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Which piece takes a tam-tam, seven electric bells, a siren, three airplane
propellers and a pair of earplugs to be performed? The answer is Georges
Antheil's Ballet Mécanique which will be presented at Friedberg Hall on
February 17, at 7:30 p.m.. Composed in Paris in 1924 by the 24-year-old
American, Georges Antheil,
Ballet Mécanique was the first piece ever
written solely for percussion orchestra. Combining sounds of the
industrial age, atonal music, and jazz the original version calls for
four bass drums, three xylophones, a tam-tam, seven electric bells,
a siren and three different-sized airplane propellers (high wood,
low wood, and metal) as well as two human-played pianos and 16 player
pianos. Synchronizing player pianos however, was beyond the technology of
the day, forcing Antheil to scale down the instrumentation. As a result,
Antheil never heard his magnum opus the way in which it was originally
envisioned.
The Ballet Mécanique was intended to be
more than a piece of music; it was conceived as a
soundtrack for a film of the same name by cubist artist Fernand Leger, photographer
Man
Ray and cinematographer Dudley Murphy. Tragically, the synchronization
issues were never resolved (to further complicate things, Antheil's
score turned out to be twice as long as the film). The two works
were premiered separately, and have had separate lives. Thanks
to Prof. Lehrman's (Tufts University) realization of the Ballet
Mécanique, the live performance synchronized to the film was
premiered on the 13
of November at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention
in Columbus, Ohio, by the Peabody Percussion Ensemble under Julian
Pellicano. The Percussion Ensemble, with the aid of the Peabody Computer
Music Department, will present this extraordinary work at Peabody's
Friedberg Hall on the 17 of February (7:30 p.m.). Admission is free.
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