Dear friends of mechanical music,  on the 17th of August there will be
a 'new' performance of the Ballet Mecanique by George Antheil in Essen,
Germany, in the 'Zeche Zollverein', a new world cultural heritage.  This
performance will be the climax of the 'Klavierfestival Ruhr', the most
important piano festival all over the world (so the organizers state).

This version of Ballet Mecanique will be as near to the original as
possible.  We will use my two pneumatically operated Ampico grands (one
is a Boesendorfer, the other a Fischer).  These original instruments
will be synchronized and commanded by a computer (this seems to be
curious, but it is possible).  We use further 14 Yamaha Disklaviers,
also commanded and synchronized by a computer.

There are two different Disklavier models: one is a bigger piano (121
cm high) which works very well, better than I expected.  The other is
smaller (110 cm high), which may be good for a bar or a restaurant,
but not for the Ballet Mecanique, because it is provided with smaller
solenoids.  You can play this piano by hand fairly well even though the
sound is not great.  But with solenoid playing it has only a soft tone.

It is absolutely true that either of my Ampico player pianos plays ten
(or more) of these small Disklaviers under the carpet.  Not so with
the bigger model Disklavier.  This is very suitable for the Ballet and
I was very surprised about its possibilities.  (Even the real pneumatic
player pianos are still better).  But for these different 'player pianos'
I need three different MIDI files, because each of these instruments
has a special touch, mechanics and sound.  Well, I'll try my best.

Besides the player pianos there will be four 'hand-played' grands,
xylophones, drums, electric bells, sirens and aircraft propellers.
And it is the intention of the festival not to use any 'synthetic'
sound.  The conductor is Dennis Russell Davies.

As the concert at 8 PM is sold out since many months, the organizers
decided to repeat the concert at 11 PM.  Let's hope that all will
work well.  (It is my experience, that the pneumatically operated
instruments are very reliable; if anything works wrong, it is mostly
the 'modern' technology!)

Greetings from Germany
Juergen Hocker

 [ At http://www.zollverein.de/englisch/index.asp :
 [ "Zollverein is a symbol. For past and future power. Before it was
 [ closed down this masterpiece of the second industrial revolution
 [ was the unrivalled, number one coal mine in Europe. Now Zollverein
 [ is one of the most important industrial monuments in the world.
 [ But that's not all by far. For Zollverein is an international centre
 [ for design and the arts."  -- Robbie