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March 30, 2009
Luc Ferrari, "Société II"
Side Two1. Société II, (27'27)
and if the piano were a female body
for Piano, 3 Percussions and 16 Instruments.
Gérard Frémy, Piano
Jean-Pierre Drouet / Sylvio Gualda / Gaston Sylvestre, Percussion
Ensemble Instrumental de Musique Contemporaine de Paris
Dir.: Konstantin Simonovitch
Production: Karl Faust
Artistic Supervision: Hansjoachim Reiser
Recording Engineer: Heinz Wildhagen
Design: Holger Matthies, Hamburg
His ancestors emigrated from Genoa when Napoleon tried to force them into military service--hence his mistrust of authority. His grandfather played the cornet in the barracks of the Marseilles customs office--hence his gift for music. His mother was one of Louis Lumihre's editing girls-hence his interest in cinema.
This is the sort of tale Luc Ferrari tells when asked about his origins, for he denies the fact that the biography of an "artist"-which he has no desire to be-is more illuminating than that of any other of his contemporaries.
Be that as it may! Luc Ferrari was born in Paris in 1929 and started composing seriously in 1953 after a long illness had saved him from becoming a pianist. Up to 1958 he wrote instrumental and vocal works mainly for small ensembles, first proceeding from Schoenberg, Messiaen, the serialists, becoming increasingly orientated in the gesture and syntax of Edgar VarBse; works that were both descriptive and what is called absolute, works whose style was sustained throughout and ones in which the demolition of style became the subject. In 1958 he turned towards tape music, at first still basing his work on instrumental ideas, and joined Pierre Schaeffer's 'Groupe de musique concrète'. He remained there until 1963, formulating his concept of 'anecdotal music' in 1964. Since then he has made instrumental music and tape music, theatre, texts, films and collages--composing, like Kagel, with both sounding and non-sounding material.
According to Ferrari, the triumphal procession of mass media has radically changed the composer's position. The composer used to work for a small circle of initiates. Today he has to deal with a much larger audience, but with one that is unprepared and insufficiently informed. There is no point in continuing to present aesthetic objects to such an audience since it has had no part in the developments leading to aesthetic objects. The composer's relationship to his "work"-which may no longer be one--must be given a new definition, it must be activated, included In a process.-But how?
In the field of tape music: instead of forcibly eliminating every trace of the origins of the material which has been taken from reality, Ferrari uses its reference to reality in order to appeal to the hearer's experience and imagination. He makes a montage of tone-pictures which mean something to everybody, he (just) relates anecdotes, sketches stories.-'Presque Rien No. 1' is an undistorted portrayal, although in fast motion, of daybreak on the beach: it is electro-acoustic natural photography, in which Cage's respect for reality is crossed with the dream of a sounding 'minimal art'. If it should occur to anyone that this were no longer "art", he would be entitled to his opinion, and Ferrari would be happy.
In the field of the theatrically orientated series of 'Société': instead of merely constructing the pieces according to dramaturgic considerations, Ferrari makes use of his hearers too, turning them into actors whose collaboration is necessary to charge the exposed material with meaning.-In 'Société II' the material is, in spite of all improvisatory freedom, a strictly conceived concerto for piano, three percussionists and 16 instrumentalists. And yet the sub-title ('And if the piano were a female body') places what behaves like "art" in a dubious perpective, pulls it down from the sphere of good appearance, stimulates tangible erotic fantasies. If it should occur to anyone that this were an offence against "good taste", Ferrari would agree with him.
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Mar 30, 2009 at 05:11 AM