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This evening I went to see Frequency Hopping, a play about George Antheil (composer) and Hedy Lamarr (film star), who co-invented --by using music--an early form of spread spectrum encoding, a key to modern wireless communication--which is called "frequency hopping. It's an interesting mixed media production that's a teeny bit too long (it's billed as a work in progress so there may be further work on it) but highly recommended. The actress who plays Lamarr looks uncannily like her --both she, Erica Newhouse, and Joseph Urla, who plays Antheil, are very good.
As a special treat afterwards, Ballet Mecanique was performed by robotic orchestra with film accompaniment. The music was written by Antheil in 1924 and created to accompany a film by artist/filmmaker Fernand Leger but it never quite worked out, partly because it was meant to be performed with sixteen synchronized player pianos. The piece was finally restored and played with the film in 2001 at the Film Anthology archives in NYC. It's not performed live very often--there was a siren, xylophones, bass drums, what sounds like a school bell, and eight player pianos that were doubled up. (don't ask me what that means). Anyway, a truly unique performance that will be on until the end of this month. Go get tix...and hear why NYC was outraged by Antheil's work back in the 20s. It's still pretty outrageous.
As a special treat afterwards, Ballet Mecanique was performed by robotic orchestra with film accompaniment. The music was written by Antheil in 1924 and created to accompany a film by artist/filmmaker Fernand Leger but it never quite worked out, partly because it was meant to be performed with sixteen synchronized player pianos. The piece was finally restored and played with the film in 2001 at the Film Anthology archives in NYC. It's not performed live very often--there was a siren, xylophones, bass drums, what sounds like a school bell, and eight player pianos that were doubled up. (don't ask me what that means). Anyway, a truly unique performance that will be on until the end of this month. Go get tix...and hear why NYC was outraged by Antheil's work back in the 20s. It's still pretty outrageous.
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