[ I asked Juergen for more information about the version of the
 [ Ballet Mecanique which was recently performed in concert, with
 [ his Ampico pianos playing the solo parts.  -- Robbie

Dear Robbie, thanks for your e-mail.  There seems to be much confusion
concerning Antheil's Ballet Mecanique.

The Antheil publisher is G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, and they
are preparing a printed edition of the "Original version of 1925"
(it should more accurately be 1923 or 1924).  The instrumentation of
this edition is four pianolas, two pianos, three xylophones, electric
bells, three propellers (small wood, large wood, metal), tam-tam,
four drums and sirens.  Often the instruments are doubled or threefold.
We got a copy of the scores, which are not yet commercially available.

For the performance we used two Ampico grand pianos.  As it is not
possible to synchronize player pianos when controlled by paper rolls,
Horst Mohr and Walter Tenten built a mechanism for controlling the
instruments by computer, without changing any original part of these
instruments.

As Douglas Henderson states, the original piano rolls were mostly
badly arranged and poorly punched.  Douglas did a really great job in
punching new rolls in 1991, but these rolls are only approximate what
Antheil wrote in the scores.  That's why I transformed (with the help
of a professional musician) all the notes from the scores to a sequen-
cer program, a four months job!  Now we have for the first time all the
written notes rhythmically exact in the right place.

In the performances with the Ensemble Modern there were six xylophones
(doubled), five percussionists, six grands (tripled, hand played!) and
two Ampico grands.  Even though the original score is written for four
player pianos, it is not a big problem to use only two players, because
the two of the four players play always the same music.

The Ensemble Modern is the most important ensemble for contemporary
music in Germany (maybe one of the most important in the world).
We made a concert tour from Vienna (10 May, Konzerthaus) to Cologne
(14 May, Philharmonie) to Frankfurt (16 May, Alte Oper), to Berlin
(18 May, Konzerthaus) and London (21 May, Barbican Hall).  All the
concerts were well-attended (London will be tomorrow) and more than
three thousand music lovers heard the mechanical pianos.  (In Cologne
the Ballet Mecanique was recorded by television, in Frankfurt and
London it was broadcast by radio.)

I hope this information will be enough for those who are interested
in Antheil's music.

Juergen Hocker
Bergisch Gladbach
Germany