L e N o m D e L a R r o s e S é l a v y

P a t a p h y s i q u e P i è c e P o u r
V o i x, M a c h i n e À C o u d r e, P a r a p l u i e,
P e r c u s s i o n, P i a n o, B o l s C h a n t a n t s E t T a n p u r i

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 19:08] all rights reserverd

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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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"´What art is, in reality, is this missing link, not the links which exist. It's not what you see that is art; art is the gap.´ (M.D.)

Rubbing an inspiration coming directly from the Lautréamontian imaginary of Isidore-Lucien Ducasse, such as the lamp of an Aladdin insane, Otacílio Melgaço and his three wishes in the form of a unique name. ´Le Nom de la Rrose Sélavy´ ... is ´beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella.´

Between 1912 and 1915, Duchamp worked with various musical ideas. At least three pieces have survived: two compositions and a note for a musical happening. The two compositions are based on chance operations. Erratum Musical, written for three voices, was published in 1934. La Mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires même. Erratum Musical is unfinished and was never published or exhibited during Duchamp's lifetime. According to the manuscript, the piece was intended for a mechanical instrument ´in which the virtuoso intermediary is suppressed´. The manuscript also contains a description for ´An apparatus automatically recording fragmented musical periods´, consisting of a funnel, several open-end cars and a set of numbered balls. These pieces predate John Cage's Music of Changes (1951), which is often considered the first modern piece to be conceived largely through random procedures. Apropos, in 1968, Duchamp and John Cage appeared together at a concert entitled ´Reunion´, playing a game of chess and composing Aleatoric music by triggering a series of photoelectric cells underneath the chessboard.

We can verify: there are notional echoes of the artist born in Normandy in this Melgacian work. Aleatoriety and mechanicism have their demarcations. Since the stochastic insertion of percussive interventions (as well as the beating of the tip of an umbrella on a reverberating surface in exotic counterpoints to a whispering voice in French) until the use of the automatistic noisy rhythmicty of a sewing machine in action. One difference is the - etymologically -
´polyphonic´ complexity of Otacílio surpassing the field of mere randomic effects. A stimulating conjunction betwixt the presence of the multiformally ´human finger´ (exercising the compositional amplitude with property) and textured elements that arise by chance, as in sonic acupunctures, although previously chosen and architected with regard to timbres etc.

It´s relevant to realize that when O.M. makes mention of any ´entity´ who came before him, even if in tone of homage, it´s never ´just´ a tribute or an inventive recurrence. Of course, beyond interpenetrating empathy, what happens is a constant dialogue (not a soliloquy), full of challenges, provocations and even iconoclasms. In this way art gains the north: looking at the past dialectically even as holding up the present that flirts with palpable visionary principles. Another thing you deserve to know, if you still do not know, is: Otacílio Melgaço has as one section of his creations a kind of revision of the steps of mankind conflagrated in its humanistic history. Through art itself; through cross-cultural, transgeographic, ethnographic, anthropological, semiotical, mythological, psychological, sciential, theoretical, architectural, cosmopolitanist, (sometimes) folkloric ... traits; plus religiosity; social, political, behavioral issues and so on. So any reference, when there is, becomes a connotation of this
Museum-of-Everything. Otacílio's career is not entirely turned to that, but also has such ambition. As a contemporary (high-technological) Homer. Not ´only´ (as if that by itself already was not something monumental) but (as another of its paradoxes) simultaneously to his exciting futurisms and clairvoyance. In the end, all is the presentification of his gift & labour because the artist does the contemporization of what existed before him (finding in his figure the receptacle; deep intervenor too) and of what will still comes (acting as a constructor, precursor/harbinger). And so, the Melgacian flyby.

