That’s brief in two senses: the instrument had a heyday of just a generation or so in the second half of the 18th century (only about 20 instruments survive), and the decay of the sound is quick enough that, as musical instrument historian Cleveland Johnson puts it, “on the tangent piano, one hears not only the beginning of every note, but the end. The instrument allows [its player] to play with this space between notes.” (includes sound clips)
Author: Matthew Westphal
Ellie Mannette, Who Perfected The Steel Drum As Instrument, Dead At 90
“As a child in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, Mr. Mannette became fascinated with the bands he saw using trash cans and buckets as drums, hitting them in different ways to create different sounds. For the rest of his life, he sought to elevate and expand the craft of steel-pan music, and to share it with the world. He became a master tuner, builder and teacher.”
Choreographing To Get The Obsessions Out Of His Head: Reggie Wilson
“An idea hits me and I think, Oh, that’s cool. I usually don’t follow it when it first happens. And then it will recur and recur, over and over again. It gets to the point of obsession. Making a dance will help me process it, think about it on multiple levels … Then I have to ‘get rid of it,’ which means incorporating it into my everyday existence. Then it stops being disruptive.”
A Crowdsourced Virtual Museum Commemorates Houston’s 2017 Floods
“What is the Houston Flood Museum? First off, it’s somewhere that can be visited only online. It’s a website, which went live last week, whose creators envision a platform where people can pool their stories from [Hurricane] Harvey and, perhaps one day, future storms. From shared experiences, they hope, will come understanding. And healing.”
FBI Sting Recovers Stolen Ruby Slippers From ‘Wizard Of Oz’
“The slippers were on loan to the Judy Garland Museum in the late actress’s hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, when they were taken in 2005 by someone who climbed through a window and broke into a small display case. … The FBI said a man approached the insurer in summer 2017 and said he could help get them back. … After a nearly year-long investigation, the slippers were recovered in July during a sting operation in Minneapolis.”
Jazz Pianist And Composer Randy Weston, 92
“[He] was among the most prominent ambassadors for traditional African music in the United States. A revered jazz pianist and composer, he incorporated that continent’s complicated rhythms, tonalities and call-and-response patterns in records that ushered in a new era of transatlantic fusion.”
At Old Vic, First Preview Changed To Dress Rehearsal, Then Cancelled When Star Collapses Onstage
It’s been a difficult beginning for the new hip-hop musical Sylvia at the London theatre. Sept. 3 was to have been the first preview performance of the show about suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, but the previous day, director Matthew Warchus, worried about the readiness of the production, rebranded the evening as an open dress rehearsal. Then, just after the second act began, the lead actress, Genesis Lynea, became ill and the performance was stopped.
UK National Theatre Artistic Director Goes Onstage With 30 Minutes’ Notice
Rufus Norris stepped in for ailing lead actor Richard Harrington in last Friday’s sold-out performance of Laura Wade’s Home, I’m Darling. “It’s a last-resort situation,” he said, “But it was only a few days before the show finishes and we couldn’t add an extra date. We had a full house who wouldn’t be able to see it again.”
Staffers Ran Into Burning National Museum Of Brazil To Rescue Parts Of Collection
“[Paleontologist Paulo] Buckup, who has worked at the National Museum since 1996, led the group’s harrowing entry into the museum. ‘There were constant collapses while we were inside. There were falling objects and lots of smoke. In one area we realized there was a real risk of the ceiling collapsing, we could not assess when the third floor would fall.'”
2018 Dance Magazine Awards To Crystal Pite, Lourdes Lopez, Ronald K. Brown, Michael Trusnovec, Nigel Redden
Canadian choreographer Pite, Miami City Ballet artistic director Lopez, African-American choreographer Brown, and longtime Paul Taylor Dance Company stalwart Trusnovec are this year’s honorees, and the magazine has added a special Leadership Award for Redden, longtime director of both Spoleto Festival USA and the now-discontinued Lincoln Center Festival.