Gordon Winiemko/"Conlon Nancarrow Project"

Conlon Nancarrow Project

Conlon Nancarrow has been hailed as one of the most important American composers of the 20th century. His work has been performed by an impressive array of contemporary musicians (Ursula Oppens, the Arditti and Kronos Quartets among them), his name invoked in scholarly texts. In addition to the lucrative commissions he received before his death in 1997, he was one of the first recipients of the MacArthur "genius grants" in the early 1980’s. And yet it was not always this way. For most of his long life, Nancarrow was all but completely unknown by the musical establishment. Indeed, few artists of any discipline have experienced such a dramatic reversal in the trajectory of their careers. Even so, he is still practically invisible to the general public – his name not resonating like those of renowned fellow American composers like Philip Glass, John Cage, or even Charles Ives.
That such obscurity has dogged Nancarrow can be attributed in no small part to the composer's music itself – unprecedented constructions of multiple meters and tempos that are extremely difficult or even impossible for musicians to play. Rather than compromise his exploration of the limits of rhythmic complexity, Nancarrow, beginning in the late 1940's and continuing for 35 years, chose to "compose" exclusively for that jukebox of a bygone era, the player piano. Here then was a composer creating music ostensibly meant to be experienced, but completely ignoring the traditional method for exposing it to the public. Indeed, Nancarrow didn't seem to care if anyone ever heard his work, so fiercely individualistic was he. Still, he was a staunch advocate of Communism – a doctrine seemingly antithetical to individualism. He came from America’s heartland, but lived most of his life in Mexico, where (after having fought against fascism in Spain with the famous Abraham Lincoln Brigade) he fled to escape political persecution. As for the man’s work – despite its status as highly theoretical "machine music" (years in advance of the synthesizer or computer), it remains all the same – with its traditional "tonal" melodies, jazz influenced harmonies, not to mention its rip roaring tempos and dramatic crescendos – eminently listenable.

If Nancarrow’s life seems suffused with paradox, it is in many ways a mirror of the paradoxical, perhaps dialectical nature of everyday, particularly American life. In Nancarrow’s story emerge such familiar discourses, or themes, as: Communism versus Capitalism ... the figure of Mexico as exotic, underprivileged, and (at least for Nancarrow) "land of exile" versus mainstream, "world power" America ... the rural versus the metropolitan ... the mechanized versus the organic. And then, circumscribing all of this is the discourse of mainstream, mass-produced culture versus the work lovingly, perhaps obsessively, handcrafted by "the artist." Ironically, Nancarrow’s music – with its combination of seemingly irreconcilable meters and tempos – could be itself considered innately dialectical. Through the illumination and celebration of this music’s dense, multi-layered structures, one might also gain a delirious insight into the complex, oppositional nature of everyday life.

Along with employing typical documentary techniques, the film will likewise employ strategies of the experimental film in order to both celebrate and illuminate the structure of Nancarrow’s work. This will include sections that are edited or "composed" in a style that complements the composer’s method of creating music with multiple meters and tempos. Imagine an edit design that weaves disparate material, along with different modes of discourse, in a dizzying, contrapuntal style that communicates both through its content as well as its form. While it is an approach not unfamiliar to the form of the music video or TV commercial, it is one that is still all too rare in so-called "documentary."

Meanwhile, the film’s point of view will be no less a mélange, matching documentary-style objectivity with idiosyncratic subjectivity – the latter emanating from the film’s two producers, who will engage with the subject not just as artists themselves but – in the case of one of them – as a distant relative. Imagine ... one day you find out you’re related to this eccentric artist who is at once renowned and obscure, revered and unappreciated. In this way, the producers will stand in for the "average" viewer who, having had little or no exposure to Nancarrow, his avant garde milieu, and the unique perspective offered by his music, will become acquainted with what amounts to a "black sheep" of the "American family."

Produced by: Andy Nancarrow and Gordon Winiemko
Text and Video stills © 2000

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	Along with employing typical documentary techniques, the film will likewise employ strategies of the experimental film in order to both celebrate and illuminate the structure of Nancarrow’s work. This will include sections that are edited or "composed" in a style that complements the composer’s method of creating music with multiple meters and tempos. Imagine an edit design that weaves disparate material, along with different modes of discourse, in a dizzying, contrapuntal style that communicates both through its content as well as its form. While it is an approach not unfamiliar to the form of the music video or TV commercial, it is one that is still all too rare in so-called "documentary." Meanwhile, the film’s point of view will be no less a mélange, matching documentary-style objectivity with idiosyncratic subjectivity – the latter emanating from the film’s two producers, who will engage with the subject not just as artists themselves but – in the case of one of them – as a distant relative. Imagine ... one day you find out you’re related to this eccentric artist who is at once renowned and obscure, revered and unappreciated. In this way, the producers will stand in for the "average" viewer who, having had little or no exposure to Nancarrow, his avant garde milieu, and the unique perspective offered by his music, will become acquainted with what amounts to a "black sheep" of the "American family."