John Cage once said that ´We carry our homes within us which enables us to fly.´ I agree with him. ´Le Nom de la Rrose Sélavy (Pataphysique Pièce pour Voix, Machine à Coudre, Parapluie, Percussion, Piano, Bols Chantants et Tanpuri)´ allows us, Ladies and Gentlemen, to feel at (the same and always renovated) home while in fact we´re in full flight." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"F i r s t M o v e m e n t -

´Rrose Sélavy´, also spelled Rose Sélavy, was one of Duchamp's pseudonyms.

Sélavy emerged in 1921 in a series of photographs by Man Ray showing Duchamp dressed as a woman. Through the 1920s Man Ray and Duchamp collaborated on more photos of Sélavy. Duchamp later used the name as the byline on written material and signed several creations with it. Like Marcel, Mr. Melgaço also makes a wordplay. In the case, he mixes the alter ego of Duchamp and the title of the most famous work of Umberto Eco, the magnum opus ´Il Nome della Rosa´ (´The Name of the Rose´).

The name ´Rrose Sélavy´, a pun, sounds like the French phrase

Eros, c'est la vie,

which may be translated as

´Eros, such is life´.

It has also been read as

arroser la vie (´to make a toast to life´).

In Greek mythology, Eros was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid (´desire´). Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he´s the son of Aphrodite. Is derived from Eros the term ´erotic´ . Here and now, melgacianly erotic through a mysterious, magnetic music; between Dadaism and Surreality.

Eros, such is (a toast to) life!

S e c o n d M o v e m e n t -

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp, Umberto Eco, Alfred Jarry, Christian Emil Marie Küpper. If I barely emphasize the figures quoted directly, all gathered by another cultural personality of expressive line as is Otacílio Melgaço, what more could I say? There are many possible lines of reasoning, and many intersections. I, willy-nilly, choose Pataphysics then.

´Pataphysics is the science of that which is superinduced upon metaphysics, whether within or beyond the latter’s limitations, extending as far beyond metaphysics as the latter extends beyond physics;

´Pataphysics will be, above all, the science of the particular, despite the common opinion that the only science is that of the general;

´Pataphysics will examine the laws governing exceptions, and will explain the universe supplementary to this one;

´Pataphysics passes easily from one state of apparent definition to another. Thus it can present itself under the aspect of a gas, a liquid or a solid;

´Pataphysics ´the science of the particular´, does not, therefore, study the rules governing the general recurrence of a periodic incident (the expected case) so much as study the games governing the special occurrence of a sporadic accident (the excepted case).

[Jarry performs humorously on behalf of literature what Nietzsche performs seriously on behalf of philosophy. Both thinkers in effect attempt to dream up a ´joyful science´, whose joie de vivre thrives wherever the tyranny of truth has increased our esteem for the ´lie´ and wherever the tyranny of reason has increased our esteem for the ´mad´.]

´Le Nom de la Rrose Sélavy´ takes us, sonorously and sensorially (if we want, philosophically) beyond metaphysics;

´Le Nom´ excels at the particularity of what´s digestible by our epistemology;

´Le Nom´ will play a chessly game between what are anomaly/deviation and how they are occasioned by chance. [So this is assimilated by the compositional syntax];

Ergo ... ´Le Nom´ privileges what are ´exceptional exceptions´ and seeks the ´standards and measures´ (at least, in the case of the Melgacian niche, vestiges or indications thereof) that can lead the creator to its (from the part of ´sporadic´) regencies/developments;

´Le Nom´ does not allow to capture itself by means of ´stationary states of sonic physicality´;

´Le Nom´ embraces dada and surrealist aspirations as ways of realizing that the ruin (or deconstruction) of the tyranny of truth and the tyranny of reason becomes the focus of a constructive and fruitful mindfulness of the artist (besides influencing his breeding, naturally).

