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Unvanity Case Singles Series | Lapa Nova de Maquiné {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 26​​​​​:​​​21]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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about

U n v a n i t y C a s e S i n g l e s S e r i e s

L a p a N o v a D e M a q u i n é

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 26:21] 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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{Note by P.S.P. -

U N V A N I T Y
C A S E
S I N G L E S
S E R I E S,

Eight releases that portray, among many glimpsed, a Melgacian sonorous fantastical microcosm.

Symphony, suite, sonata, cantata, pastoral, madrigal, sarabanda, fantasia, fugue, rhapsody, capriccio, passacaglia, berceuse, tombeau, lied, concertino, gimnopedia, oratorio, mass, operetta, opera ... are customary part of the compositional vocabulary of Otacílio Melgaço. Here and now we come in contact with other perspectives (with one or two exceptions) that are beyond the frontiers of modern classical genre. Extrapolations already contained in several albums produced by him and which are also treasures of his vast discography but never before gathered in a Series.

An image full of perspicacity when we think of a portable ´compendium´ of quite personal complementary aesthetic man-made objects (and here I´m referring to the adaptation of the term by Mr. Melgaço), the Vanity Case is a small handbag used for carrying cosmetics or toiletries.

Unvanity Case (Singles Series). It´s possible to perceive at least two fundamentals embedded in the O.M. wordplay. There´s the properly denial of ´vanity´ (the dictionarist meaning: excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements; the quality of being worthless or futile. So he invents a neologism to reveal this clear denudation) and also the symbolist recognition of artifacts gathered in the same casing as is the special case, for example and in addition to others, of a mirror.

In a fashion, the message that the composer and multi-instrumentalist conveys to us is clear:

He looks at himself, limpidly. Something a great artist is often doing. Yes, paradoxically, Melgaço does not give up (peer through the subsequent figures of speech) ´cosmetic & toiletry´ elements of music (timbres, harmonies, durations, pauses, melodies, dynamics, rhythms, pitches, articulations, textures, technicalities, arrangements, mixes, masterings ...) and, consequently (as expected and desired): he shows himself to us. Something that often a great artist should do with transparency and, of course, a certain mystery. Another paradox. He shows himself to us just as in Greek tragedy/comedy, the Mask (again: ´cosmetic & toiletry´) does not hide: it brings even more to light who the character is.

And, resuming the title exegesis, reflecting on the portable character: in the condition of ´perpetuum mobile´, every EP brings us to a peculiar place (situated in some historical snapshot) in one of the four corners of the world or even orbiting the planet earth. This conceptual ballast, therefore, is a mention of travels and journeys and trips and gigs (and rays and twinkles) and sagas perpetrated by the artist. I draw attention to the fact that the relationship between the niche itself and the respective musical proposal is direct, bright. ´Moto perpetuo´ as much as the experiments with his music as being a restless, challenger creator - who takes risks in constant search and daring -. Creator in its integrity/fragmentation, complexity/plainness; O.M.: an ontological mosaic, a kaleidoscope in person always in displacement and in our direction, provoking us but, I have no doubt, in humanistic celebration. This, citing only one of the facets of an Art-in-Magnification as is the Melgacian.

´Everything is metaphor´, Otacílio usually utters. And when we realize the polysemous richness of his inventions (nor need I say that the vocable 'case' is equally read as ´an instance of a particular situation; an example of something occurring´), we can conclude how absolutely everything that the/this artist plays can be an exciting, constructive and Graceful fluxuosity. Through the looking glass, the reflector, the speculum! And who inhabits the other side of the mirror?

Eight times,
the response that - hitherto - echoes eight times,
Ladies and Gentlemen, is:
E a c h O n e O f U s.}

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"Gruta de Maquiné (MG-0243) [English: Maquiné Grotto], also Lapa Nova de Maquiné, is the oldest and one of the most visited caves in Brazil. It is located about 5 km from Cordisburgo and 143 km northwest of Belo Horizonte, in the State of Minas Gerais. The grotto features beautiful morphology due to its wide halls and aesthetic value due to their speleothematic beauty, in addition to its great scientific value as it must have accommodated a considerable volume of water in the past.

In the State of Minas Gerais was born Otacílio Melgaço.

A wormhole or ´Einstein-Rosen bridge´ is a hypothetical topological feature that would fundamentally be a shortcut linking two separate points in spacetime. A wormhole may connect extremely long distances such as a billion light years or more; short distances such as a few meters; different universes; and/or different points in time. A wormhole is much like a tunnel with two ends, each at separate points in spacetime.

Machiné is, metaphorically, a kind of wormhole, a ´missing link´ to O.M. (I write this from his own statements). In fact, linking the current Minas Gerais to the ontological one; the contemporary to the mythological; at the same time leading him - Melgaço - paradoxically to the Inscrutable, to the future in its unpredictability and immeasurability. Plus (still from the perspective of Otacílio): to the timeless that spreads, and even to the Inespacial in all its metaphysics. So according to Melgacian perception, this hole-in-the-earth is the conduit of an inverse umbilical cord, a return to the maternal womb and, extraordinarily, to what exists previously to it. The whole aura that becomes dossal of the present and penetrating work, has direct relation with this.

