Sight Reading Anyone?

[jazzyvee]

I'm more than happy to take your tribute off you then :-)
Jazzyvee

[pace]

No Adriaan, no joke. The money is in publishing a score and selling it to the avant conductor who is looking for a challenge.....  
 
Ballet Mechanique existed and was attempted for how many years before Paul Lehrman pulled it off a few years back?!?

[adriaan]

Pace - I didn't know Lehrman. The Antheil site - quite an enjoyable site! - mentions the Ensemble Moderne's earlier performances:quote:Until the 1990s, this version of the piece had never been performed in its original instrumentation, since the technology for linking and synchronizing multiple player pianos, whether 4 or 16, although theoretically possible when Antheil conceived the piece, turned out not to be practical. The European-based Ensemble Moderne was the first to attempt the piece: in 1996 and 1999, they performed it in Germany and France using two custom-modified MIDI-driven player pianos to play the 16 parts, and six pianists to play the two human parts.I have the Ensemble Moderne Fighting the waves CD, but can't find the issue date right now - so Lehrman in 1999 was probably the US premi?re of the original score, but Europe got there first (well, Antheil's original premi?res were in Europe too, so bl?h).
 
Here's a sample from the Lithuanian Night section of the Ballet M?chanique, from the Ensembe Moderne CD - unfortunately no player pianos to be heard. The player allows you to select samples from other CDs as well.
 
(Message edited by adriaan on April 05, 2007)

[pace]

Adriaan,
I was a stage tech for Lehrman's performance (I actually think I got credited on the album too!).... Yamaha was gratious enough to loan us the 16 player pianos~ that was the one aspect of the score that had never been pulled off before. Having all of those pianos going onstage at the same time was insane.  
 
Thanks for the links!!!
-Mike

[adriaan]

Mike,
 
You win hands down! Ensemble Moderne did it with 2 player pianos for the 16 parts - wussies!
 
That must have been quite an experience. Did you run into any propellors?

[pace]

Adriaan,
 
Id love to hear another performance of it.... Considering that a lot of the player piano parts are doubled, you can definitely do it with less.... Lehrman wrote the book on MIDI, literally. So syncing up the 16 pianos was the challenge at the time. Unfortunately the propellors were flown in... if you look at the pics from the Lowell show, you can see the speakers on sticks behind some of the player pianos..... But the bell alarms were real & on rigging above the ensemble. The most intense part of the performance were the two human pianists.... I still remember watching Juanita Tsu bang out some of those sequences with a fierce amount of energy.  
 
Sorry to hijack the thread....  
-Mike

[adriaan]

What thread? You lost me there. ;-)
 
(Message edited by adriaan on April 06, 2007)