in his early twenties, his idealism been a dream to put on a festival of it in 1948 – mean that his work remains and convictions led him to join first the Nancarrow, since first hearing this something of a mystery to a wider public. Communist Party and then the thousands impossibly amazing music in the 1980s. While there are in fact numerous pieces of volunteers from around the world who Thanks to the passion and energy of fought in the Spanish Civil War. Injured and Dominic Murcott, and the creativity of the malnourished, he returned to America London Sinfonietta, we have been able to two years later to discover a country ‘ the key to appreciating this do it. I feel confident that this wonderfully descending into anti-communist paranoia off-the-wall music will be loved by a whole extraordinary music is to recognise and found that even anti-fascist fighters Nancarrow using a hole-punching machine new generation of listeners.’ were viewed with suspicion and were c.1955 Nancarrow’s obsession with time’ being denied passports. Within a year of Befitting a legend there is a fairytale his return, in what seems an extraordinary ending to Nancarrow’s story: recordings that are accessibly melodic, jazzy and decision, he emigrated to Mexico and lived For Player Piano’ in a 30-year period of to bold new arrangements, including of his player piano studies began to be contemplative, the key to appreciating there for the rest of his life. artistic solitude that has become part some landmarks from influential friends released and when Ligeti heard them this extraordinary body of music is of the Nancarrow legend. In reality his along the way (Andrew Burke, their Chief he declared Nancarrow’s brilliance and to recognise Nancarrow’s obsession Softly spoken, with a mild-mannered solitude may not always have been Executive immediately recognised the importance. Then, in 1982 at the age of with time; not just as the unifying force belligerence, Nancarrow was not the kind as extreme: he was an avid reader synergy between this event and the 70, he received the first ever MacArthur that binds sounds into music, but time of leader who could enthuse reluctant and subscribed to the main musical ensemble’s ethos and has championed it ‘Genius’ Award worth $300,000. World manipulated into something that can exist musicians and having spent several journals of the day as well as maintaining from its earliest days). The string quartets tours and commissions followed. The in multiple ways at once. Indeed almost years failing to get players to rise to the friendships with Elliott Carter and Cage are some of his finest works, the third world’s best contemporary players all his pieces explore this concept in one challenges of his music he turned his back who were both instrumental in getting being written for the Arditti Quartet who began to perform his instrumental works way or another and his investigations on human performers and concentrated his music known. The former through are present to recount that chapter in with the skill and commitment they produced an impressive number of new on the player piano. A real piano with a supporting the publication of his first his life’s work. An important character in demand. Others made highly successful techniques that predated their use by mechanism for playing automatically study in 1951, the latter via the Merce an unusual story is the sound sculptor instrumental arrangements of the far better known composers including from rolls of paper with music punched Cunningham Dance Company’s use of Trimpin, whose exquisite installation player piano studies. More recordings Xenakis and Ligeti. in them as a series of holes, player several studies in 1960. Conloninpurple is resident in The Front were made, PhDs were written and in a pianos and the related pianolas were Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall playing modest way fame and fortune arrived at In discussing Nancarrow’s music a new commonplace in middle class homes from This festival is the first time that the Nancarrow and new compositions Nancarrow’s door. There is however little descriptive language has emerged. Many around 1900 until the commercialisation complete story is told through his music: specially written for this event by a evidence that he craved either. It seems Podcast of his works are canons: traditionally two of radio in the 1920s. Nancarrow bought the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth network of composers from around the that he made the music he wanted to or more versions of the same musical line one on his first trip back to the US in 1947 Hall is metaphorically transformed world. Next to this is a line of 12 speakers Download our Nancarrow make simply because it interested him - podcast to find out played together but starting at different (where he also attended a performance into Nancarrow’s home studio for the playing spatialised versions of yet more no more, no less. more about the points (think London’s Burning). However, of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for complete works for player piano. Nancarrow and new works. composer who shunned Nancarrow commonly uses two or more Prepared Piano in New York) and had his performers to create ©Dominic Murcott, 2012 versions of the same piece played at own hole-punching machine made.
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