Conlon Nancarrow

This is the beginning of a web page devoted to composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912 - 1997). He was born and raised in Texarkana, Arkansas and went on to be one of the most respected composers of "modern" art music of the 20th century.  He focused nearly all of his musical energy on writing very rhythmically complex music for the player piano.

These photos were taken by Janet Greeson while she and her husband were in Mexico City in 1984 when we spent a day interviewing Mr. Nancarrow at his pleasant home in a residential section of the city.  I've also included some excerpts from the interview.

To hear his music for player pianos you can visit Mullins Library on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which has a nice collection of his music in both recordings and scores.  Also the German recording company Wergo has released three CD sets with most of his player piano music on them.  Wergo 60165, 60166, 60168.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

These are audio clips from our six hour long interview with Conlon Nancarrow in 1984.  Feel free to email me if you want more access to some of the interview or the 50 odd photos we took: jgreeson@uark.edu

Nancarrow discussing his Rhythmic Study No. 1  (mp3 file - 224k)

Nancarrow discussing his Rhythmic Study No. 1   (Real Audio - 78k)

Nancarrow discusses one of his favorite Rhythmic Studies   (mp3 - 160k)

Nancarrow discusses one of his favorite Studies  (Real Audio - 80k)

This is a nice photo of Nancarrow at his piano roll hole punching machine with James Greeson (me) behind him.  Nancarrow hand punched every note in his long and complex compositions himself.  This was an arduous process which often took as long as a year to complete.