THE UNCONVENTIONAL LIFE AND MUSIC OF CONLON NANCARROW: NOW A MOVIE

Dan Durning
Introductory Note

I am writing this note to introduce an op-ed I wrote in 1982 for the Arkansas Gazette. It is about Arkansas-born composer Conlon Nancarrow. I had "discovered" Nancarrow by accident in Spring 1980 when looking through LPs at the Little Rock public library. I noted in the liner notes of one record that its music had been composed by person born in Texarkana, Arkansas. I had never heard of that person, but was interested in finding out what kind of music he composed. So I checked out the record and quickly found out that the this composer, Nancarrow, wrote unusual and unconventional music. It was all written for and played on a player piano. A couple of years later, living in Berkeley, CA, I read somewhere that a record company located a few blocks away from the Graduate School of Public Policy, where I spent most of my waking hours, was issuing more of Nancarrow's "Studies for Player Piano." Curious, I trouped over to its office to get the details. Then, at odd times, I did some library research on Nancarrow. In late summer 1982, I found out that Nancarrow was making a rare trip to the United States to attend the Cabrillo New Music Festival, located in Altos, which is within driving distance of Berkeley. Plus, he had a lecture scheduled in San Francisco. I decided to attend both and to write something about him for the Arkansas Gazette. In preparation for the visit, I called Conlon's brother, Charles, in Texarkana and interviewed him. At the San Francisco lecture, I had the opportunity to meet both Conlon and Charles Nancarrow. Also, joining a large audience, I heard Nancarrow's music at Cabrillo festival. I am not a music expert, but I enjoyed the intensity of Nancarrow's compositions and their unique sound. What interested me more about Nancarrow than his music was his life story and the personal characteristics drove him to live the life he did. Somehow it stirs the imagination of think of him sitting for two decades in his basement studio in Mexico City writing compositions that no one could hear unless they came to his studio. Anyone advising Nancarrow surely pointed out that composing for a player piano was not an obvious path to success and recognition. You can imagine
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that he followed this path because he decided he would write music that met his standards, not those of others. It was nice to see this authenticity rewarded in his later years with honors, recognition, and a modicum of fame. I was reminded of my interest in Nancarrow by the announcement that a documentary about him is being shown this month at the Little Rock Film Festival. Information about this film can be found at this link: http://www.arktimes.com/RockCandy/archives/2012/06/02/conlonnancarrow-virtuoso-of-the-player-piano-at-lrff The following is the 1982 op-ed that I wrote about Nancarrow. I wrote another piece about him that was published in The Grapevine, a weekly independent paper published in Fayetteville.
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NATIVE COMPOSER DESERVES STATE HALL OF FAME STATUS

By Dan Durning Arkansas Gazette Thursday, September 30, 1982

(Dan Durning, who operated a governmental consulting firm, left Little Rock two years ago to work on a Ph.D. at the University of California. He had heard of Conlon Nancarrow in Arkansas, and by accident he moved into an area of California where the composer is known and admired. He has now met him and heard his music.)

Berkeley, CA Arkansans have too few non-sport heroes. We need a Hall of Fame to honor our native sons and daughters for distinguished accomplishments in the arts, sciences, and humanities. If we had such an institution, my nominee would be Conlon Nancarrow, a composer of modern music with an international reputation as a musical genius and -equally important -- as a man of uncommon integrity.

His is not a household name in Arkansas, but he has emerged in recent years as one of the best composers -- if not the best -- born in our state. Gyorgy Ligeti, himself a leading composer of modern music, recently wrote, "Nancarrow's music is so utterly original, enjoyable, constructive and emotions. For me, it is the best music by any living composer today." HIS LIFE AND MUSIC Nancarrow's life and music can be described with two words: uncompromising individualism. In life and the pursuit of his music, my nominee for the Hall of Fame has shown an unyielding integrity, which is the stuff of which heroes are made. Before discussing Nancarrow's music, a quick look at his background. He was born in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1912; his father served as Mayor of the city during the early years of the Depression. Conlon grew up in Texarkana and, with his brother Charles, played in the local Fred Martin's Boys Band and the American Legion Band. (Charles Nancarrow is a retired businessman who still lives in Texarkansas. He ran unsuccessfully as a delegate to the last Constitutional Convention in Arkansas. Nancarrow left Texarkansas after his father's death in 1931 to begin the serious study of music, first at the Cincinnati College Conservatory and later in Boston. While in Boston, Nancarrow established a reputation as a promising young composer who was writing terribly complex music. In 1937, Nancarrow made a decision that thrust his life in a new direction. Like many idealists of that time, Nancarrow joined the Lincoln Battalion, part of the International Brigade, to fight against Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Nancarrow was wounded in Spain and returned to Texarkana to convalesce. After his return, he was harassed by the United States government, which Young Conlon Nancarrow viewed members of the Lincoln Brigade with suspicion because of its ties to the Soviet Union. Nancarrow moved to Mexico City in 1940, partly to escape this harassment, partly to satisfy his wanderlust. A MAJOR DECISION In Mexico City, Nancarrow continued composing. Fascinated by the use of rhythm and tempo in music, Nancarrow made a decision in 1947 that has affected his life as much as his decision to go Spain: He decided to compose exclusively for the player piano. By punching his compositions directly into player-piano rolls, he would never again be dependent upon anyone else to perform his music.

Since 1947, Nancarrow has been composing music for the play piano so complex that no one person -- or even two or three at the same time -- could possibly play it. A player piano can play up to 80 note per second with eight dynamic levels. Nancarrow uses these capabilities to the fullest extent to produce work of awesome originality. In his hands, the player piano can become a fully sympathy orchestra. At times it is so intense that when the music stops you have the same sensation you feel when you walk away from a loud waterfall. For the first 20 years that Nancarrow composed for the player piano, the only way to could hear his music was to go to Nancarrow's Mexico City home where he kept his two specially-modified player pianos. Nancarrow's compositions were first brought to the public in 1969 when Columbia Records released an album consisting of several of his "Studies for Play Piano," which had been recorded at his home. In the past decade, Nancarrow's genius has prevailed. The world has beat a path to his doorstep.

Nancarrow in 1984; picture from the Texarkana Gazette

All of his 43 "Studies for Player Piano" -- his life's work -- are being released by 1730 Arch Records here in Berkeley. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978, and recently he received a MacArthur Foundation grant (worth up to $300,000) which is given to "extremely talented individuals" who neither apply for the grants, nor are expected to do anything specific with them. Last month Nancarrow made his third trip back to the United State since 1940 to have his music featured at the Cabrillo Music Festival in Aptos, Cal. Some of his early conventional compositions were performed by the festival orchestra, and in the second half, several play-piano compositions were presented -- on tape. Critics praised his "extraordinary imagination" and described his work as "astonishing" and "awesome," although one wrote that the player-piano works were best when they were sampled "only a few at the time." 4

He will be featured soon at the International Society for Contemporary Music in Graz, Austria and on October 27, he will appear at Alice Tully Hall in New York City on his 70th birthday. The growing acclaim for Nancarrow's music is a triumph for his extraordinary strength of character and artistic honesty. His success should provide inspiration to other Arkansans who quietly and steadfastly pursue excellence in their chosen fields, and who know when they have achieved it. [The pictures were added to the 1982 text. The sources were as follows: Record album cover: http://www.twitteringmachines.com/ Young Nancarrow: http://updateslive.blogspot.com/2011/01/conlonnancarrow.html 1984 picture of Nancarrow: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/2011/03/06/bringing-genius-to-light673653.php