he lights dim as the curtain opens. Sixteen Yamaha Disklavier® pianos take center stage, along with an eclectic mix of other instruments - including percussion, pianos, bells, sirens, and airplane propellers - for the first ever performance of George Antheil's Ballet Mécanique, played in its original instrumentation.

     American music composer George Antheil (1900-1959), born in Trenton, NJ, began his professional career in Paris, France, in the early 1900s, where he kept company with James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Ernest Hemingway, among other cultural greats. In his 1945 autobiography, Bad Boy of Music, Antheil describes his early days in the heart of literary Europe, including accounts of his attempts to write an opera with Joyce, based on a chapter of "Ulysses."

"Ballet Mécanique" Brought to Life Thanks to Disklavier Technology

     Fascinated by player pianos and percussion instruments, Antheil began work in 1923 on what was to become his most famous and notorious creation — Ballet Mécanique. The musical score calls for three xylophones, four bass drums, a gong, two pianos, a siren, three airplane propellers, seven electric bells, and 16 pianolas (synchronized player pianos). Ironically, Antheil's musical composition could not be performed at the time it was written because the technology was not yet available - synchronized player pianos existed only in theory.

continued on top

     Antheil eventually created three versions of Ballet Mécanique. The second version, written in 1926, caused a riot at its premiere in Paris - a sign of a composer's success! Although it was a success in Europe, Ballet Mécanique flopped in the United States when it debuted in 1927. This version made do with a single pianola and an unspecified multiple of two human-played pianos. Ballet Mécanique was not played again for an American audience until 1989, when it was performed at Carnegie Hall. The third version, drafted in 1953, dispensed with the pianola altogether and has since been played regularly by advanced percussion ensembles. However, the original version was never realized - until now.

     Today, thanks to computers, musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) and MIDI-compatible acoustic/digital player pianos, the technology now exists to realize Antheil's original version of Ballet Mécanique. The technology of the Yamaha Disklavier has finally made it possible to synchronize all the instruments needed to play the musical masterpiece in its original entirety.

     The world premier of the original version of Ballet Mécanique, which took place on November 18 at the Durgin Concert Hall at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, was made possible by computer music expert and Professor Paul Lehrman and the use of sixteen Disklaviers, including six grands and 10 uprights with models ranging from the MX1 and MX100XG to the DGT2.

continued to next page