Ballet Mécanique

Ballet Mécanique (1924) was a project by the American composer George Antheil and the filmmaker/artist Fernand Léger. Antheil wrote several versions of the piece. The very first, written in 1924 calls for 16 player pianos playing four separate parts, 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.

It required the syncing of sound to film, syncing of all 16 player pianos and later performances had no humans on stage at all. In their place bits of machinery and automated music box's. Sounds like a very early piece of electronic piece of music to me.

Needless to say Antheil's music did not go down well with the masses. His 1923 performance of L'inhumaine caused the audience to riot. You can watch a short clip of the riot HERE. Appearently the whole Paris art scene attended the performance/riot and you can see on this clip Ezra Pound, Fernand Léger, Erik Satie, Darius Milhaud, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Francis Picabia, The Prince of Monaco, James Joyce, and Sylvia Beach.

Ballet Méchanique is Antweil's most famous, controversial and long standing composition. In 2004 it was shown as part of a Warp tour featuring Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Jammie Liddell. REVIEWS

The piece was performed again in May 2006 but this time they tried to get the fairly complex sequencing right. 16 MIDI-compatible grand player pianos, provided by the Gulbransen division of QRS Music, three xylophones, four bass drums, a tam-tam, a siren, and three "airplane propellers," all controlled by MIDI, using robotics built by the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, under the direction of Eric Singer performed the piece at the Washington National Gallery of Art. Check out a clip HERE.

You can listen to interviews with and tributes to George Antheil HERE.

check out Ballet Mecanique and other Works for Player Pianos, Percussion, and Electronics