Begegnungen mit Conlon Nancarrow by Jürgen Hocker

Schott Musik International, Mainz 2002. 294 pages with 56 mostly unpublished photos and10 pictures.

Included is a CD with Nancarrows most important Studies for player piano.

ISBN 3-7957-0476-6. 39,90 Euro plus shipping.

György Ligeti: For me it’s the most important music of the second half of our century.

For this biography I was in contact with Helen Zimbler (Conlons first wife) and with Annette Margolis (Conlons second wife), with his brother Charles, with his step sons, with Mina Lederman, Nicolas Slonimsky and other people which knew Conlon fairly well.

I have known Nancarrow since 1982 when he first visited Germany and Cologne for ‘performing’ a concert. But his music was played by a tape, because there was no suitable player piano for concerts besides his own in Mexico. I decided to look for an appropriate instrument for concert performances. I needed two years to find an original Ampico-Bösendorfer grand and one of the best restorers for pneumatically operated instruments needed two more years to restore it perfectly. We modified it under the supervision of Nancarrow. Since 1986 this instrument has been used in concerts. I made many concert tours with Nancarrow all over Europe: Amsterdam (1987), Cologne (1988), Berlin (1988), Hamburg (1988), Vienna (1989), Paris (1991). I visited him several times in Mexico and made a comprehensive documentation in his studio. He visited me two times in Germany. Today I have two synchronised player pianos and can perform his studies for two player pianos as well. Now his music is available for all who were interested (at least in Europe). In 1988 only one of Nancarrow's two player pianos was in working condition, and finally this player piano broke down too and he couldn't work without an instrument. But, in Mexico there was no restorer for these old fashioned instruments. When Nancarrow told me this story, I sent 'my' piano technician, Joerg Borchardt, to Mexico and he repaired both player pianos (naturally without any expenses for Nancarrow). I visited him several times in Mexico, and I think I was the first person to whom he gave access to his studio and to his documents. I photocopied all his piano rolls (a tremendous lot of work), and in the last ten years I re-punched from these photocopies nearly all of his player piano studies, using a rebuilt punching machine similar to Nancarrow's. Hundreds of thousands of holes! In the 'dust of his studio' I found scores which he thought were lost: The second and third movement of his first Trio, some early piano compositions (e.g. Three Two Part Studies for Piano) and his Septet (with five missing pages). Nancarrow often was asked for the scores of his Septet, and he always answered, "I threw them away because I was so angry about the bad first performance in New York in 1940."

I found in his studio, between old newspapers from the nineteen-forties, a score for seven instruments. I was absolutely excited and showed it to Nancarrow and we had the following discussion:

Me: "Conlon, I believe I found your Septet."

Conlon (astonished): "It's not possible, I threw it away."

me: "But it's for seven instruments."

C: (with compassion): "Oh yes, I see."

me: "And it's your hand writing".

C: "Oh yes, I recognize my handwriting."

me: "Have you ever written another composition for seven instruments?"

C: "Oh, no, never."

me: "Then it must be your Septet."

C (angry): "Oh Juergen, I told you, I threw it away!!"

This was one facet of Conlon's personality. In the last years I organised many Nancarrow concerts all over Europe with the Boesendorfer Ampico grand (it's smaller then a concert grand, built in 1925), and I believe Nancarrow is very well known here. But this is mainly due to the promotion of György Ligeti.

When I visited Nancarrow in April 1990 in Mexico, his Studio was in it’s „original" condition. And I believe I was the only person Conlon ever allowed to work in his „original" Studio. Even his charming wife Yoko was not allowed to work there. But this studio was absolutely hair-raising. Thousands of books, old Newspapers, player piano rolls, letters, clothes, scores, instruments, parts of player pianos, parts of his „percussion" orchestrion, all mixed together and mostly covered with a thick layer of dust. And you could see, that some of the „book-piles" were not touched since years. I took plenty of photographs of this „chaos" and I tried to make a documentation of all. And I worked there for many days, and in the evening, my lungs and my nose were black from the dust. But Conlon only smiled and said: „Oh, dust doesn’t harm you if you don’t move it." The scores I found there were not together, but one page here, another there, and I needed hours to find 42 pages of the septet. Eight pages are still missing. There were old photos too, and Conlon didn’t even remember that he had these photos.

Conlon suffered in the last years with lung problems, and in this time he felt seriously ill. The doctor didn’t allow Conlon to work in his Studio and Yoko decided to clean Conlons Studio, so that he could work there with his affected lungs. First she tried it with her son Mako and her maid. But it was impossible. So she ordered a professional cleaning service, and they worked (if I remember right) one week and they threw away six truck loads of „waste". Yoko told me she was always there and supervised the workmen, so that nothing important was thrown away. When I visited Nancarrow next time, the Studio was absolutely clean, but Conlon complained, that now he could find nothing. Greetings to all friends of Nancarrow and his exceptional music. All these events are written in the ‘biography’.

With all my best wishes for all friends of Nancarrow and his music