Studies No. 6 & 7

Nancarrow's music for player piano with acrobatic complexity that sounds hardly performable has been known for more than four decades. The traditional notation is replaced by the accurate manual punching of individual holes in player piano roles, thus enabling multi-part sounds and rhythmic counterpoints in irrational relations which could never be played so accurately by human performers.
Fortunately, Nancarrow's less complex studies are again and again arranged for a wide variety of live instrumentation. The arrangement for two pianos by the renowned British composer and conductor Thomas Adès (*1971) presents the ideal opportunity for every experienced pianist to not only listen to the studies but to play them as well.