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The "N" Symphony {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 01​:​15​:​52]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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about

The "N" S y m p h o n y

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 01:15:52] 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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"Mr. Melgaço brought to light a Series of Nine Symphonies called ´Brasilianas´. All pay homage to a Brazilian consecrated Personality and characterized by certain global penetration. ´N´ is part of that Cycle.

No reference to Niemeyer. No images of his architecture, no picture/portrait of him (in person), not even his name is mentioned in this great phonograph record. The baptism of the movements is vague; ´the´ church can be ´any´ church, ´the´ cathedral is ´a´ cathedral and there are thousands of museums and mosques around the world. Only through our imaginations is that this puzzle can be fitted. And I wonder: why? ... since it is - or seems to be - a fair and monumental ἐγκώμιον (enkomion). Only here - extra disc - in an ´internetical´ review, can we try to unravel it.

I believe Otacílio Melgaço tried not to divert our attention from Oscar archetype. The real translation of the professional, the artist, finally, the man ... was there: in his creations. His creations live and in color, not photographic or biographical fetishes. One example of the, in vogue hither, abstractionist refinement in favor/support of the call for maximum concretion: the choice of ´N´ as title (first letter of the surname), quite simply, is the same as throwing a spotlight on the architectural feature of the letter itself - in the cover art of album, it´s more explicit because appropriate - and therefore on the honored person. Almost a figurative metonymy.

If my ruminations are confirmed: Four movements of the Symphony, Four respective Niemeyerian works handpicked (from the mind of the Brazilian composer/multi-instrumentalist and it´s up to each listener to discover exactly what are the tetralogiac targets for which he points his quadruple inspiration) and metamorphosed into sound by himself:
Mr. Melgaço. Schelling had announced that ´architecture is in general frozen (congealed) music´; Goethe once said ´I call architecture petrified music.´ Now Otacílio undoes the rocky spell and resumes the necessary flow - thawing stone by stone of idiosyncratic Oscar structures. Apropos, thereby I particularly do exegesis of (I hope to be right) what is ´The N Symphony´: a posthumous compliance to Oscar Niemeyer legacy. And among all of them, I think it's the most definitive." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"[> ´Architecture is the thoughtful making of space.´ - Louis Kahn <] Strategic pensive percussive elements take an introductory function for the (electricauratic) orchestral amalgam composed by O.M. [> ´Architecture is the will of an epoch translated into space.´ - Ludwig Mies van der Rohe <] The Musician, ´transpatially´, makes percussionistic cuts - a goldsmith polishing the rough stone - as a metaphor for the sculpturesque concreteness forged by the Architect. The Architect? Perhaps ´N´ is ´Niemeyer´, I conjecture and - then - will follow this hypothesis. The Melgacian learned game. In other words, we design the future concreteness that will contextualize this phono work from impalpable parts offered by Otacílio (but not revealed). Only our ears (and minds) can do this. This is - essentially - art! [> ´I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.´ - Maya Lin <]

[> ´Architecture is the learned game, correct and magnificent, of forms assembled in the light.´ - Le Corbusier <] I also think that the percussive element relates to the humanist discourse of Oscar, his direct relationship with the people/folk (his communist principles). All movements gain this preamble as to define a kind of poetic north. [> ´Every great architect is - necessarily - a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age.´ - Frank Lloyd Wright <] After that, we enter in the pure art territory. Indefinable, away from ideologies, perhaps the most faithful face of an epiphany. Thus, after this connotation of quad prelude, touchable flourish: our destination is the lightness, the air. Sometimes with extreme density, sometimes the ethereal sheltered rise. [> ´All architecture is shelter, all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.´ - Philip Johnson <] There are not foreseeable features in here focused hyperspatial audio Piece.

