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Le Monde Codifié (Pi​è​ces pour Piano Pr​é​par​é​) {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 01​:​02​:​24]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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L e M o n d e C o d i f i é

- P i è c e s P o u r P i a n o P r é p a r é -

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 01:02:24] 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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"A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (called preparations) on or between the strings.

The invention of the ´prepared´, per se, is usually traced to John Cage. Cage first prepared a piano when he was commissioned to write music for ´Bacchanale´, a dance by Syvilla Fort in 1938. For some time previously, Cage had been writing exclusively for a percussion ensemble, but the hall where Fort’s dance was to be staged had no room for a percussion group. The only instrument available was a single grand piano. After some consideration, Cage said that he realized it was possible ´to place in the hands of a single pianist the equivalent of an entire percussion orchestra ... With just one musician, you can really do an unlimited number of things on the inside of the piano if you have at your disposal an exploded keyboard´.

However, some historical precedents:

In his Ragamalika (1912–22), based on the classical music of India, French composer Maurice Delage (1879–1961) calls for a piece of cardboard to be placed under the B-flat in the second line of the bass clef to dampen the sound, imitating the sound of an Indian drum;

In 1922 American Composer Henry Cowell (1897–1965) pioneered a technique he dubbed ´string piano´, which involved having the pianist reach inside the piano and pluck, sweep, scape, thump, and otherwise manipulate the strings directly, rather than using the keyboard. He developed these techniques in pieces such as Aeolian Harp (1923) and The Banshee (1925). Although Cowell's techniques don't call for placing objects (other than the hands) inside the piano, Cage frequently cited Cowell's work as the primary inspiration for his development of the prepared piano;

In his Choros no. 8, a 1925 work for two pianos and large orchestra, the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos added to his score instructions to the pianist to insert pieces of paper between the strings and the hammers to attain a certain sonority.

As from Kafka there´s ´Kafkaesque´, I think we can establish the term ´Melgacianesque´. This time is a perspective focused on the reinvention of the piano sound that gets the spotlight in the album ´Le Monde Codifié´!

Complex expressions that flow in a single instrument (such a ´specimen´). Individualized, even in multiple layers (as O.M. like to explore and expand) of its own identity, subjectivity. As Martin Heidegger wrote: ´Transcendence constitutes selfhood´. So, phenomenally, Otacílio Melgaço encodes and decodes Worlds." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"´Le Monde Codifié´ (in French); ´The World Codified´.

There are six Pieces. They make mention of the six continents.
Track by track, are respectively Europe, (Eur)Asia, Africa, Oceania, Antarctica and America.

Considering this ubiquitous geography but ´c-o-d-e-d´ (and such word is vital), I expose my most instant view:

´Bellum omnium contra omnes´. On a planet that now seems so disturbed; prone to isolationism and segregationist trends; vulnerable to terrorism; target of militarism (in its various faces); with reactionary governmental positions; taking the transnational economy as a kind of leviathan; ... how can we encode it all? Surpassing an establishment unreservedly self-centered & a ´status quo´ increasingly obsolete in its structures and mechanisms which tend to proliferate interconnections with collectivity the same manner as occurs between a puppeteer and his puppets (and even if it´s not as present within the borders of ´this´ or ´that´ country - more developed -, ultimately is manifest in international relations grounded in a worrying zeitgeist), ´encode´ could be a way to decipher it towards resuming the future with our own hands. With a north more full of egalitarian glimpse. Decreasing dependence on a supposed political ´representativity´, opening more paths to initiatives originating from organized and enlightened populaces. A north, in fact: c-o-s-m-o-p-o-l-i-t-i-s-t. Not in moralistic or doctrinal or naive or utopian sense, but athwart 1) a fairer distribution of global richness (only once, I'll announce, terrified, a source: OXFAM, the prestigious British foundation in international development area, recently released a report which shows that 1% of the population has the same wealth as the other 99% remaining. There are other ways to reveal this global scandal. For example: 62 families hold the same affluence as 50% of the world inhabitants); 2) a less imposing cultural exchange on the part of ´some´ - in order to many ethnic, racial, folk, societal artistic expressions are not asphyxiated or even buried alive; 3) more respectability to coexistence (or at least the existence) of divergent and contradictory identities either in their original niches or in motion around the earth etc etc etc.
All this is, in my intuition, one of the appropriate connotations concerning ´The World C-o-d-i-f-i-e-d´. If so, ´prepare´ the piano, make the instrument ´prepared´ ... would be a metaphor for turning point, mindwalk.

