Ballet Mecanique by George Antheil, at the National Gallery of Art

[@jimaustin1429]

Really amazing that Antheil could imagine this music and yet there is no way for it to be performed within the mechanical limitations of player pianos at the time. Thanks Paul, for doing all the work to make this come to life.

[@ReedCBowman]

Is there really no video of this incredible installation/performance with better audio than this?? I was lucky enough to get to see and hear it in person, and just now went looking for a video of it. It was absolutely magical in reality, but I can't even watch this all the way through!

[@kygolden1]

This is a faster tempo than other performances I have seen and it does seem to make the music sound more mechanical. At a certain tempo it just becomes impractical if not impossible for humans to play the music and can only be done mechanically. I just find the piece incredibly intriguing and it does well in very different performance versions.

[@victorgrauer5834]

What exhilarating music! Despite the Stravinsky influence, this is an extraordinarily original piece which didn't deserve the bad treatment it received after the first performance, which was apparently flawed due to some equipment problems. It sound remarkably fresh, even today. If it were presented today as the work of a young contemporary composer it would create a sensation. God bless the group that put this extraordinary "performance" together. A true act of love! Thank you.

[@paullehrman]

Thanks, kygolden. This is the fastest tempo at which modern player pianos can perform the piece. Any faster and some of the repeated notes will be missed. The robots playing the xylophones and drums can play it somewhat faster, but in any case they are playing way faster than humans can play those instruments.

[@malgray2]

Is it possible to buy a copy of this recording?

[@ClaudioMOliva]

Amazing!!! .Thanks

[@zuzannavee9558]

Fascinating. First performed in 1924; Composer Antheil with actor Hedy Lamarr went on to invent technology that we use today in GPS and lots more. Amazing woman!

[@paullehrman]

The piece has been performed many different ways over the years--with one player piano, with 16 player pianos, with the Leger/Murphy film and without it, at tempos from 90 to 135 bpm. This was a special arrangement made for the National Gallery, What is your recollection of hearing it?

[@johnhelm2767]

I went to the exhibition on two occasions. Must have heard all the way through at least twice. Thought it sounded great

[@paullehrman]

Omigod, thanks Giovanni! Now we gotta set the whole damn thing up again... :-)

[@Superphilipp]

Holy fucking shit!

[@simonburnett8794]

George, wherever you are, are you listening to this?

[@ibrahimaissaoui5083]

nuestro profesor nouchar esto noooooooo :(

[@berndbodenstein2258]

Ich glaube, George wäre zufrieden !

[@johnatwell2753]

I have the album, and you took a slower tempo. But there is so much more to hear on the album as a result (as compared to this video recording). It would be interesting to hear a pro audio recording at this tempo. What tempo(s) did Antheil indicate in his score?

[@paullehrman]

John: The recording we did at UMass Lowell is the entire work; the version we did at the National Gallery of Art was edited down to 11 minutes. The tempo here is also faster (133 bpm vs. 100 bpm) because there were no humans involved: the robots can play the xylophone and bass drum parts much faster than human players can. There is another recording available of the entire work by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose, which is at 120 bpm. We were able to play it faster since we had professional players and not students (and we cheated in one part and slowed it down). Antheil's tempo is not clear, since he specified it not in beats per minute, but in piano-roll feet per minute, and there is some disagreement as to how fast the rolls were meant to go. By most estimates, however, he wanted it at about 144 bpm, which is faster than any player piano, whether it was made in 1925 or 2015, could handle it.

[@donaldbutler6545]

This is not the way I remember this piece.