Southbank Centre Experimental Events

Tomorrow's Warriors Youth Jazz

As an appetiser to the later Purcell Room Firebird concert, the 16-piece Youth Warriors are back on home ground, using traditional techniques to find their own distinctive jazz voice.

This evening they welcome a group of young musicians from Voss Jazzskule in Norway which, like Tomorrow's Warriors, is developing a new generation of outstanding jazz musicians.

The Warriors will start things off with new arrangements written by the band members. These are followed by a set from the young Norwegian musicians before everyone joins in together for the climax of the event.

Start Date:

Saturday 3 March 2012 - 18:00

End Date:

Saturday 3 March 2012

Ticket Prices:

Free

Euan Macdonald: Open-Tuning

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Euan Macdonald - Open-Tuning features the recent video 9000 Pieces (2010), which focuses on a piano-testing machine in a Chinese musical instrument factory (the title refers to the number of separate parts in a piano).

An exploration of the different meanings of noise, 9,000 Pieces is a sonic tour-de-force that plays with the way we make sense of the world. The show also includes a transcribed 'score' of the testing machine's cacophonous performance.

In addition, Open-Tuning features Macdonald's Brakestand (1999), a video loop depicting a 1970s BMW spinning its wheels and burning rubber - the car furiously going nowhere fast while producing a squealing roar that conjures extreme speed.

Euan Macdonald - Open-Tuning is the artist's first UK solo exhibition and is supported by Canada House and courtesy of Galerie Zink.

Start Date:

Saturday 14 January 2012 - 10:00

End Date:

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Free

Images

One Pig by Matthew Herbert

British electronic musician Matthew Herbert presents his most recent project One Pig, the story of a single farm animal from birth to death and beyond. Matthew and his band will retell One Pig's story in a show complete with live audio-visual composition and on-stage cookery.

Herbert was present, microphone in hand, as the animal emerged into the world and continued to document its life in audio as it grew to adulthood. Although he was prevented from recording the pig's death, he recorded its subsequent butchery, cooking, consumption and the use of almost every part of the animal to make diverse products, from candles, a drum, paint and dye to a new musical instrument which plays the animal's blood.

The result is an elegy to an otherwise anonymous farm animal's life. It's a beautiful and compelling account that prompts questions and gives insight into an animal so commonly underestimated, under-appreciated and unacknowledged in our society.

Start Date:

Wednesday 9 May 2012 - 19:30

End Date:

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Ticket Prices:

£17.50 £15

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Facility Description:

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (9/10)

m.critcher

Synchronised Pianos II

Study No.48 stands alongside study No.41 in terms of duration and sophistication. It also features two synchronised player pianos and is based on a tempo canon of two voices at an almost imperceptibility close ratio of 60 against 61.

Two piano works performed by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig on pedalled pianolas.

The concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012 - 16:00

End Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson pianola, Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig pianola, Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.48a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.48b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.48c
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.35
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.32

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (8/10)

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For Yoko and Others

This concert features a fascinating group of studies that fall outside the categories of the main body of work.

Para Yoko (For Yoko) is dedicated to the composer's third wife and the only one not to have a numerical name. Study No.49 was written as a blueprint for a concerto for orchestra and pianola for pianolist Rex Lawson. Study No.30 is for prepared piano and was inspired by Cage (whose Sonatas and Interludes Nancarrow was at the premiere of) while Contraption No.1 is the result of a collaboration with musical inventor and sculptor Trimpin. Study No.3750 is Nancarrow's humorous title but it is also known as Study No.51 and the final study he wrote.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012 - 15:00

End Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Para Yoko
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.51 (No.3750)
Conlon Nancarrow: Contraption No.1
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.49a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.49b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.49c
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.30
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.33

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (7/10)

m.critcher

Synchronised Pianos I

Described by James Tenney as one of the most astonishing pieces in the entire literature of 20th century music, Study No.41 for two synchronised player pianos is the longest of all the studies and uses the most complex mathematical ratios. Exciting and unpredictable, the third movement is the superimposition of the first over the second.

