The Music of Conlon Nancarrow [Paperback]

Study of Conlon Nancarrow, composer of the world's most rhythmically complex music.Conlon Nancarrow has written the most rhythmically complex music the world has ever known, so complex that it can only be realised on a mechanical player piano. Yet Nancarrow's whirlwinds of notes, sometimes as many as 80 per second are jazzy and infectiously joyous. The music he composed in almost complete isolation from 1940 has achieved international fame only recently, and this is the first book detailing his life and compositional achievements. It includes analysis of 65 works and previously unpublished biographical information.Conlon Nancarrow has written the most rhythmically complex music the world has ever known, so complex that it can only be realised on a mechanical player piano. Yet Nancarrow's whirlwinds of notes, sometimes as many as 80 per second are jazzy and infectiously joyous. The music he composed in almost complete isolation from 1940 has achieved international fame only recently, and this is the first book detailing his life and compositional achievements. It includes analysis of 65 works and previously unpublished biographical information.Conlon Nancarrow has written the most rhythmically complex music the world has ever known, so complex that it can only be realized on a mechanical player piano. Yet Nancarrow's whirlwinds of notes, sometimes as many as eighty per second, are jazzy and infectiously joyous. The music he composed in almost complete isolation from 1940 on has only recently achieved international fame, and this is the first book to cover in detail Nancarrow's life and compositional achievements. The book includes analysis of sixty-five works and previously unpublished biographical information.Preface; 1. The music: general considerations; 2. A biographical sketch; 3. Foreshadowings: the early works; 4. Blues years: the ostinato studies; 5. Isorhythm: the numbers game; 6. Canon: phase 1; 7. Stretching time: the acceleration studies; 8lÉ