[> ´The acceptance of certain realities doesn't preclude idealism. It can lead to certain breakthroughs.´ - Rem Koolhaas <] This factor (pay idealistically tribute to an icon) is relevant as it helps to be undone - by the most serious and respectable way - any stereotypical view of Brazilian culture, ie, at least for serious and respectable face of current Art made in Brazil (not the majority who insists on using - certainly for good profits, feeding the mainstream media - the old and musty ´tutti frutti hat´), of course. [> It's not new that architecture can profoundly affect a place, sometimes transform it. Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. - Frank Gehry <] Transformer. Nor getting lost in the vacuum; unimaginative-truistic ground of much faceless contemporary music in typical tiring tautological status quo particular; nor, on the other hand, flirting with nationalisms obsolete or suspects patriotisms: ´The N Symphony´, transformer, reaches deep layers of universal architectural language articulated by O.N. and is also surprising when proposes a transcendent sonic complexion, ever-lasting. [> ´Architecture aims at Eternity.´ - Christopher Wren <]

Trying to identify which are the starting points of O.M., I will highlight some pearls to demonstrate the degree of Melgacian nicety:

1- Church of Saint Francis of Assisi > In the post beginning of the first movement can we hear some dog barking. Inside the little church fourteen Candido Portinari panels make up the Via Sacra, one of the most significant works of the artist and also controversial. The image of a dog representing a wolf next to St. Francis of Assisi did not like the Don Antonio dos Santos Cabral archbishop. Even inaugurated, the unusual shape of the chapel and the panel displeased the ecclesiastical authorities did not allow the execution of services. Reactionary Don Cabral did not accept the image of the dog next to St. Francis of Assisi in the work of Portinari. The ban lasted 14 years. Melgaço embraces the dog and insert him in his Symphony, making immediate justice and affectionate honor to the (deeply symbolic) Franciscan presence of the animal;

2- Cathedral of Brasília > The poignant ripples intermittently bathe our ears during the second movement are representations of successive vertebrate structures of the Cathedral, causing an fabulous architectural sound effect;

3- Niterói Contemporary Art Museum > Many compare the Museum of Contemporary Art with a spaceship. A flying saucer. It's amazing how Otacílio gives us a sense of tangible take-off in third movement;

4- Mosque of Algiers > The Mosque was never built; blooms immortalized in a project. But it was in fact understood as ´revolutionary´. It seems, for many, a work of science fiction. O.M. starts the fourth movement with a stamp Algerian percussion but the rest takes impressive futuristic atmospheres!

[>
Visit some data - available to public access - collected on the Internet:

1- Church of Saint Francis of Assisi

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Saint_Francis_of_Assisi

2- Cathedral of Brasília

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Bras%C3%ADlia

3- Niterói Contemporary Art Museum

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niter%C3%B3i_Contemporary_Art_Museum

4- Mosque of Algiers

www.oscarniemeyer.org.br/obra/pro151

www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g303441-d1872890-i47274905-Museu_Oscar_Niemeyer-Curitiba_State_of_Parana.html
<]

Oscar Niemeyer claimed ´I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness. Architecture is invention. Surprise is key in all art.´ Otacílio remains faithful to each of these words, I have no doubt. The renowned building designer confessed erstwhile that ´form follows beauty. It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms. When I was very little my mother said I used to draw in the air with my fingers.´ In ´The N Symphony´, Otacílio Melgaço draws luminous musical notes in the air. Ladies and gentlemen, we can h-e-a-r his astounding constructively projected-imagetic compositions in the air. After ´N´, a more breathable air." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

Check out
melgacootacilio.bandcamp.com/album/burle-marx-symphony-otac-lio-melga-o-duration-01-34-05

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I - Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (1907 – 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer, was a Brazilian architect who is considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was best known for his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city that became Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Both lauded and criticized for being a "sculptor of monuments", Niemeyer was hailed as a great artist and one of the greatest architects of his generation by his supporters. He said his architecture was strongly influenced by Le Corbusier, but in an interview, assured that this "didn't prevent [his] architecture from going in a different direction". Niemeyer was most famous for his use of abstract forms and curves and wrote in his memoirs:

“I am not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man. I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves. The curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman. Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein.”

