What the heck is the Ballet mécanique?
The Ballet mécanique is an amazing piece of music written in 1924 by George Antheil, a young American composer living in Paris. More on Antheil It calls for a percussion orchestra of three xylophones, four bass drums, and a tam-tam (gong), two “live” pianists, seven or so electric bells, a siren, three airplane propellors, and 16 synchronized player pianos. It was never performed that way during Antheil’s lifetime, and in fact it was never performed in its full orchestration until 1999.
