Aporia

György Ligeti - Continuum (for player piano)

The wonderful Noise for Airports posted this, and wrote:

Following up on the barrel organ version and the original harpsichord version (as seen at acousmata), here is Continuum, arranged for player piano.

Again, it is fascinating to hear how the different mechanics of these instruments change the acoustic effects of the piece so dramatically. The percussive hits on the piano (then damped), don’t quite seem to blend together, but I think that works well for this piece, which is all about lingering at the edge between the discrete and the continuous.

Elsewhere he noted an impressive violin orchestrion; I didn’t know the word, but it refers to a machine that sounds like an orchestra or band. The violin orchestrion in question seems to me to be a “remarkable piece of apparatus,” a futuristic yet cumbersome robotic contraption that would seem at home in Brazil. Look at those string-depressors!