E Q U U S

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 46:51] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, states - in ´Memories, Dreams, Reflections´ - that ´nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day.´ The Melgacian ´EQUUS´ sorely does exactly the same!" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"Trying to decode the mind of O.M., probably ´EQUUS´ forms a diptych with his ´Mazeppa´.

>> melgacootacilio.bandcamp.com/album/m-a-z-e-p-p-a-an-equestrian-passacaglia-otac-lio-melga-o-duration-39-39 <<

The theme Equestrian as the tip of a complex iceberg. Certainly both sonic Pieces endowed with an indelible Elevation and that reveal abysmal conflicts between Man and its belief in the Sacred (question that proportionally throws spotlight on His profane quota) as well as the endless own internal strifes of the human being. Among such craps, observe, for instance, a fascinating subject as the Time. In musical terminology, Tempo (´time´ in Italian; plural: ´tempi´) is the speed or pace of a given piece. Otacílio Melgaço often seems a creator who - at least in its classical works - embraces not an accelerated or quick or precipitate or hasty tempo. Melgaço is a customary sower of Larghissimo, Grave, Largo, Lento, Larghetto, Adagio, Adagietto. In today's world, there´s a considerable metaphorical perception thereon and that carries extreme potency! In an old interview, he commented: ´Tempi like Andante, Andantino, Marcia moderato, Andante moderato, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro moderato, Allegro Vivace, Vivacissimo, Allegrissimo, Presto, Prestissimo are for body rhythmicities, its surrounding. And the slower are the ones that actually express the issues of the human soul, of the Esprit!: they represent a multidimensional corporeity!´. Moreover, Otacílio expands unlimits of chronic metric and so the Brazilian composer/multi-instrumentalist breaks the rigid boundaries dictated by a metronome; all remain open. It´s no different in lacerating and spectacular ´EQUUS´!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses.

Shaffer was inspired to write Equus when he heard of a crime involving a 17-year-old who blinded six horses in a small town near Suffolk. He set out to construct a fictional account of what might have caused the incident, without knowing any of the details of the crime. The play's action is something of a detective story, involving the attempts of the child psychiatrist, Dr. Martin Dysart, to understand the cause of the boy's actions while wrestling with his own sense of purpose. The stage show ran in London between 1973 and 1975: later came the Broadway productions that starred Anthony Hopkins as Dysart (later played by Richard Burton, Leonard Nimoy, and Anthony Perkins), and from the London production, Peter Firth as Alan. Tom Hulce replaced Firth during the Broadway run. The Broadway production ran for 1,209 performances. Marian Seldes appeared in every single performance of the Broadway run, first in the role of Hesther and then as Dora.

Numerous other issues inform the narrative. Most important are religious and ritual sacrifice themes, and the manner in which character Alan Strang constructs a personal theology involving the horses and the supreme godhead, "Equus". Alan sees the horses as representative of God and confuses his adoration of his "God" with sexual attraction. Also important is Shaffer's examination of the conflict between personal values and satisfaction and societal mores, expectations and institutions. In reference to the play's classical structure, themes and characterisation, Shaffer has discussed the conflict between Apollonian and Dionysian values and systems in human life;

II - Equus was adapted to the cinema, a 1977 British-American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Richard Burton. Peter Shaffer wrote the screenplay based on his play Equus. The film also featured Peter Firth, Colin Blakely, Joan Plowright, Eileen Atkins, and Jenny Agutter.

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.