Two piano works performed by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig on pedalled pianolas.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012 - 14:00

End Date:

Sunday 22 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson pianola, Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig pianola, Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.41a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.41b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.41c
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.50
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.1

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (5/10)

m.critcher

Acceleration

While computers have created the opportunity for any conceivable change in tempo to be realised it is still Nancarrow and his antiquated technology that has produced the most gratifying explorations of the phenomenon.

The iconic Study No.21 'Canon X' with its clear and thrilling crossing of parts is featured alongside the other 'acceleration' studies, culminating in the exquisite Study No.27, nicknamed the 'Ontological Clock' by Kyle Gann because of its fixed tempo voice against which the other voices speed up and slow down.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 18:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.21 (Canon X)
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.8
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.22
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.23
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.27
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.28
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.29

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (4/10)

m.critcher

The Nancarrow Lick

Performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig. Two piano works performed by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig on pedalled pianolas.

The incandescent Study No.25 marks the point at which Nancarrow found a sonic language on the player piano that was entirely unique to it.

Using ultra-fast glissandi and arpeggios, the so-called 'Nancarrow Lick', this is one of the most entertaining works in the collection.

The concert is rounded off with the mathematical exploration that is Study No.40. A two movement work whose second movement consists of the first movement played on two pianos with a tempo relationship of e/ $π$ !

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 17:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson pianola, Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig pianola, Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.25
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.43
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.7
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.40a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.40b

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (3/10)

m.critcher

Boogie Woogie II

Commissioned by Betty Freeman circa 1982, Studies Nos.45 to 47 represent a return to Nancarrow's Boogie Woogie influenced work, but with the maturity that 32 years of player piano composing afforded him.

Study No.11 is from a much earlier period, but its staccato chords and cascading lines suggest post-bop vamping, in all likelihood by chance rather than design.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 16:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.45a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.45b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.45c
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.46
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.47
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.11

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (2/10)

m.critcher

Tempo Canons

Though not the only composer to conceive pieces with similar melodic material related by different temporal relationships, Nancarrow has undoubtedly explored this area in greater variety and complexity than any other.

In contrast to the retrospective grouping of the Boogie Woogie Suite, studies 13-19 were intended as a single collection, but developed individual identities.

Alongside this group is Study No.24, a more complex canon which displays the sophistication found in the later studies.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 15:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availabilaity)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.13
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.14
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.15
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.16
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.17
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.18
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.19
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.24
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.31
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.34

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (1/10)

m.critcher

Boogie Woogie I

While Stravinsky was probably his favourite composer at the time, Nancarrow's earliest studies were informed by his experience as a jazz trumpeter and his love of pre-bebop jazz, in particular Earl 'Fatha' Hines, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith.

Studies 3a-e were probably the very first to be written and only grouped together as the Boogie Woogie Suite in retrospect. Nancarrow was notoriously vague about the dates the early studies were written but they was probably begun in 1948 and completed in the following year or so.

This concert is performed on an original Marshall and Wendell Ampico reproducing piano, identical to Nancarrow's own, operated by Rex Lawson and Wolfgang Heisig.

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 14:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.3a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.3b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.3c
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.3d
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.3e
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.2a
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.2b
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.9

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images

Conlon Nancarrow: Complete Studies for Player Piano (6/10)

m.critcher

Clarity

Though Nancarrow is known for producing some of the most complex pieces of our times, these studies reveal some delightfully accessible melodies, from the glassy surface of Study No.26, championed by John Cage, to the almost pop-like bubbling of Study No.44 for two unsynchronised player pianos.

The Spanish flavour of Study No.12 may recall Nancarrow's time fighting the Fascists in the civil war while Study No.5 is a brutal piece that wears its contracting concertina-like structure on its sleeve.

Start Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012 - 22:00

End Date:

Saturday 21 April 2012

Ticket Prices:

£5

Concession/Group Prices:

50% off (limited availability)

Performer(s):

Rex Lawson pianola, Ampico reproducing piano
Wolfgang Heisig pianola, Ampico reproducing piano

Repertoire:

Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.44
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.26
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.5
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.6
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.20
Conlon Nancarrow: Player Piano Study No.12

Facility Description:

Purcell Room

Images