In a review, John Rockwell of the New York Times wrote that "M. Nancarrow stands as a classic example of a kind of composer that has played a major role in American music--indeed, think some, the major role. That is the loner-outsider, a man who grew up ignorant or defiant or simply indifferent to received traditions and struck out, sometimes eccentrically, on his own (11)." Still, even the most original composers come from somewhere. Nancarrow was fascinated by the player piano which was in the house while he was growing up. Later he told an interviewer that ever since he started composing he was "dreaming of getting rid of the performers (12)." His family were "all great music lovers. . . [His] father had these corny John McCormick songs: 'Mother Machree' and all that (13)." A reviewer of a 1986 performance of Nancarrow's compositions remarked that, "His love of jazz infuses even his most complex creations, whether in subtle blues-derive idioms, or in rhythmic/harmonic ostinatos (14)." More specifically, "There are many explicit jazz references, raging from subtle uses of blues notes to the driving boogie-woogie of Study No. 3 (15)." Nancarrow began playing jazz on trumpet before he left Texarkana and continued performing in that idiom in Cincinnati and Boston (16). But the most important musical event he remembers is that of "hearing 'Sacre' ['Le Sacre de Printemps' by Igor Stravinsky] for the first time when I was about seventeen (16)." _____________________ 11. Rockwell, Conlon Nancarrow." 12. Amirhanian, "Interview," 15. 13. Gagne and Caras, Soundpieces, 292. 14. High Fidelity: Musical America Edition, August 1986, MA22. An ostinato is a musical figure persistently repeated at the same pitch. 15. Carlsen, "The Player Piano Music," 2. 16. Gagne and Caras, Soundpieces, 283.         Contents  Words  Study Questions  Related Sites  Next Page