T h i r d M o v e m e n t -

´What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible.´ (Umberto Eco)

Yep, blind (beyond metaphysics) and unwavering undisciplined (under the effect of a legitimizing impertinence) at all times constitutes the real strength of all free men. In the name of the real strength and in the name of all free men, is this comprehensible to you?" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - The inspiration of the name Rrose Sélavy has been viewed to be Belle da Costa Greene, J.P. Morgan's librarian of The Morgan Library & Museum (formerly The Pierpont Morgan Library) who, following his death, became the Library's director, working there for a total of forty-three years;

II - Duchamp used the name in the title of at least one sculpture, Why Not Sneeze Rose Selavy? (1921). The sculpture, a type of readymade called an assemblage, consists of an oral thermometer, a couple dozen small cubes of marble resembling sugar cubes and a cuttlefish bone inside a birdcage. Sélavy also appears on the label of Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette (1921), a readymade that is a perfume bottle in the original box. Duchamp also signed his film Anemic Cinema (1926) with the Sélavy name;

III - Rrose Sélavy and the other pseudonyms Duchamp used may be read as a comment on the fallacy of romanticizing the conscious individuality or subjectivity of the artist, a theme that is also a prominent subtext of the Readymades. Duchamp said in an interview,"You think you're doing something entirely your own, and a year later you look at it and you see actually the roots of where your art comes from without your knowing it at all". From 1922 the name Rrose Sélavy also started appearing in a series of aphorisms, puns, and spoonerisms by the French surrealist poet Robert Desnos. Desnos tried to portray Rrose Sélavy as a long-lost aristocrat and rightful queen of France. Aphorism 13 paid homage to Marcel Duchamp: "Rrose Sélavy connaît bien le marchand du sel" ‒ in English: "Rrose Sélavy knows the merchant of salt well"; in French the final words sound like Mar-champ Du-cel. Note that the 'salt seller' aphorism – "mar-chand-du-sel" – is a phonetic rearrangement of the syllables in the artist's actual name: "mar-cel-du-champ." (Duchamp's compiled notes are titled 'Salt Seller'.) In 1939 a collection of these aphorisms was published under the name of Rrose Sélavy, entitled Poils et coups de pieds en tous genres;

IV - 'Pataphysics or pataphysics (French: pataphysique) is an absurdist, pseudo-scientific literary trope invented by French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), that enigmatically resists being pinned down by a simple definition. One attempt at a definition might be to say that ‘pataphysics is a branch of philosophy or science that examines imaginary phenomena that exist in a world beyond metaphysics; it is the science of imaginary solutions. It is a concept expressed by Jarry in a mock-scientific manner with undertones of spoofing and quackery, in his fictional book Exploits & Opinions of Doctor Faustroll, Pataphysician, in which Jarry riddles and toys with conventional concepts and interpretations of reality. Another attempt at a definition interprets ‘pataphysics as an idea that "the virtual or imaginary nature of things as glimpsed by the heightened vision of poetry or science or love can be seized and lived as real." Jarry defines 'pataphysics in a number of statements and examples, including that it is "the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments";

V - Perhaps there´s, indirectly, a reference to João Guimarães Rosa (1908 – 1967), a Brazilian novelist, short story writer and diplomat, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of Brazilian literature.

´Rosa´ is ´Rose´ in Portuguese.

Rosa published four books of short story in his lifetime, all of them revolving about life in the sertão, but addressing themes of universal literature and of existential nature. Rosa only wrote one novel, Grande Sertão: Veredas (known in English as The Devil to Pay in the Backlands), a revolutionary text for its blend of archaic and colloquial prose and frequent use of neologisms, taking inspiration from the spoken language of the Brazilian backlands. For its profoundly philosophical themes, the critic Antonio Candido described the books as a "metaphysical novel". It is often considered to be the Brazilian equivalent of James Joyce's Ulysses. In a 2002 poll by the Bokklubben World Library, "Grande Sertão: Veredas" was named among the best 100 books of all time.

João Guimarães Rosa is, as it´s said in the artistic medium: the ´great patriarch´, the ´father´ of the ´spiritual family´ of Melgaço.

...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.