Conlon Nancarrow
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Samuel Conlon Nancarrow was a US-born Mexican composer. Nancarrow is best remembered for his Studies for Player Piano, being one of the first composers to use auto-playing musical instruments, realizi
Nancarrow in 1987
From left to right: György Ligeti, Lukas Ligeti, Vera Ligeti (György Ligeti's wife), Conlon Nancarrow, and Michael Daugherty at the ISCM World Music Days in Graz, Austria, 1982
Player piano
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A player piano is a self-playing piano with a pneumatic or electromechanical mechanism that operates the piano action using perforated paper or metallic rolls. Modern versions use MIDI. The player pia
Conlon Nancarrow
…piano," which he discussed with Arthur Gregor, a friend who was a school principal. They found a shop where Nancarrow bought a device that could create player piano rolls, and "worked with the owner to learn technical details, such as how to record loud and soft, and different types of notes, and improve the machine…
A restored pneumatic player piano
A player piano performing
Steinway Welte-Mignon reproducing piano (1919)
A player piano roll being played