Other Minds Special Programs ➔ Other Minds Presents: Nancarrow at 100 - A Centennial Celebration: Nancarrow Concert No. 1 ( 2 PM, Nov. 3, 2012 ), 9 of 15
Digital Audio
Event Type
MusicOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMP.2012.11.03.2.IProgram Series
Other Minds PresentsProgram Length
110 minPart
9 of 15Dates
| broadcast| 2012-11-03 | created
Description
This is the first concert of “Nancarrow at 100: A Centennial Celebration” a three day festival of films and music celebrating the life and work of Conlon Nancarrow. The festival was produced by Other Minds in collaboration with Cal Performances, the U. C. Berkeley Art Museum and the Pacific Film Archive and was held on November 2-4, 2012. This concert was the second of three events held at Hertz Hall on the U. C. Berkeley campus on November 3, 2012.The concert begins with some brief remarks by Charles Amirkhanian, Artistic and Executive Director of Other Minds. He then introduces Trimpin, a composer and sound sculptor who has realized many of Nancarrow’s works utilizing a variety of technologies including a digital controller for a piano called a Vorsetzer, and other elaborate percussive sound sculptures, one of which he describes in detail. Trimpin also discusses Nancarow’s “Studies for Player Piano,” (which were composed from 1948 to 1992), describing the process by which the composer used precise measurements and a hole punch machine to create his piano rolls and how these were then scanned into a computer by Trimpin enabling them to be performed on a regular piano using a computerized controller of his own creation. The second half of the concert features Rex Lawson on pianola, a specialized type of player piano that allows a live performer to adjust timing and dynamics. Lawson the world’s foremost expert on pianolas performs arrangements of music by Nancarrow, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Percy Grainger. The concert concludes with the U. S. premier of Jean Grémillon’s score for his 1926 film “Un Tour Au Large.” The piano roll for this work was discovered by Lawson while searching an online auction site and was later identified as the score to this now lost silent film. Both Trimpin and Lawson tell the stories behind many of the compositions as well as the various technologies employed during this wonderful concert of player piano and pianola music.
Genres
New musicMusical Selections
Study No. 21 (Canon X), for pianola (3:19) / Conlon Nancarrow [arr. by Rex Lawson]Performers
Rex Lawson, pianolaSubjects
New musicPlayer piano music
Pianola music, Arranged.
Related Event
Nancarrow at 100: A Centennial CelebrationRelated Entities
Other Minds (Organization)Nancarrow, Conlon, 1912-1997
Lawson, Rex