We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Zwanzig Fugen f​ü​r Aracy Moebius de Carvalho Guimar​ã​es Rosa {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 01​:​57​:​29]

by Otacílio Melgaço

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

about

Z w a n z i g F u g e n F ü r
A r a c y M o e b i u s D e C a r v a l h o
G u i m a r ã e s R o s a

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

dedicated to A.M.C.G.R. and - collaterally - to
Mr. João Guimarães Rosa and
Mr. Luís Martins de Sousa Dantas

[duration 01:57:29] 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)

+

"What we can see in the introspective (and cinematically figurative?) twenty sound Pieces is a contemporary concept of Fugue while receptacle for heterodox counterpoints. The perception of this ´technique´ - sometimes almost hidden, sometimes quite notorious - is, notwithstanding, strategically notable because it´s divided into two channels. Transdimensionally, by the explicitness of our hearing and intellectual joints either by intuition and ability to interact in the act of listening abstractedly-compositionally, our ears can perceive it. We confirm that the degree of correlation between both is unconventional since there´s often a (captivating) unexpected autonomy among them. Inventive elements as improvisation, randomness and haphazardness contribute to this. Yet, even with the compositional manifoldness of nowadays, it´s still possible through an exotic-bizarre and libertarian counterpoint understand the astute baptism ´Fugue´ - moreover, taking into account the bio Aracy Moebius de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa context, courageous and intrepid woman honored by Otacílio.

If we are addressing the Fugue, we are dealing with Counterpoints. Compositionally traditionally there are a number of certain ´itineraries´ (imitation, repetition, inversion, linearity etc.)

Some exemplifications:

Species counterpoint generally offers less freedom to the composer than other types and therefore is called a 'Strict' counterpoint. In 1725 Johann Joseph Fux published Gradus ad Parnassum (Steps to Parnassus) in which he described five rigorously constrained Species;

Since the Renaissance period in European music, much contrapuntal music has been written in Imitative counterpoint. Two or more voices enter at different times, and (especially when entering) each voice repeats some version of the same melodic element. The fantasia, the ricercar, and later, the canon and FUGUE (the contrapuntal form par excellence) all feature Imitative counterpoint, which also frequently appears in choral works such as motets and madrigals. Imitative counterpoint spawned a number of devices that composers use to give their works both mathematical rigor and expressive range. These devices include: Melodic inversion; Retrograde; Retrograde inversion; Augmentation and Diminution;

There´s also the Free. Main features of Free Counterpoint: 1- All forbidden chords, such as 2nd-inversion, seventh, ninth etc., can be used freely in principle of Harmony; 2- Chromaticism is allowed; 3- The restrictions about rhythmic-placement of dissonance are removed. It is possible to use passing tones on the accented beat; 4- Appoggiatura is available: dissonance tones can be approached by leaps.

(...)

As of normative templates, we start from a proposed theme that wins several derivations - just as some already mentioned above - and so intercommunicate with each other - one way or another. Under conventional optical, counterpoint is the relationship between voices that are interdependent harmonically (polyphony) yet independent in rhythm and contour. It has been most commonly identified in classical music, strongly developing during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period, especially in Baroque. The term originates from the Latin `punctus contra punctum` meaning ´point against point´.

The Melgacian contrapuntal Fugue is different. It performs - conceptually - nearly the opposite. From independent - if necessary, even harmonically - voices (starting from the same instruments, the same timbre - by the way), try to bring them to an imaginary merger - while most often maintaining the duality, keeping the complexity and polysemy of his creations -: a return to oneness.

`Q u i a P u n c t u m P u n c t o`

Counterpoints that, away from regular/orthodox/obligatory juggling, are reconciled! Insofar as they undress of ordinary mannerisms, everything tends to peculiar cohesion, an eclipse which reveals a complete metamorphosis. The reason may be the anticanonical position of the composer. The absence of pre-determinations makes the notes - notes more jurisprudents and so, perhaps, prone to approaches and interpenetrating reconciliations. (Not Artificial) Paradise Regained. Physically remains a technic but metaphysically approaches in a musical idiosyncratic form, I believe.

Melgaço practically puts face to face - as in a mirror - private sound interventions. Unlike forged cases such as the Dissonant counterpoint that was originally theorized by Charles Seeger as ´at first purely a school-room discipline´, the lifeblood of Melgacian creation is anarchic. A counterpoint in a raw/seminal state because what matters to Otacílio is precisely this frictional dialogue counterbalanced between voices but without rigid/dictatorial rules. It is worth repeating: inventive elements as improvisation, randomness and haphazardness contribute tremendously to this. The most appropriate parallel can be the concept of ´Contrapuntal radio´ by Glenn Gould.

No doubt, the Art of Fugue acquires new sui generis silhouettes and spells...

Ladies and gentleman, I can not remember a more creative or appropriate instance - or that do adequate justice to a true remarkable fact - over the centuries in terms of the figurative use of the term 'Fugue'. Especially becomes a magnificent metaphor to a so epic Act! When asked Mrs.Guimarães Rosa ´Why did you risked yourself so much? If discovered, ´they´ could have 'disappeared' with you!', she (referring to all lives she saved from the clutches of the Nazi horror - providing them fugue) simply replied: 'Because we are all brothers.´ This noble humanism, saved lives and so many future generations. And generated the inspiration for a great work as ´Zwanzig Fugen´.

