New Music reBlog

I have decided to add a new category “historic composers” to log posts about dead composers who’s music is still contemporary.  I’ll start off with Conlon Nancarrow.  A lot of what I read about Nancarrow from the limited text resources describes his music as unusual or some other term.  I’ve been meaning to look up the biography penned by the author/composer over at Post-Classic, Kyle Gann.

Anyway, I don’t find his music zany or unusual as much as I find it compelling, witty and smart.  In some ways a contemporary Mozart if you will.  I’ll be writing down more thoughts on Nancarrow’s music from time to time over the coming years here at AAM.  I know this post is cursory, but the music in the video below is anything but.