M i s s a
s o l e m n i s
o u r o p r e t a n a

(A l e i j a d i n h o,
D e s c e n d i t
d e
c æ l i s)

O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o

[duration 03:03:33] 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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"If we reflect on Pieces for choir and bringing in the matrix a stratospheric substantial stature, could find only parallel to this gargantuan Mass - going back in time and focusing on the twentieth century - in works by Luciano Berio.

Sound layers exposed by Melgaço which spread for a time without beginning and without end - again seem expressions that go beyond the human spectrum.

Work for voices. ´The Mass is a genre of sacred music linked - in Brazil, mainly - to the traditions and ceremonies of the Catholic Church rite. As its name says, the Mass is a work for voices that fully reflects the ordinary text of the Catholic Mass in Latin. Originally consisted of parts sung of accompaniment for the Order of Mass. From the Romanticism came the trend of these works to follow other directions; different from its initial liturgical sense.´

Otacílio Melgaço respected the canons of a Mass, the Ordinarium. But there are some innovations that should be emphasized. I will aim a light for 4 of them:

1- A Missa tota (´full Mass´) consists of a musical setting of the five sections of the Ordinarium. Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Benedictus, Agnus Dei.

O.M. separates Sanctus and Benedictus into two sections;

2- Missa solemnis indicates a solemn mass, usually for special festive occasions.

O.M. reiterates the festivity of a bicentennial. Aleijadinho died in 1814. ´Missa solemnis ouropretana´ also portray, from the imagination and creativity of Melgacian ´daemon´ (in ancient Greek belief - a divinity or supernatural being of a nature between gods and humans), the return to Earth of Antônio Francisco Lisboa - two hundred years after. He descends from the Heavens just as a prophesied Christ ´mineiro´ (from Minas Gerais). In this sense, Otacílio carries for the biography of his honored - glimpses of multi connotative ´Christ-route´ already established in the global collective unconscious ... electing, at the heart of this teleological projection, Aleijadinho (not Tiradentes) as the most favorable figure to be a mirror of Jesus in the ´archetypicity mineira´. Note the Melgacian iconoclasm: Aleijadinho had black ancestry; possibly suffering serious injuries and pestilent stigmas; was a genius and possessed his idiosyncrasies; was an avant-garde artist (and we know how many obstacles often has to face because of it) in Minas Gerais and Brazil. Although, it has long been confirmed - including foreign connoisseurs - its expression of art was and is in line to high world culture, even taking into account such difficulties and detonators of prejudgement. Can you imagine how it would not be easy for most people (belonging to a particular people) to have him as the image and likeness of Christ? I bring you the conjecture: to Melgaço, despite all religious predicates involved (charity, hope, faith), from what is most quintessential in anything and anyone: it is through ART that there will be any ´Salvation´. For him the ART would encompass contain involve embrace surround intussuscept invaginate ... everything (including charity, hope, faith...) between Heaven and Earth and Beyond;

3- Missa solemnis indicates a solemn mass with an extended vocal and orchestral setting.

O.M. dismisses the orchestra and focuses on the choir. I think not want distractions, only the sonic magma interests him here. The sole exception to the choir is the presence of an camouflaged liturgical organ, played by Melgaço own.

Addenda: i- The bells heard at the end of this preterhuman Piece were, in fact, obtained from a chapel ouropretana! The Church of São Francisco de Assis (1766-94) by Aleijadinho; ii- I am led to believe that the ouropretana solemn Mass can be considered as one of the longest in the history of humanity; iii- Perhaps because Otacílio Melgaço has opted for Solemn, there´s some curtsey to Beethoven (composer who sacramented this mode);

4- And reminiscing and finally: The Mass is a work for voices that fully reflects the ordinary text of the Catholic Mass in Latin. Originally consisted of parts sung of accompaniment for the Order of Mass.

O.M. once again in his creations sets aside the words and their meanings and reinserts the language in untranslatable and unspeakable Uterus of Sound Itself! The voices, the narrative Melgacian voices do not pronounce the Latin (only suggest) because they do not more pronounce and sing the ´language of men´ - if you can understand me.

Let us proceed.

As title, mention of perhaps the most iconic city of Minas Gerais (state in which Otacílio was born): Ouro Preto. ´Ouropretana´ means located in Ouro Preto or someone - or something - deriving from there, arising out of there. Melgaço highlights the sense of genesis, manger, cradle, spatial ontology that brings us to the world and launches us into the world.
As subtitle, homage to Aleijadinho and, in Latin, 'he came down (returned) from Heaven'. Fragment of Credo, one of the sequences of the religious rite, ´(...) Et propter nostram salutem, Descendit de cælis´.

Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho: ´The leading practitioner of Baroque and Rococo in Brazil. The ‘little cripple’ (as Aleijadinho means) suffered from a disease (possibly syphilis or leprosy) that gradually cost him his toes, fingers, sight, and skin.´

[´Recently published research further challenges the traditional biography of the artist. Faced with the lack of documentary evidence, the author Augusto de Lima, Jr. identifies Antônio Francisco Lisboa as a sculptor in 18th century Vila Rica (Ouro Preto original designation), but not a victim of the deformities that would have earned him the nickname.´] Even today there´re numerous controversies about.

Nevertheless ´in spite of these (possible) disadvantages he succeeded in transforming traditional types of Lusitanian church-architecture by means of the most rich and imaginative applied sculptural decoration, much of it carved by himself in the soft soapstone found in abundance in the interior captaincy of Minas Gerais, where gold and diamonds were mined. The capital, Ouro Preto, acquired numerous chapels, altars, doorways, and façades by Aleijadinho, and his masterpieces are recognized as the Churches of São Francisco de Assis (1766–94), Ouro Preto (with twin cylindrical towers set on either side of a curved front in which is set a sumptuous carved door-case, while the interior of the Church is remarkably unified, undulating, and elegant), and Bom Jesus de Matozinhos in Congonhas do Campo near O.P. (with 12 carved figures guarding the entrance to the Church, while the rest of the ensemble is a synthesis of dramatic, powerful, and richly plastic elements, evolved over a long period from 1777 to 1805).´

O.M. composes a Magnum opus to and about Minas Gerais!
From what I know of the Brazilian composer and instrumentalist, is certainly also a parallel and spiritual tribute to João Guimarães Rosa, I can only guess.

In terms of historical importance - analyzing the artistic carat / the compositional fortune / the astonishing ratio / the intercross with the overall culture of the time it was carved and calved / the profound self-questioning / the humanistic depth / the transcendent projection etc., this Mass - in Minas Gerais land - maybe only find comparison with works by composer, music teacher, conductor and organist José Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mesquita (1746 – 1805). I reiterate, of course, that I'm pointing out its origins because the importance of ´Missa solemnis ouropretana´ is of national and international nature.

Emphasizing the vastness verifiable, here can we decipher since subtle baroque traces until unparalleled structural abstractionist power. Since the gradual deconstruction of a sonic perspective of ´duration´ until the (mystical) expansion of a palette of colors audible. Since the reference to a creator who, despite his diseases tortures limitations hardships throes pains suffering illnesses (real or/and metaphorical) brings to light his genius and honors the human race through his Holy Office until the myth of his descent from Heaven, almost Messiah, the same Redeemer who returns to teach men (again) as there´s the need to improve, overcome, ascend. Going yonder: ´the´ great Artist (a Being on extinction?) is peradventure a kind of Redeemer, also a kind of Messiah, no?
I could weave paragraphs and more paragraphs here...

M i s s a
s o l e m n i s
o u r o p r e t a n a

(A l e i j a d i n h o,
D e s c e n d i t
d e
c æ l i s)

one of the most incredible Wonderment brought to light nowadays! Forces us to breathe harmoniously; are about three hours listening! But after that, we'll never be the same.
We entered this celestial (and extremely profoundly humanist) ritual in a way, and at the end (or restart), certainly - somehow - WE ARE REBORN." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"When we are faced with a solemn MASTERPIECE, any pronouncement seems unpronounceable. However, I wish you the fullest surrender to the immeasurable dimensions of this ´superhuman artistic work´ and thus one by one will confirm the content of my shibboleth:

Mark Rothko received the Grace of a Chapel.

The Rothko Chapel.

[Extensive contextualization but vital: ´The Rothko Chapel is located adjacent to the Menil Collection and The University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. The building is small and windowless. It is a geometric, ´postmodern´ structure, located in a turn-of-the-century middle-class Houston neighborhood. The Chapel, the Menil Collection, and the nearby Cy Twombly gallery were funded by Texas oil millionaires John and Dominique de Menil.

