S c h i a p a r e l l i

H u m o r e s q u e P o u r
U n B a l l e t S u r r é a l i s t e

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 42:44] all rights reserved

#

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)

+

"PREAMBLE. It's remarkable the exuberant cover of this phonographic record. The Melgacian conception is reflected in aesthetic and graphic references very interesting and creative which began to practically emerge from the 1940s. I can cite Alexander ´Alex´ Steinweiss as the greatest exponent.

<|>

Humoresque (or Humoreske) is a genre of romantic music characterized by pieces with fanciful humor in the sense of mood rather than wit. The name refers to the German term Humoreske, which was given from the 1800s (decade) onward to humorous tales.

Romantic music
&
Pieces with fanciful humor
&
Mood rather than wit: here there would be a sarcasm pointing to a stereotype of the 'fashion world'? I have not the slightest doubt.

Officially, as the focus of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist is the surrealistic face of Madame Schiapelli, the fact of having adopted such composicional genus is justified specifically because of its tentacle attached to the Fantastic. From this angle - ie its backbone, this work (adding to its ironies: concept and musicality) is pure wit - which reinforces his paradoxical content and therefore of extreme genius.

<|>

For The Schiaparellian Piece, Otacílio Melgaço masterfully absorbed and gave empiricist fluidity to the paranoiac-critical method, technique developed by Salvador Dalí.

[The Surrealists related theories of psychology to the idea of creativity and the production of art. In the mid-1930s André Breton wrote about a 'fundamental crisis of the object'. The object began being thought of not as a fixed external object but also as an extension of our subjective self. One of the types of objects manifested in Surrealism was the phantom object. According to Dalí, these objects have a minimum of mechanical meaning, but when viewed the mind evokes phantom images which are the result of unconscious acts. The paranoiac-critical arose from similar Surrealistic experiments with psychology and the creation of images such as Max Ernst’s frottage technique, which involved rubbing pencil or chalk on paper over a textured surface and interpreting the phantom images visible in the texture on the paper.

The aspect of paranoia that Dalí was interested in and which helped inspire the method was the ability of the brain to perceive links between things which rationally are not linked. Dalí described the paranoiac-critical method as a 'spontaneous method of irrational knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and interpretations of delirious phenomena.' Employing the method when creating a work of art uses an active process of the mind to visualize images in the work and incorporate these into the final product. An example of the resulting work is a double image or multiple image in which an ambiguous image can be interpreted in different ways. André Breton (by way of Guy Mangeot) hailed the method, saying that Dalí's paranoiac-critical method was an 'instrument of primary importance' and that it 'has immediately shown itself capable of being applied equally to painting, poetry, the cinema, the construction of typical Surrealist objects, fashion, sculpture, the history of art, and even, if necessary, all manner of exegesis.']

<|>

As if all this (surreally) were not enough - beyond the eccentric aesthetics of a sui generis fashion designer, are sonorously included
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer (undoubtedly another clear afflatus for this versatile artistic offspring)
&
Futuristic&Dadaist allusions (plus Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti. Plus Kurt Schwitters, Francis Picabia, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Erwin Schulhoff, Hans Heusser, Albert Savinio and all of this great lineage)
&
Metamorphic architecture of a soundtrack for Ballet.

<|>

Regarding the Ballet itself, it seems to be a mystery fed by O.M.

<|>

DOCKET. Echoing one or another maxim, 'Schiaparelli (Humoresque Pour Un Ballet Surréaliste)', as well as surrealism, is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our hearing. In other words, is not a poetry but a poetics, and even more, and more decisively, an invigorating world vision. Galacidalacidesoxyribonucleicacidaudiovision." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"Schiaparelli's fanciful imaginative powers coupled with involvement in the Dada/Surrealist art movements directed her into new creative territory. Her instinctive sensibilities soon came to distinguish her creations from her chief rival Coco Chanel, who referred to her as 'that Italian artist who makes clothes'. Elsa collaborated with a number of contemporary artists, most famously with Salvador Dalí, to develop a number of her most notable designs. Schiaparelli also had a good relationship with other artists including Leonor Fini, Meret Oppenheim, and Alberto Giacometti. In 1937 Schiaparelli collaborated with the artist Jean Cocteau to produce two of her most notable art-themed designs for that year's Autumn collection. An evening jacket was embroidered with a female figure with one hand caressing the waist of the wearer, and long blonde hair cascading down one sleeve. A long evening coat featured two profiles facing each other, creating the optical illusion of a vase of roses. The embroidering of both garments was executed by the couture embroiderers Lesage.

That's the epicentral inspiration for an
engaging and hypnotic sonic creation.

From the perspective of Otacílio Melgaço; Elsa Luisa Maria Schiaparelli.

'In difficult times fashion is always outrageous', she used to say. And now, in the most endearingly/tempting iconoclastic sense, such Melgacian 'Humoresque' too." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

&

I - Elsa Schiaparelli (1890–1973) was an Italian fashion designer. Along with Coco Chanel, her greatest rival, she is regarded as one of the most prominent figures in fashion between the two World Wars. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs were heavily influenced by Surrealists like her collaborators Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. Her clients included the heiress Daisy Fellowes and actress Mae West. Schiaparelli did not adapt to the changes in fashion following World War II and her couture house closed in 1954;

II - The designs Schiaparelli produced in collaboration with Dalí are among her best known. In addition to well-documented collaborations such as the shoe hat and the Lobster, Tears and Skeleton dresses, Dalí's influence has been identified in designs such as the lamb-cutlet hat and a 1936 day suit with pockets simulating a chest of drawers;

III - Notable examples of the humoresque style are Schumann's Humoreske in B-flat major (Op. 20, 1839), and Dvořák's set of eight Humoresques (Op. 101, 1894), of which No. 7 in G-flat major is well known;

IV - In his introduction to the 1994 edition of Jacques Lacan's The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, David Macey states that "Salvador Dalí's theory of 'paranoic knowledge' is certainly of great relevance to the young Lacan."

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

\|/

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.