It´s also the title of a Flusserian work. [Conférence du 3 Mai 1973, Paris: Institut de l'Environment/Centre de Formation Permanente pour les Arts Plastiques, 1974.] Vilém Flusser (1920 – 1991) was a Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo (where he became a Brazilian citizen) and later in France, and his works are written in several languages. His early work was marked by discussion of the thought of Martin Heidegger, and by the influence of existentialism and phenomenology. Phenomenology would play a major role in the transition to the later phase of his work, in which he turned his attention to the philosophy of communication and of artistic production. He contributed to the dichotomy in history: the period of image worship, and period of text worship, with deviations consequently into idolatry and ´textolatry´.

Based on these points, we can try, with more fundamentals (detail on the misty cover that much resembles William Blake paintings, carrying a stupendous symbolicity), find the possible scope from what Otacílio sets sail (going beyond any manichaeism and fetishization) for making this well prepared globalist conceptual superlative sonic creation.

As an addendum, I´ll mention five (among several) minutiae very interesting and typically Melgacian:

i - For me, apart from the reference to the fascinating
Piet(er Cornelis) Studio (a way of saying that life is art, art is life; both are indiscernible), through the elusive sonorous ambience: it´s a tribute to Nelly van Doesburg & Jakob van Domselaer. To contextualize my words, confer ´De Stijl´.

But it´s about something else this item: we know that the Dutch painter Mondrian loved jazz, especially the boogie-woogie. Boogie-woogie is a musical genre that became popular during the late 1920s, but developed in African American communities in the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano, to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western music, and gospel. While the blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly associated with dancing. Is not strictly a solo piano style but
it´s undeniable that this instrument is its main ´voice´ (accordingly, it does not seem coincidental that the piano stars in ´Le Monde
Codifié´). Verify you as, in the last seconds of the first track, O.M. makes strategic (and witty) mention of the gender;

ii - Kaleidoscopic allusions. Pierre Edouard Leopold Verger, alias Fatumbi or Fátúmbí (1902, in Paris, France – 1996, in Salvador, Brazil) was a photographer, self-taught ethnographer, and babalawo (Yoruba priest of Ifa) who devoted most of his life to the study of the African diaspora — the slave trade, the African-based religions of the new world, and the resulting cultural and economical flows from and to Africa. At the age of 30, after losing his family, Pierre Verger took up the career of journalistic photographer. Over the next 15 years, he traveled the four continents, documenting many civilizations that would soon be effaced by progress. (...) In the city of Salvador, Brazil he fell in love with the place and people, and decided to stay for good. Having become interested in the local history and culture, he turned from errant photographer to a researcher of the African diaspora in the Americas. His subsequent voyages are focused on that goal: the west coast of Africa and Paramaribo (1948), Haiti (1949), and Cuba (1957). After studying the Yoruba culture and its influences in Brazil, Verger became an initiated of the Candomblé religion, and officiated at its rituals. During a visit to Benin, he was initiated into Ifá, became a babalawo (priest) of Orunmila, and was renamed Fátúmbí. Verger continued to study and document his chosen subject right until his death in Salvador, at the age of 94. During that time he became a professor at the Federal University of Bahia in 1973, where he was responsible for the establishment of the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Salvador; and served as visiting professor at the University of Ifé in Nigeria. The non-profit Pierre Verger Foundation in Salvador, which he established to continue his work, holds more than 63,000 photos and negatives taken until 1973, as well as his papers and correspondence;