´To travel at night, in pitch darkness takes instinct–your feet have to guess what you can’t see on the ground. You imagine big holes. You expect to hear voices. A few scattered stars; the night a solid mass. […] At certain times, nothing has meaning´; once declared João Guimarães Rosa. The resonant ´Lapa Nova de Maquiné´ lies between nothingness (in its most mystical and also theoretic face) and all the captivating meanings." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"A string quartet. One of the most prominent chamber ensembles in classical music, one of the most appreciated by Mr. Melgaço.

Deciphering this is not difficult. The string quartet is considered a prestigious form and represents one of the true tests of the composer's art. With four parts to play with, a composer working in anything like the classical key system has enough lines to fashion a full argument, but none to spare for padding. The closely related characters of the four instruments, moreover, while they cover in combination an ample compass of pitch, do not lend themselves to indulgence in purely colouristic effects. Thus, where the composer of symphonies commands the means for textural enrichment beyond the call of his harmonic discourse, and where the concerto medium offers the further resource of personal characterization and drama in the individual-pitted-against-the-mass vein, the writer of string quartets must perforce concentrate on the bare bones of musical logic. Thus, in many ways the string quartet is pre-eminently the dialectical form of instrumental music, the one most naturally suited to the activity of logical disputation and philosophical enquiry.

´Lapa Nova de Maquiné´. The sound reliefs that are revealed in this offspring are the fruit of a hypnotic mastery. The result is an audible landscape that bares the soul of O.M., a sweeping combination of textures, colors and ... epiphanies. For instance, pay attention to how he instrumentalises the ´pizzicato´ - its interspersed, invasive, demarcating appearances. The effect caused is beyond powerful, of an ultra-dynamic and ingrained expressiveness.

A relevant data concerning the structure of the sonic Piece: Maquiné Grotto has seven huge chambers explored, amounting to 650 linear meters and unevenness of the ground of only 18 meters.
First chamber, called ´Vestibulo´ (´Entrance Hall´); Second Chamber, ´Sala das Colunas´ (´Room of Columns´); Third chamber, ´Altar´ or ´Trono´ (´Altar´, or ´Throne´); Fourth chamber, ´Carneiro´ (´Lamb´);
Fifth chamber, ´Salão das Piscinas´ (´Hall of Pools´); Sixth chamber, ´Salão das Fadas´ (´Hall of the Fairies´); Seventh chamber is divided into two parts. The first one, ´Salão do Dr. Lund´ (´Dr. Lund's Hall´); the second chamber, ´Salão do Cemitério´ (´Cemetery Hall´). The composer and multi-instrumentalist, always meticulous, transposes such arcane architecture for its splendiferous creation." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - Maquiné finds itself facing north, with a portico shaped in the form of a shallow arch with width of approximately 18 metres and height of only 8 metres. The main direction of the cave is from north to south, being its greatest extent of 438.91 metres.[3] With an internal temperature ranging between 26 °C and 27 °C, it is essentially horizontal, forming a continuous gallery with an average width of 9 to 12 meters and height of 15 to 18 meters. The main element of its formation is calcium carbonate, presenting also other minerals such as silica, gypsum, quartz and iron. Its galleries and halls, true architectural oddities, are the result of the formidable job of water in the persistence of millennia;

II - Considered as the "cradle" of paleontology in the country, the grotto was discovered in 1825 by farmer Joaquim Maria Maquiné, then the landowner. It is world-famous for paleontological importance detected initially by Peter Claussen and the Danish naturalist Peter Wilhelm Lund who scientifically first explored it in 1834, showing the world its natural beauty. Dr. Lund remained inside the cave nearly two years doing his research on the Brazilian paleontology, describing all the chambers, explaining the formation of stalagmites and stalactites and examining human remains and petrifaction of animals from the Quaternary period. Among others, he found fossilized skeletons of birds with an extraordinary curvature of up to three meters and the Nothrotherium maquinense, the smallest and most emblematic of the terrestrial sloths which he found in 1835 when he first explored the cave.

In 1868, after more than 30 years after the exploration of the cave, Lund wished to return to Cordisburgo and show the Duke of Saxe who visited the country, the natural beauty of this huge cave;

III - João Guimarães Rosa (1908 – 1967) was a Brazilian novelist, short story writer and diplomat, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of Brazilian literature.

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;

IV - Pizzicato, translated as pinched, and sometimes roughly as plucked) is a playing technique that involves plucking the strings of a string instrument.

...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.

credits

released January 11, 2017

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
Instrumentalist
from
Minas Gerais,
Brazil.
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"Music is like a bewitched Mistress." (Paul Klee)
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