Beschreibung:
In 19th-century piano music, the passage is considered to be a means of transition. Passages do not have a specific function in the »ideal type« schemata of form, which distribute voices according to compositional rules. In contrast, the passage pushes the motoric abilities of the player and the perceptual capacities of the listener into a region of extremes. In his Studies for Player Piano, Conlon Nancarrow resorts to the fast figurations of the passage. However, the mechanism of the player piano, the specific sound of Nancarrow’s instruments, the polyphonic compositional techniques, and the formal principle of tempo canon transform these fast figurations into new rhythmic phenomena. While in the 19th century a circular relation of music, rhythm, and the human body holds for the organization of musical time, this circle is interrupted in Nancarrow’s music. He creates a new kind of music that is not tied back to the body any more. Instead, the formal principle of canon with its specific polyphonic and temporal features creates a modified experience of time. Using an expression that has been coined by Pierre Boulez we call this experience the »smooth time« of music.