iii - Ui-Te-Rangiora is from Polynesia, thus comes from Oceania. But there´s the legend that was the discoverer of Antarctica. Another example (previous topic already signaled in the equal direction) of how Otacílio inserts subtle intersections betwixt his offsprings;

iv - ´Pindorama´ has the exact duration of twenty-one minutes. Being aware of its etymology, some analogy with the century in which we are?;

v - Plus. The very sixth Piece is dedicated to a personality who was born in the same state of Melgaço; is his fellow countryman. Among many predicates he had, Ivo Pitanguy established himself (and was consecrated) worldwide as a plastic surgeon. The prepared piano is not exactly the instrument through a new plasticity?

Mr. Pitanguy used to say that his ´specialty it is the attempt to reach harmony between body and spirit, emotional and rational. To be happy with yourself is by no means a superficial desire. My operations are not just for my patients’ bodies. They are for their souls.´ The parallel of these words with the profile and work of the composer and multi-instrumentalist Otacílio Melgaço is really undeniable. Yes, art is not what you see, but what you make others see. More than that. Paraphrasing Degas, it´s what O.M., once for all and beyond, makes us h-e-a-r." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - Peredvizhniki, often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restrictions; it evolved into the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions in 1870;

II - Fátúmbí (in Yoruba), "he who is reborn through the Ifá" (Ifá: "cowrie-shell divination"). Messenger between two worlds;

III - Ui-Te-Rangiora is believed to have been a 7th-century Polynesian navigator from the island of Rarotonga. According to Māori legend, Ui-te-Rangiora sailed south and encountered ice floes and icebergs in the Southern Ocean. He called this area of southern ocean Tai-uka-a-pia (sea foaming like arrowroot) due to the ice floes being similar to arrowroot powder. It is also claimed that Ui-te-Rangiora reached the Ross Ice Shelf, although he did not land on it;

IV - Antarctĭcus. The Antarctic. A polar region, specifically the region around the Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica and the ice shelves, waters, and island territories in the Southern Ocean situated south of the Antarctic Convergence. The region covers some 20% of the Southern Hemisphere, of which 5.5% (14 million km2) is the surface area of the Antarctic continent itself;

V - Pindorama is a designation for the mythical place of the Tupi-Guarani people, which would be a land free of evils. Archaeologists believe that the myth has been formed at the time of ancient migrations, when the Tupi-Guarani moved to the Brazilian coast, current eastern region of South America. Several Tupi-Guarani groups inhabited the region to "Pindorama invasion" , better known as "discovery of Brazil".

Name by which the people of the Peruvian Andes and the Pampas refer to Brazil;

VI - Ivo Hélcio Jardim de Campos Pitanguy (1926 – 2016), born in the city of Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais, was a plastic surgeon based in Rio de Janeiro.

Pitanguy studied at the Bethesda North Hospital in Cincinnati, where he worked with John Longacre. Soon after, Pitanguy went to France and England where he studied plastic surgery.

In 1953 he began working at a Brazilian hospital. On December 17, 1961, a burning circus tent fell on 2,500 spectators in the Brazilian city of Niterói. Pitanguy treated burn victims for weeks on an emergency basis. He later referred to the event as life changing, as it taught him that for many, physical appearance was critical to living. He founded a private clinic called Clínica Ivo Pitanguy in the Botafogo section of Rio de Janeiro where he operated on clients and trained surgeons.

Was also a philanthropist. He renovated a ward at the public Santa Casa da Misericórdia Hospital in Rio where, for four decades, he has offered treatment for free. Pitanguy was a member of the Academia Brasileira de Letras and of the Academia Nacional de Medicina. The Pitanguy clinic in Rio also includes an auditorium and library for Pitanguy's lectures and writings for medical students;

VII - Check it:

melgacootacilio.bandcamp.com/album/codex-gigas-codex-seraphinianus-pe-a-para-percuss-o-piano-preparado-otac-lio-melga-o-duration-33-44

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
Wikipedia was the main 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.

credits

released August 8, 2016

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
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