In 1964, Rothko moved into his last New York studio at 157 East 69th Street, equipping the studio with pulleys carrying large walls of canvas material to regulate light from a central cupola, to simulate lighting he planned for the Rothko Chapel. Despite warnings about the difference in light between New York and Texas, Rothko persisted with the experiment, setting to work on the canvases. Rothko told friends he intended the Chapel to be his single most important artistic statement. He became considerably involved in the layout of the building, insisting that it feature a central cupola like that of his studio. Architect Philip Johnson, unable to compromise with Rothko's vision about the kind of light he wanted in the space, left the project in 1967, and was replaced with Howard Barnstone and Eugene Aubry. The architects frequently flew to New York to consult and on one occasion brought with them a miniature of the building for Rothko's approval.

For Rothko, the Chapel was to be a destination, a place of pilgrimage far from the center of art (in this case, New York) where seekers of Rothko's newly ´religious´ artwork could journey. Initially, the Chapel, now non-denominational, was to be specifically Roman Catholic, and during the first three years of the project (1964–67) Rothko believed it would remain so. Thus, Rothko's design of the building and the religious implications of the paintings were inspired by Roman Catholic art and architecture. Its octagonal shape is based on the Byzantine church of St. Maria Assunta, and the format of the triptychs is based on paintings of the Crucifixion. The de Menils believed the universal ´spiritual´ aspect of Rothko's work would complement the elements of Roman Catholicism.

Rothko's painting technique required considerable physical stamina that the ailing artist was no longer able to muster. To create the paintings he envisioned, Rothko was forced to hire two assistants to apply the chestnut-brown paint in quick strokes of several layers: ´brick reds, deep reds, black mauves.´ On half of the works, Rothko applied none of the paint himself and was for the most part content to supervise the slow, arduous process. He felt the completion of the paintings to be ´torment´ and the inevitable result was to create ´something you don't want to look at.´

The Chapel is the culmination of six years of Rothko's life and represents his gradually growing concern for the transcendent. For some, to witness these paintings is to submit one's self to a spiritual experience, which, through its transcendence of subject matter, approximates that of consciousness itself. It forces one to approach the limits of experience and awakens one to the awareness of one's own existence. For others, the Chapel houses fourteen large paintings whose dark, nearly impenetrable surfaces represent hermeticism and contemplation.

The Chapel paintings consist of a monochrome triptych in soft brown on the central wall (three 5-by-15-foot panels), and a pair of triptychs on the left and right made of opaque black rectangles. Between the triptychs are four individual paintings (11 by 15 feet each), and one additional individual painting faces the central triptych from the opposite wall. The effect is to surround the viewer with massive, imposing visions of darkness. Despite its basis in religious symbolism (the triptych) and less-than-subtle imagery (the crucifixion), the paintings are difficult to attach specifically to traditional Christian symbolism, and may act on the viewers subliminally. Active spiritual or aesthetic inquiry may be elicited from the viewer in the same way a religious icon with specific symbolism does. In this way, Rothko's erasure of symbols both removes and creates barriers to the work.

As it turned out, these works would be his final artistic statement to the world. They were finally unveiled at the Chapel's opening in 1971. Rothko never saw the completed Chapel and never installed the paintings. On February 28, 1971, at the dedication, Dominique de Menil said, ´We are cluttered with images and only abstract art can bring us to the threshold of the divine,´ noting Rothko's courage in painting what might be called ´impenetrable fortresses´ of color. The drama for many critics of Rothko's work is the uneasy position of the paintings between, as Chase notes, ´nothingness or vapidity´ and ´dignified mute icons´ offering 'the only kind of beauty we find acceptable today'.]

{ >> Intermediate A p p e n d i x

I - It´s my providential suggestion: the next video should be seen in its entirety or, if you prefer to go straight to the confluent point, must start from 43 minutes and 40 seconds, obligingly = vimeo.com/92417721 - then just press 'back' on your browser;

II - Between this and that, I'm sure ... the ladies and gentlemen understood me; I do not mean the Chapel as physical building - a fact that could be allegorically valid at other contexts -, but as Nidus that holds and protects and embraces and cultivates and germinates and energizes and reveals ... what's uplifting the Human Being as a whole, in totum;

III - ´I am not interested in the relationships of color or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions — tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on — and the fact that a lot of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures show that I communicate those basic human emotions. The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point! Pictures must be miraculous. A painting is not a picture of an experience; it is an experience. Silence is so accurate.´ Considerations arising from Rothko, although could be Melgaço giving expression to himself, agree? << }

Yes, Mark Rothko ´received the divine Grace´ of a Chapel.
And he offered his human Grace to ´The´ Chapel. Human, All Too Human. Oh divine humanity!

