MHL 603 – PREPARATION 5

(F-11)

 

Due 17 October via Email

 

On reserve in the library you'll find a DVD called "Casa Scelsi."  It is an art-film evocation of the life and work of Giacinto Scelsi, in German with English subtitles.  The film is 60 minutes long, and the DVD is divided into tracks every 5 minutes.  I recommend tracks 1-3 and 6-8, but watch the entire film if you like it.  You can find more information about Scelsi at http://www.uitti.org/pub1.html

 

In addition read the following short essay:

Frederic Rzewski, “Little Bangs: A nihilist theory of improvisation,” in Audio Culture (ed. C. Cox and D. Warner, 2004), 266-271.

 

 

Write a paragraph or two on one of the following questions:

 

1.  The DVD contains interviews with three people: Francis-Marie Uitti, a cellist, who played Scelsi’s music; Michiko Harayama, a singer; and Vieru Tosatti, who worked for Scelsi as a transcriber. All of them discuss Scelsi’s unusual compositional process, which involved recording his improvisations, then hiring others to transcribe and edit them. Do you hear things in Maknongan that seem result from this process?  Identify them. How can you tell they started as improvs? Can you hear signs of subsequent revision or editing?

 

2.  Toward the end of his essay Rzewski develops the idea that "real life" is irrational and that "music can expand our awareness of the irrational, dark side of reality."  Does Scelsi's music, as you hear it in the movie and in Maknongan, expand our awareness of the irrational? Explain how your awareness was expanded. Does this have anything to do with the role of improvisation in the way he composed? Of does it result from other factors?

 

3.  "Improvisation tells us," according to Rzewski, "Anything is possible—anything can be changed—now." Is this true exclusively of improvised music?  Or do other, written-out pieces in we have studied in this "experimental music" unit convey a similar message? Are there "composed" pieces from the “classical” repertory that also tell us that anything is possible? Discuss!

 

 

 

 

Send your paragraph (or two) to john.spitzer@notes.sfcm.edu by Monday 17 Oct. at 6 PM. Yes, I know that this is a vacation day, but if I don’t get your preps in advance, we won’t have anything to discuss on Wednesday. If you want a real vacation, try to finish the prep on Friday.