Helena Bugallo, Klavier
Amy Williams, Klavier

Konzertaufnahme: 27. Mai 2023, Toni Areal, Grosser Saal, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK (IGNM Zürich)
Musikregie / Tonmeister: Lars Dölle (SRF)

These three Studies for Player Piano by the American/Mexican composer Conlon Nancarrow (1912–1997) were arranged by Erik Oña for the BugalloWilliams Piano Duo and premiered at the Aarhus Festival in Denmark in 1998. The arrangements initiated the Duo’s long-term involvement with Nancarrow’s music. Study No. 4 belongs among the early, jazz-influenced Studies. Three clearly distinct voices build a canonic heterophony, articulating the same melodic pitches but with different rhythms, which occasionally imply different tempi. Study No. 6 has a simple, westernflavored melody, eventually presented in canon. Its accompaniment, an ostinato reminiscent of a tango or habanera, challenges the simplicity of the tune oscillating between two different tempi every four notes. Study No. 18 (canon 3:4) is part of the early series of Seven Canonic Studies (Nos. 13–19) where Nancarrow began to explore systematically mensural canons as formal principle.
Helena Bugallo