[secede] -- Conlon Nancarrow
Conlon Nancarrow is the greatest composer of the second half of the 20th century. Unfortunately, he remains virtually unknown, even among classical music aficionados. His seminal achievement — the integration of classical forms with modern technology — alienates traditionalists and flusters those who mistakenly believe that humans and machines are existential enemies. Listening to Nancarrow is both a sublime artistic experience and a challenge to common views about the relationship between humans and technology.
Obsessed with pushing the boundaries of musical expression, Nancarrow became increasingly frustrated with the inability of performers to play his technically demanding works. To get around these difficulties, he decided to write for player piano. This device can play complex rhythms perfectly in time at speeds far beyond human capability. Freed from the artificial constraints of making his music “human readable”, Nancarrow’s creativity flowered. His Studies for Player Piano integrate contemporary musical idioms like blues with ancient forms like prolation canons. The liberating power of the player piano allowed him to envision fascinating and “unplayable” structures like having 12 individual melody lines going at the same time or setting up a prolation canon in a pi / e ratio.
Another post stresses the importance of the score in understanding musical works. Here too, Nancarrow breaks new ground by making a player piano roll the score. Transcriptions exist, but they must be regarded as secondary sources. This makes Nancarrow’s music difficult to analyze using conventional tools. At the same time, it broadens our conception of what a score can be and opens up the possibilities of regarding other abstract entities — such as computer programs or mathematical proofs — as artistic creations.