The Punch And Judy Man

"Ensembles that play only new music are plentiful these days, but soloists who play recitals devoted entirely to newly commissioned works are scarce enough to seem heroic or eccentric, or perhaps a bit of both. Guy Livingston, an American pianist who lives in Paris, has assembled a program of recent works that may be quirky enough to appeal to listeners who have doubts about modern musical language"

―The New York Times

Guy Livingston opened Solo Flights/ Keyboard Summit with Don't Panic: 60 seconds for piano, an incomparable one-man show culled from the pianist's collection of 1-minute works, on 14 February 2003. This is the brilliant new performance created by American pianist Guy Livingston to showcase the endless possibilities of contemporary music. Many of the pieces are amplified or for piano and tape. They use new techniques and range from modern-classical works through virtuosic-serialism to unsettling performance-art. All are premieres written for Livingston. Livingston presents the pieces in sets of 4 or 5 at a time, punctuated by anecdotes about the composers and the genesis of these works. The framework is theatrically exciting and musically innovative. Although one minute seems like an unbelievably short time, it actually offers the composers a good deal of scope. An entire atmosphere can be established (or destroyed) in 60 seconds. The program offers a wide-ranging sampler of new music styles from the most traditional classical up to cutting-edge avant-garde.

Guy Livingston created this stunningly original CD by commissioning 60 composers from 18 countries to write new works for piano. The commission fee: a bottle of Jack Daniels. The only constraints, as specified by Guy, were that the piece be under 60 seconds in length, and that the audience not be endangered in any way.

Sequels and answer discs first began to proliferate in the early 1950s, initially in the C&W and R&B markets, and proved sufficiently successful that within a couple of years, pop and R&R hits were also likewise being routinely spoofed and lampooned.