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Niemeyer was schooled at the city's Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), and after graduating worked at his father's typography house, and as a draftsman for local architectural firms. In the 1930s, he interned with Lúcio Costa, with the pair collaborating on the design for the Palácio Gustavo Capanema in Rio de Janeiro. Niemeyer's first major project was a series of buildings for Pampulha, a planned suburb north of Belo Horizonte. His work, especially on the Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, received critical acclaim and drew international attention. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Niemeyer became one of Brazil's most prolific architects, working both domestically and overseas. This included the design of the Edifício Copan (a large residential building in São Paulo) and a collaboration with Le Corbusier (and others) on the United Nations Headquarters, which yielded invitations to teach at Yale University and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

In 1956, Niemeyer was invited by Brazil's new president, Juscelino Kubitschek, to design the civic buildings for Brazil's new capital, which was to be built in the centre of the country, far from any existing cities. His designs for the National Congress of Brazil, the Cathedral of Brasília, the Cultural Complex of the Republic, the Palácio da Alvorada, the Palácio do Planalto, and the Supreme Federal Court, all completed by 1960, were experimental and linked by common design elements. This work led to his appointment as inaugural head of architecture at the University of Brasília, as well as honorary membership of the American Institute of Architects. Due to his largely leftist ideology, and involvement with the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), Niemeyer left the country after the 1964 military coup and opened an office in Paris. He returned to Brazil in 1985, and was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988. A socialist and atheist from an early age, Niemeyer had spent time in both Cuba and the Soviet Union during his exile, and on his return served as the PCB's president from 1992 to 1996. Niemeyer continued working at the end of the 20th and early 21st century, notably designing the Niterói Contemporary Art Museum (1996) and the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (2002). Over a career of 78 years he designed approximately 600 projects. Niemeyer died in Rio de Janeiro on December 5, 2012, at the age of 104, ten days before his 105th birthday;

II - Cândido Portinari (1903 – 1962) was one of the most important Brazilian painters and also a prominent and influential practitioner of the neo-realism style in painting.

Born to Giovan Battista Portinari and Domenica Torquato, Italian immigrants from Veneto, in a coffee plantation near Brodowski, in São Paulo, Portinari studied at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (ENBA) in Rio de Janeiro. In 1928 he won a gold medal at the ENBA and a trip to Paris where he stayed until 1930, when he returned to Brazil.

He joined the Brazilian Communist Party and stood for senator in 1947 but had to flee Brazil for Uruguay due to the persecution of Communists during the government of Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946 to 1951). He returned to Brazil in 1951 but suffered ill health during the last decade of his life and died in Rio de Janeiro in 1962 of lead poisoning from his paints.

His career coincided with and included collaboration with Oscar Niemeyer amongst others. Portinari's works can be found in galleries and settings in Brazil and abroad, ranging from the family chapel in his childhood home in Brodowski to his panels Guerra e Paz (War and Peace) in the United Nations building in New York and four murals in the Hispanic Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The range and sweep of his output is quite remarkable. It includes images of childhood, paintings depicting rural and urban labour, refugees fleeing the hardships of Brazil's rural north-east, treatments of the key events in the history of Brazil since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, portraits of members of his family and leading Brazilian intellectuals, illustrations for books, tiles decorating the Church of São Francisco at Pampulha, Belo Horizonte. There were a number of commemorative events in the centenary of his birth in 2003, including an exhibition of his work in London.

On December 20, 2007, his painting O Lavrador de Café was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art along with Pablo Picasso's Portrait of Suzanne Bloch. The paintings remained missing until January 8, 2008, when they were recovered in Ferraz de Vasconcelos by the Police of São Paulo. The paintings were returned, undamaged, to the São Paulo Museum of Art.

...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 February 2, 2015

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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M e l g a ç o {conception | composition | arrangement | synopsis | instrumentation | orchestration | engineering & sound design | art design | production | direction}

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
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