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Conlon Nancarrow
It may be of some interest to look back some on the preparations for these unparalleled recordings of Nancarrow’s life’s work. The booklet holds many interesting notes, written by none other than Jürgen Hocker himself; the enthusiast behind the outcome that we can take part of: these recordings and also a book about Nancarrow and his music, called Begegnungen mit Conlon Nancarrow, Edition Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Mainz, Schott Music International, 2002. The Bösendorfer grand from 1927 was acquired in Belgium in 1985, but had to be restored, which took two years of work by restorer Jörg Borchardt. Borchardt also restored the second grand piano, the Fischer one, which was bought in England in 1993. There had always been a problem to synchronize the two pianos exactly with the perforated ribbons – or, it was in fact impossible. You could get quite close with meticulous efforts, but it wasn’t possible to get it quite right. Computer technology foxed this. Electronic expert Horst Mohr and engineer Walter Tenten constructed a computer control system, which didn’t affect the sound or anything else about the pianos, but it enabled exact synchronization. The Studies for Two Player Pianos are thus heard for the first time as they’re supposed to be heard on these CDs of the Player Piano Series on Dabringhaus & Grimm. The Studies have been recorded two times before; the first time in 1977 by Arch Records (1 – 41, as available then), utilizing Nancarrow’s player pianos in Mexico, which were still in working condition, and which emitted a sound that corresponded to Nancarrow’s intentions. It was, of course, not possible to synchronize the two pianos for the Studies for Two Player Pianos, but the pianos were recorded separately and then electronically superimposed for the Arch recording. Those Arch records are thus interesting and valuable, but unfortunately not commercially available anymore, except perhaps through used record dealers or antiquarian booksellers who also sell music. I will listen through some of the tracks on this third CD in the series, starting with Study No. 33: Study No. 33: The sound, to begin with, is so good it’s an outrage! For sure, these Nancarrow works never have sounded as good before. It’s a new world of sound. The progressions of the sound; these tilting and inclining and descending velocities, staple the future in majestic patterns of steel-capped fingertips all over the walls, over the geometrically painted wallpapers. The illusionary performer – only a ghost in the back of our mind – hammers tacs all over the walls in spreading patterns. It’s pure joy to fall out into this choppy sea of rhythms and sonic illusions, like skydiving through clouds of hail. Wow! Play it again, Sam! Study No. 36: It’s pompous at the outset, edging in a stately series of motions, stout and corpulent, as a figure in a Rabelais story; a burping and farting royal wildman moving between the well-laden tables. Before too long, though, the heart rate increases towards dangerous frequencies, and the fat man gets pale and sweaty, anxiety-ridden, illustrated by the increasing velocities that move together and yet apart, clearly signaling that something is the matter inside this obese anatomy of a composition. The music tightens as it gets faster and faster, an invisible hand clutching the fat mans throat, so he can’t breathe… Eventually the attack, set off by too much food too fast, lightens and eases off, and the fat man calms down, little by little, and you can make out all the tones again, as the score is covered to the last punched hole, and peace settles. Jeez! Study No. 37: Tinkling like dew drops on a rocky mountain side it begins, glittering and sparkling, in a downward gravitational motion – until a searching, rickety treading catches on, developing into a typical Nancarrowic, cut-up staccato formation, which in turn, unexpectedly, thins out and hushes down into a pine needle detailism, clicking with a scarce, pointillist beauty through humble sequences. This piece really shows a lot of variation. The careful pointillism at this stage thickens somewhat into a more straightforward trickling, which also gathers some momentum and volume; taking a more solid place in the material world. It’s amazing how the music changes character, little by little, and sometimes in abrupt leaps – and this being achieved by punching holes in a paper! Outstanding! Nancarrow then digs way down into the left of the Bösendorfer, establishing a recurrent figure which reappears at various other places to the right of the first one, layering and adding on, higher and higher up the pitches, while retaining the lower ones – until scrapping the lower ones, one by one, finally just hearing the high-pitch trickle. Later the music gets into a swinging, rocking motion which eventually gathers so much speed that it in effect disappears from our hearing, then stops hard, allowing beauty to fall out like white pearls on a marble floor. No end to the ingenuity here! And this piece keeps on changing many times over yet! Study No. 41c: It begins with an explosive flush of tones in a downward trajectory, similar to the very first seconds of a raga on sitar. Then brief, shy, catlike progressions follow, walking, stopping, treading – RUNNING! – stopping, falling over, climbing up, staggering along the ditches, falling in, crawling on top of each other like scared insects, eventually swarming in black masses over the terrain; a scene from a sci fi story, pianoic insectoids covering you, smothering you; black sharp metal beings embalming you. And I leave Conlon Nancarrow there, in his pianic panic, with a firm recommendation to one and all the slightest interested in contemporary intricacy to get their wallets and invest some in Dabringhaus & Grimm’s Nancarrow series. |
