Synopses & Reviews
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 The book includes analysis of sixty-five works and previously unpublished biographical information.
Synopsis
Study of Conlon Nancarrow, composer of the world's most rhythmically complex music.
Description
Includes discography (p. 296), bibliographical references (p. 297-298) and index.
Table of Contents
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; 8. Beyond counterpoint: the sound-mass canons; 9. Synthesizing a language; 10. After the player piano; Notes; Discography; Select bibliography; Scores; Index.