Stravinsky - Rite Of Spring Piano Roll

JSngry · December 2, 2014

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Got this to hear the pianola/piano roll, and whoa...glad I did. Don't know too much at all about the things, but apparently Stravinsky was into them, and supervised the creation of the roll itself. It was not one of those "recording" rolls, which simply "recorded" a live performance, but was instead a form of transcription of the score onto the roll, no live playing required (although to be played, I guess there is a role - no pun intended - for somebody to control certain aspects of the playback).

The results are immediately attention-getting, and, for me, fascinating. Not sure how it's accomplished, but the result is the piece being played significantly more percussively than any orchestral version I've heard, pretty damn intense. Couple that with the mono-timbre created by all parts being played on the same instrument, and the effect is pretty disorienting, in a good way. It really is a "new" way to hear a familiar piece.

I know Conlon Nancarrow's work, and it's tempting to look at this as a precursor/inspiration/whatever, but I don't think it is. Nancarrow's work begins with a forced suspension of disbelief that you're hearing a piano being "played" live. This one doesn't force disbelief, if dares you to believe, and it's a dare pretty easily accepted, and to great end.

Maybe, in the end, a novelty, or just a historical artifact. But for an immediate "shock value" that really, immediately, brings out the inherent "jazzy" and/or "primitive" impact that was so shocking at the time, it works wonderfully.