More than Player Piano Studies


Conlon Nancarrow (above) was born ninety-five years ago today, on October 27, 1912. Why does everyone, including me, always write about his Player Piano Studies? His String Quartet plays as I write in the Kronos Quartet recording. Happy birthday music.
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Comments

Jon Crane said…
I love Kubrick, and that quote is so amazing and true that its scary!
12:24 am
Pliable said…
Full marks to the excellent Iain Burnside on BBC Radio 3 for recognising Nancarrow's birthday.

Do listen to his programme via 'listen gain'. It also includes Jonathan Harvey: Mortuos Plango vivos voco for 8 channel tape, Ockeghem and Roberto Gerhard's Symphony No 3.

Welcome proof that BBC Radio 3 can deliver challenging and relevant radio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/iainburnside/pip/lu7ew/
10:41 am
Garth Trinkl said…
Until the dollar plummeted further, I had my eye on the new (released earlier this month) Wergo recording by the Arditti SQ of Nancarrow's String Quartets Numbers 1 and 3 plus various arrangements. (I have the Arditti doing No. 3 (1987) on an old Arditti Grammavision CD [79440] from 1989. The Kronos recording is of SQ No. 1 from 1942/45.)

I don't know why the Arditti did not also record Nancarrow's incomplete SQ No.2 (from the late 1940s). Given that the new Wergo CD is only 52 minutes (and the other two SQ's 15 minutes or less), it seems unfortunate they could not have added Nancarrow's SQ No. 2, in my view.

http://www.wergo.de/shop/resources/595071.pdf
1:53 pm
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