M a n o
A
M a n o
O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o
[duration 57:11] 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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"The title seems deliberately ambiguous and even paradoxical.
'Hand-to-hand' - an intense fight or contest between two adversaries;
a duel [Probably, even metaphorically, the Past seen by O.M.]
or
'Holding hands' - in a freer translation. [Probably the desire of a Present.]
Plus, if 'mano' in Spanish means - as you have noted - 'hand', in Portuguese is a corruption of 'brother'. And the curious translexical fact: because, in Spanish, 'brother' is 'hermano'. So '(her) m a n o'. If you read in the official language of Brazil, takes on the primordial sense: 'from a brother to another', '(de um) Mano a (outro) Mano'.
Well, one step further: 'Manos' (plural form), would be almost twins?
Yet in Portuguese are called 'Gêmeos Raquípagos'. The Siamese twins who were born joined at the back. João Guimarães Rosa, the greatest Brazilian writer of the twentieth century (and, in the opinion of Melgaço, of all time - including the future), once said that so are Brazil and other countries in South America, its neighbors: 'gêmeos raquípagos'. Fraternal beings but each geared toward a direction that prevent them from making eye contact.
Otacílio Melgaço, in 'Mano a Mano' - a fascinating, introjective, inviting, ... , needed & awaited work -, redeems the historic failure indicated by Mr. Guimarães Rosa and, more importantly, sets conceptual and officially the most intimate and revealing contact: the audible." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)
"Paraphrasing Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I must try and break through the cliches about South America. Superpowers and other outsiders have fought over us for centuries in ways that have nothing to do with our problems. In reality we are all alone.
O.M. gives an important signal to break the vicious circle pointed out by the Nobel Prize-winning 'Gabo'.
Artistically 'Mano a Mano' is a marrowy nod to such isolationism come to an end.
O.M. uses typical resonant elements of other cultures of South America and transfigures each. Zampoña (panpipe), charango or quirquincho (small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family), certain primitive tambours ... are examples of traditional apparatus that after filtered by the highly Melgacian creative vein, gave rise to sound Pieces as exuberantly hypnotic diversity and exotically (almost) minimalist magnificent.
Each nominality of the eight tracks highlights indelible personalist references of several regions of this part of the continent, such as Adolfo Bioy Casares, Pablo Neruda, Roberto Bolaño Ávalos, Julio Florencio Cortázar, Gabriela Mistral, Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa and the aforementioned Gabriel José García Márquez. In fact, seven because 'Los Andes' (Sinfonietta) is the 'Pièce de résistance' - followed by 'Octaedro o La vuelta al Día en Ochenta Mundos' - that honors the backbone of South America. Geological backbone but far more than that. 'Mano a Mano' is a record album (a 'centrum') which reveals itself as a marrow squash that proposes new and renewed arches protruding.
The polysemy contained in the cover image is impressive. A skeletal hand, another allusion to the figurative spine focused (hand pulp as the chine and fingers as the vertebrae) on the record? It can be read therefore as a spinal extension of this medullary work (the tip of the iceberg)? Another: It would be the representation of the geographical design of the southern portion of the American continent? More: the hot shocking red brings to light the hemorrhagic blood from former colonies and (in its cursed legacy, until today?) impregnating even the hand bones? Alias there's a only hand because it symbolizes the claimed union? And so on.
'Nothing is built on stone; all is built on sand, but we must build as if the sand were stone', wise and providential words of Jorge Luis Borges. Words that now Otacílio Melgaço honors masterfully. Writing is nothing more than a guided dream. And, ladies and gentlemen, a guided dream is the most vocationed to become real." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)
Be sure to check also
melgacootacilio.bandcamp.com/album/c-ndor-otac-lio-melga-o-duration-03-25-58
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I - South America is a continent located in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also considered as a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the model used in Spanish-speaking nations and most of S.A.
It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean; North America and the Caribbean Sea lie to the northwest. It includes twelve sovereign states – Argentina, Bolivia, B-r-a-z-i-l (country from which arises Melgaço), Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela – and two non-sovereign areas – French Guiana, an overseas department of France, and the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory (though disputed by Argentina). In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Netherlands and Trinidad and Tobago may also be considered part of South America.
South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers (6,890,000 sq mi). Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000. South America ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America).
Most of the population lives near the continent's western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. The geography of western South America is dominated by the Andes mountains; in contrast, the eastern part contains both highland regions and large lowlands where rivers such as the Amazon, Orinoco, and Paraná flow. Most of the continent lies in the tropics.
The continent's cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the overwhelming majority of South Americans speak Portuguese (exclusively in Brazil because it was the only Portuguese colony) or Spanish, and societies and states commonly reflect Western traditions;
II - The Andes is the longest continental mountain range in the world. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about 7,000 km (4,300 mi) long, about 200 to 700 km (120 to 430 mi) wide (widest between 18° south and 20° south latitude), and of an average height of about 4,000 m (13,000 ft). The Andes extend from north to south through seven South American countries: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated by intermediate depressions. The Andes is the location of several high plateaux – some of which host major cities, such as Quito, Bogotá, Arequipa, Medellín, Sucre, Mérida and La Paz. The Altiplano plateau is the world's second-highest after the Tibetan plateau. These ranges are in turn grouped into three major divisions based on climate: the Tropical Andes, the Dry Andes, and the Wet Andes.
The Andes is the world's highest mountain range outside of Asia. The highest mountain outside Asia, Mount Aconcagua, rises to an elevation of about 6,962 m (22,841 ft) above sea level. The peak of Chimborazo in the Ecuadorean Andes is farther from the Earth's center than any other location on the Earth's surface, due to the equatorial bulge resulting from the Earth's rotation. The world's highest volcanoes are in the Andes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina border which rises to 6,893 m (22,615 ft).
The etymology of the word Andes has been debated. The majority consensus is that it derives from the Quechua word anti, which means "east" as in Antisuyu (Quechua for "east region"), one of the four regions of the Inca Empire;
III - A Sinfonietta is a symphony that is smaller in scale or lighter in approach than a standard symphony. Although of Italian form, the word is not genuine in that language and has seldom been used by Italian composers. It appears to have been coined in 1874 by Joachim Raff for his Op. 188, but became common usage only in the early 20th century (Temperley 2001).
...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.