Considering every word contained in the ample referral above;

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With all due respect to the city of Ouro Preto (hence the term 'ouropretana') and genial Aleijadinho (also architect of sumptuous chapels; 2014 is the bicentenary of his death and undoubtedly the talent and attention - of an artist as O.M. - did not become alienation or omission under the shade of pertinent date) - keeping the part that belongs to them in a fair tribute;

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I'm not forgetting Morton Feldman - a composer for whom I have appreciation - and his ´R.C.´ (1971);

if Otacílio Melgaço himself had proposed (hypothetically) a musical translation of the Rothko Chapel, I believe there would never be another sonic manifestation so perfectly capable of it - than his Mass!

Leaving aside the hypothesis and heading for a tactile probability (as is possible to conceive and maintain the analogy), I argue that
´Missa solemnis ouropretana (Aleijadinho, Descendit de cælis)´ is
the Melgacian Rothko Chapel!
Or being even more verisimilar - in masterful architecture sonorous -:
the Melgaço Chapel!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism) to music. Most Masses are settings of the liturgy in Latin, the liturgical sacred language of the Catholic Church's Roman liturgy;

II - Aleijadinho (b. Antônio Francisco Lisboa; 1730 or 1738 – 1814) was a Colonial Brazil-born sculptor and architect, noted for his works on and in various churches of Brazil.

Born in Vila Rica (Rich Town), whose name was later changed to Ouro Preto (Black Gold), Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1738 (sometimes said to be in 1730) he was the son of Manuel Francisco da Costa Lisboa, a Portuguese man and his African slave, Isabel. His father, a carpenter, had immigrated to Brazil where his skills were so in demand that he appears to have been elevated to the position of architect. When Antonio was young his father married and he was raised in his father's home along with his half siblings. It was there he is presumed to have learned the fundamentals of sculpture, architecture and the combination of the two. Antonio first appears as a day laborer working on the Church of Our Lady of Carmel in the town of Ouro Preto, a church designed by his father.

Within a very short time he had become a noted architect himself and had designed and constructed the Chapel of the Third Order of St. Francis of Assisi in Ouro Preto. He had also executed the carvings on the building, the most notable being a round bas-relief depicting St. Francis receiving the stigmata.

In 1777 he began to show signs of a debilitating disease, probably leprosy or possibly scleroderma, and he received the name "o Aleijadinho", "The Little Cripple." Although disfigured and disabled, he continued sculpting with a chisel and hammer tied to his fingerless hands.

Eventually he became more and more reclusive, working mostly at night. When he did go out in public, he would be carried through the streets in a covered palanquin by his slaves/assistants;

III - Ouro Preto (Black Gold) is a city in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its outstanding Baroque architecture;

IV - Mark Rothko (1903 – 1970) was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent. He is generally identified as an Abstract Expressionist. With Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, he is one of the most famous postwar American artists;

V - Emerico Lobo de Mesquita was born at Vila do Príncipe (now Serro), in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. His parents José Lobo de Mesquita and Joaquina Emerenciana gave him a liberal education. He received his first music lessons (organ and music theory) from Father Manuel da Costa Dantas, who was organist and choirmaster at the church Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Serro. Soon after 1776 he went to Arraial do Tijuco (now Diamantina) to become organist and conductor at the cathedral Santo Antônio of Diamantina. On 17 January 1789 he entered the religious order Ordem Terceira de Nossa Senhora do Carmo. He founded a music school in this city and was appointed teacher of the art of music. In 1798 he worked in Vila Rica (now Ouro Preto) for the city mayor, and was also organist and choirmaster at the church Nossa Senhora do Pilar. He had a quarrel with the mayor and left for Rio de Janeiro, where he became organist of the Ordem Terceira do Carmo until his death, in April 1805.

Lobo de Mesquita was an important representative of the so-called Escola de Compositores da Capitania das Minas do Ouro (Composers' School of the Gold Mines Region). He was known for his virtuoso organ playing and art of improvisation;

VI - Joaquim José da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes (1746 – 1792), was a leading member of the Brazilian revolutionary movement known as the Inconfidência Mineira whose aim was full independence from the Portuguese colonial power and to create a Brazilian republic. When the plan was discovered, Tiradentes was arrested, tried and publicly hanged. Since the 19th century he has been considered a national hero of Brazil and patron of the Military Police.

...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.