Treatise da Tempo Reale Electroacoustic Ensemble

Tempo Reale Festival 2012
RUMORE ROSA Il paesaggio delle voci

MUSICA COMUNISTA
Salvatore Miele, coordinamento e live electronics
Francesco Casciaro, oggetti sensibili e live electronics
Daniela Cattivelli, campionatore e live electronics
Andrea Gozzi, chitarra elettrica e live electronics
Damiano Meaccii, regia del suono

Cornelius Cardew
Treatise, per ensemble elettroacustico
(prima esecuzione a Firenze)

Treatise by Cardew Ensemble

Cardew Ensemble è una formazione nata con lo scopo di rivisitare in chiave elettroacustica le composizioni aperte tipiche degli anni ’60/’70, in primis il Treatise di Cornelius Cardew di cui potete ascoltare qui le pagine da 1 a 14.

La formazione è:

  • Nicola Baroni (cello and Max/MSP)
  • Carlo Benzi (synth and Max/MSP)
  • Mauro Graziani (Max/MSP)
  • Massimiliano Messieri (toys percussion and Max/MSP)
  • Federico Mosconi (electric guitar and Max/MSP)
  • Michele Selva (alto saxophone)

Focaccina Num. 1

Bun No. 1 (trad. focaccina, ciambella, panino) è un brano del 1965, composto da Cornelius Cardew durante i suoi studi con Goffredo Petrassi come esercizio finale per il corso di perfezionamento in composizione.

Si tratta, per quanto ne so, di un lavoro seriale per orchestra senza percussioni. Un brano affascinante, molto timbrico, che rivela un aspetto di Cardew quasi sconosciuto anche perché questo pezzo non era stato praticamente mai eseguito fino alla prima londinese curata dalla Scottish Symphony Orchestra diretta da Ilan Volkov per la BBC il 20 Agosto 2010.

Ma perché Bun? in Contact no.26 (Spring 1983), John Tilbury ha spiegato

[Cardew} gave me two off-the-cuff reasons when I asked him: a bun is what you give to an elephant at the zoo, and that was how he felt when he gave the work to an orchestra to play; and the piece is like a bun – filling but not substantial!

Non badate all’immagine che con questo brano non c’entra assolutamente nulla

I 4 princìpi d’Irlanda

cardewNegli anni ’70, Cornelius Cardew, fino ad allora uno dei più importanti compositori inglesi, pioniere dell’utilizzo di partiture grafiche e dell’improvvisazione, assistente di Stockhausen dal 1958 al 1960, ebbe una improvvisa conversione politica al Comunismo (per la precisione aderì al Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist)) che lo portò a condannare lo sperimentalismo come elitista (att.ne: non etilista), a scrivere il suo famoso libello “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism” e a scrivere musica per le masse, ideologicamente orientata, come questa:

Four Principles on Ireland – C. Cardew, pianoforte

Potete trovare vari brani del Cardew post conversione in questa pagina di UbuWeb.

Ode Machine

k. roweKeith Rowe, forse il prototipo dei chitarristi improvvisatori di scuola anglosassone, esegue un brano di Cornelius Cardew tratto dall’album “A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality” del 1990.

Solo prepared guitar recording from the AMM member who pioneered the table-top guitar technique in his free improvisations back in the ’60s and thus influenced everyone from Syd Barrett through to Fred Frith and Jim O’Rourke. A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality is a live recording of Rowe solo outside of the AMM context he shares with percussionist Eddie Prevost and pianist John Tilbury. The array of sounds that the Englishman coaxes from the mere six string instrument is phenomenal, and his art is to extend upon the prepared piano techniques pioneered by John Cage and apply them to the electric guitar. As ecstatic as Derek Bailey, the comparison stops there as Rowe scarcely even puts his fingers on the string, instead opting for radio feedback, arco, and any number of kitchen implements to attack the guitar. To the uninitiated this may sound like clattering mess of noise. A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality is certainly far from it, as the dexterity with which he approache…s abstraction is prodigal. It is no doubt then that everyone from Sonic Youth, Henry Kaiser, and even Frank Zappa could accredit Rowe as inspirational. His activities on recordings increased dramatically in the year 2000, with the proto-noise artist directing MIMEO and collaborating with improv mainstay Evan Parker on numerous recordings. This CD is a great document of one of his scarce solo performances.
[Martin Walters, All Music Guide]

Cornelius Cardew (Arr. K. Rowe) – Ode Machine No. 2
K. Rowe prepared guitar, voice
Recorded at the Holywell Music Room, Oxford on 5 July 1989

Via bravo Juju

Seattle Improv Meeting

The Seattle Improv Meeting is a group dedicated to exploring structured improvisation. Utilizing graphical, textural, Flash, verbal and other non-idiomatic scores the group examine the intersection of composition and improvisation. The group primary focus has been Cornelius Cardew’s epic graphic score Treatise (we already post about it) which they currently are in the midst of a complete playthrough, at the rate of 4-6 pages per session (due to the lack of any explicit time scale, the Treatise can also be played in parts, al least a page at a time).
On the site you can also find a guide to Treatise with many materials and links.

UBU Web

UBU Web is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
All materials on UbuWeb are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only.
Originally focusing on Sound Poetry proper, UbuWeb’s Sound section has grown to encompass all types of sound art, historical and contemporary, mainly from Fluxus era (sixties to seventies).
From there, I suggest 2 musical works with graphic score:

  • Morton Feldman – The King of Denmark (1964) Max Neuhaus realisation. A very soft piece for percussions all played in ppp in the peculiar style of Feldman’s production of the sixties.
  • Cornelius Cardew – Treatise (1963-67) once described as the Mount Everest of graphic scores (193 pages of numbers, shapes and symbols whose interpretation is left up to the performers) played by the Scratch Orchestra at the Cardew Memorial Concert in 1982.