Homenaje a Nancarrow

(1998)
for the Yamaha Disklavier

Duration: ca. 7½ minutes

First performance:
April 17, 1998
at Northern Illinois University

Second performance:
November 3, 1999
at Northern Illinois University

Program Notes

Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997) was a fascinating figure in 20th-century music, spending the majority of his life writing music for the player piano. Nancarrow was interested in using the instrument to realize music that was otherwise impossible to perform. These “Studies for Player Piano” number over 50 individual pieces, composed over a 40-year period, and demonstrate a wide variety of interests in musical styles and approaches. Some are “blues studies” and “boogie woogie suites.” There’s even a “cowboy tune” (Study No. 6). However, most of them are canons of different varieties. A large number use different tempo ratios for each of the voices (i.e. 4:5, 5:6:7:8, 2:¸). Study 21 is an acceleration canon in which one voice slows down while the other speeds up until their roles have completely reversed. To achieve these complex relationships, Nancarrow had to punch very precise holes in the paper rolls which contained the performance information that the player piano read. He had a special machine made just to create these rolls. As one can imagine, this was a very laborious task.

Technology has made such a job much easier these days. With MIDI sequencers, composers can “punch” these holes electronically and change any notes if they don’t work. The adage “measure twice, cut once” no longer applies. In fact, most sequencing programs have a piano roll view which allows the composer to view their material as a “virtual” piano roll. The Yamaha Disklavier is a MIDI controllable instrument which means that it can be performed by a computer, receiving performance information from the “virtual” piano roll.

As a graduate student at Northern Illinois University late in the Fall semester of 1997 when I learned that the NIU School of Music acquired three Yamaha Disklaviers earlier that year and that Conlon Nancarrow had died the preceding August, it seemed the perfect time to write a piece for this amazing instrument as a tribute to the late composer. In Homenaje a Nancarrow (Homage To Nancarrow), I tried to use some of Nancarrow’s ideas but also utilize technology that was unavailable to him. The result is a combination of my own original ideas with things which may sound similar to Nancarrow’s work. There are three main ways that this piece was composed. Some parts were sequenced—that is, the computer is given instructions as to what to play, when, how long and for what duration. The other two methods used were to actually record a performance into the computer, although the instruments employed were different. A standard keyboard is an obvious choice, but more interesting however is the MIDI-guitar. This is simply a guitar which can convert the vibrations of the strings into MIDI data which the computer can record and the Disklavier can perform. This allows the piano to be strummed and to be performed with the same phrasing that only a guitarist could achieve. In some cases, these recorded performances are sped up, tweaked and changed. For example, different notes may be substituted or their register may be varied upon further repetitions of an idea.

As a young man in 1937, the American-born composer Conlon Nancarrow went to Spain to fight with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade against the fascist Franco Government. He spent two years escaping death and incurred several injuries and illnesses before he returned home to the US in 1939. After being harassed by the Federal government about his political associations, Nancarrow moved to Mexico in 1940, where he lived ever since, eventually taking Mexican citizenship. Due to these Hispanic associations, I used a great deal of Spanish-influenced musical materials in Homenaje a Nancarrow. The composer himself also explored Spanish music in Study No. 12 and even attempted to emulate flamenco guitars.