From the 1980s onwards, György Ligeti openly acknowledged the influence of African polyphony, Ind... more From the 1980s onwards, György Ligeti openly acknowledged the influence of African polyphony, Indonesian gamelan and music of the Americas on works such as the Piano Concerto (1980–8) and Violin Concerto (1989–93), as well as the Études pour piano (1985–2001). The present article analyses Étude No. 7, ‘Galamb borong’, in order to establish the precise point of intersection between Western and non-Western within one specific piece. On the basis of this case study, the composer may be shown to celebrate the exotic under the umbrella of the cosmopolitan in a discourse of the universal that is inherently local. Furthermore, by permitting ‘Galamb borong’ to unfold as a dialogue between Balinese music and the Western classical canon, Ligeti's embrace of ‘amalgamated musical languages’ comes to represent an aesthetic standpoint capable of liberating the creative individual not only from inherited tradition but also from the postmodern present.
From the 1980s onwards, György Ligeti openly acknowledged the influence of African polyphony, Ind... more From the 1980s onwards, György Ligeti openly acknowledged the influence of African polyphony, Indonesian gamelan and music of the Americas on works such as the Piano Concerto (1980–8) and Violin Concerto (1989–93), as well as the Études pour piano (1985–2001). The present article analyses Étude No. 7, ‘Galamb borong’, in order to establish the precise point of intersection between Western and non-Western within one specific piece. On the basis of this case study, the composer may be shown to celebrate the exotic under the umbrella of the cosmopolitan in a discourse of the universal that is inherently local. Furthermore, by permitting ‘Galamb borong’ to unfold as a dialogue between Balinese music and the Western classical canon, Ligeti's embrace of ‘amalgamated musical languages’ comes to represent an aesthetic standpoint capable of liberating the creative individual not only from inherited tradition but also from the postmodern present.
The Conservatory of Parma, together with the University of Parma, Parma Municipality - Casa della... more The Conservatory of Parma, together with the University of Parma, Parma Municipality - Casa della Musica and the Italian Musicological Society, has organized the international Conference Musica e spazio: esperienze passate, prospettive future (Music and Space: Past Experiences, Future Perspectives) as part of the research project Labirinti Sonori. The conference has aimed to explore the relation between music and space in its aesthetic, historical, technical and technological dimensions, according to the following lines of research: space as an essential element of musical creation; the relation between music and architecture; the creation of virtual reality and the simulation of space through sound; the spatial dimension in performance practice; the use of technology in order to build sound space.
[co-authored with Amy Bauer]
The music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) is ... more [co-authored with Amy Bauer]
The music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) is often aligned with the spectralist school of composition, although the composer resists descriptions of his approach that characterize it in terms of any one technical attribute, choosing instead to construct a heterogeneous microtonal aesthetic that cuts across conventional boundaries of genre and style.
Haas’s prodigious and varied output since the eighties treats instrumental sound-color and texture as central elements of musical discourse. The expressive force of pitch and timbral effects in his music has long been bound to a theatrical play with light and shadow, extended in more recent works through a use of electroacoustic technologies to implement tape-delay and additive synthesis models during live performance. The authors attend here to both of these neglected aspects of Haas’s oeuvre through a detailed analysis of excerpts from three mixed works—String Quartet no. 4 (2003), Ein Schattenspiel (2004) for solo piano, and the large ensemble piece …und… (2008–9), and through an analytical treatment of light as a metaphoric and literal aspect of composition in the large-scale orchestral pieces in vain (2000) and Hyperion (2006). These analyses are set against historical and theoretical background (with focus on the theoretical work of Wyschnegradsky) for the composer’s eclectic microtonal aesthetics, a consideration of the enjoinment of pansonic and panoptical spaces, and a reflection on the “microtonal ethics” of Haas’s approach and his recent venture into cultural politics in the work I can’t breathe for solo trumpet in memoriam Eric Garner (2015).
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The conference has aimed to explore the relation between music and space in its aesthetic, historical, technical and technological dimensions, according to the following lines of research: space as an essential element of musical creation; the relation between music and architecture; the creation of virtual reality and the simulation of space through sound; the spatial dimension in performance practice; the use of technology in order to build sound space.
The music of Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) is often aligned with the spectralist school of composition, although the composer resists descriptions of his approach that characterize it in terms of any one technical attribute, choosing instead to construct a heterogeneous microtonal aesthetic that cuts across conventional boundaries of genre and style.
Haas’s prodigious and varied output since the eighties treats instrumental sound-color and texture as central elements of musical discourse. The expressive force of pitch and timbral effects in his music has long been bound to a theatrical play with light and shadow, extended in more recent works through a use of electroacoustic technologies to implement tape-delay and additive synthesis models during live performance. The authors attend here to both of these neglected aspects of Haas’s oeuvre through a detailed analysis of excerpts from three mixed works—String Quartet no. 4 (2003), Ein Schattenspiel (2004) for solo piano, and the large ensemble piece …und… (2008–9), and through an analytical treatment of light as a metaphoric and literal aspect of composition in the large-scale orchestral pieces in vain (2000) and Hyperion (2006). These analyses are set against historical and theoretical background (with focus on the theoretical work of Wyschnegradsky) for the composer’s eclectic microtonal aesthetics, a consideration of the enjoinment of pansonic and panoptical spaces, and a reflection on the “microtonal ethics” of Haas’s approach and his recent venture into cultural politics in the work I can’t breathe for solo trumpet in memoriam Eric Garner (2015).