player piano

Any piece for so many pianos is bound to call to mind Conlon Nancarrow, an American composer who wrote vastly complex music for the player piano.

He had Steinway program a player piano to perform “Mad Rush” with Glass pounding playing style, and he had his roaming camera observe the big cat’s response to the music.

There were newfangled inventions: player pianos, phonographs and nickelodeons.

Glass does appear briefly, in the form of a Steinway Spirio piano — an instrument that can record sound and touch then reproduce it, like an advanced player piano.

The rotating stage is dominated by a wooden swing, a player piano and, most memorably, a gigantic fish: two halves of a trout, suspended high above the actors.