Here, making reference to one of Aracy surnames and also the splendid sonic character of the Melgacian offspring, the

M o e b i u s R i n g

and the



are actually Siamese twins!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"Are Pieces of e-x-t-r-e-m-e d-e-l-i-c-a-c-y; must be absorbed by us as if we left our footprints, step by step, over invertebrate unique sonorous porcelain. Or treading on eggshells but in the sense of ritually wandering over casing of lives. Or walking on thin ice. Our ears begin to levitate. A rebirth (in lightness) makes us rediscover every sound, every noise, every still ... as parts of a self-portraitable puzzle that is the world, the existence, that´s the human being. Flux. A flowing drift of silence respectfully covers all tracks like a Melgacian audio Aura. Here´s a ceremonial-work. Everything in it is subtlety, exility, acuity, finesse. Now our hearing loses the virginity in a high sense, immeasurably sensitive. Otacílio Melgaço raises the level of auditory attention to Olympian heights. We are introduced to a labyrinthine house of vibrant mirrors; a sonic shrine.

Sein Blick ist von Vorübergehen der Stäbe
so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.
Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe
und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt.

Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte,
der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht,
ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte,
in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht.

Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille
sich lautlos auf—. Dann geht ein Bild hinein,
geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille—
und hört im Herzen auf zu sein.

The title means Twenty Fugues to Mrs.G.R.

Is in German language because the scenario in which this impressionistic phonographic record is inserted is Hamburg (Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg), almost in mid-twentieth century.

I curiously asked the composer and multi-instrumentalist ´Why are exactly twenty?´ He replied that was twenty years of marriage among Aracy and João; 1947 (official consummation in Mexican embassy) to 1967 (tragically the year of death of the genius writer). She never married again. She remained widow of ´his joãozinho´ forever...

Otacílio Melgaço uses two connotations to the term ´Fugue´ and both are interpenetrated throughout the reflexive disc. Taking advantage of instigating wisdom, O.M. refers iconoclastically to the musical jargon but also the ´Escape´ of many Jews from Nazi Germany through heroic deeds of Brazilians Aracy (and João) Guimarães Rosa.

Especially if we consider the recent terrorist attacks in Paris (Charlie Hebdo &...); if there´s a manner to define ´Zwanzig Fugen´, I would say that´s a profoundly humanistic-historical work!
A compliment/encomium to a lionhearted brotherly ´event´ that should serve as example for - sometimes more explicitly, sometimes surreptitiously, here and there - an intolerant and segregationist Humanity...

...but then walks for die of stoning the stony Mankind? None can cast the first stone.

Therefore, ´chacun d'entre Nous´ must express deafeningly:
`J e S u i s A r a c y!`

`Tout le Monde devrait être Aracy.`

´Oui´, I would say that ´Zwanzig Fugen für Aracy Moebius de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa ´ is a profoundly indispensable humanistic-historical work!" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

&

I - Aracy de Carvalho Guimarães Rosa (née Aracy Moebius de Carvalho) (1908 – 2011) was a Brazilian diplomatic clerk who has been recognized with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

Born to a German mother in Rio Negro, Paraná, Aracy de Carvalho was able to speak German, English, French and her native Portuguese. She moved to São Paulo. She lived there with her German first husband Johannes Edward Ludwig Tess and their child until 1935, when they separated.

In 1936, she was appointed to the Brazilian Consulate in Hamburg, Germany, where she was made the Chief of the Passport Section. She started to help Jewish people during Kristallnacht, on November 9, 1938. She handed out visas to Jews without the red "J" that identified them as such, since Brazilian Dictator Getúlio Vargas non-officially denied visas to Jews. She was in very close relations with underground activists in Germany and would even grant visas to Jews she knew that had forged passports. With help of diplomat and assistant-Consul João Guimarães Rosa, she intensified her humanitarian activity, saving a great number of Jews from imprisonment and death. She remained in Germany until 1942, when Brazil broke relations with Germany and joined the Allied Forces. In 1947 she met fellow Guimarães Rosa, who would later become her second husband, and one of the most important Brazilian writers.

On July 8, 1982, Aracy de Carvalho became one of the two Brazilians honoured by the Yad Vashem with the Righteous Among the Nations award, together with Ambassador Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas;

II - In music, a Fugue is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and recurs frequently in the course of the composition.

The English term fugue originated in the 16th century and is derived from the French word fugue or the Italian fuga. This in turn comes from Latin, also fuga, which is itself related to both fugere ("to flee") and fugare ("to chase"). The adjectival form is fugal. Variants include fughetta (literally, "a small fugue") and fugato (a passage in fugal style within another work that is not a fugue).

A widespread view of the fugue is that it is not a musical form (in the sense that, say, sonata form is) but rather a technique of composition. The Austrian musicologist Erwin Ratz argues that the formal organization of a fugue involves not only the arrangement of its theme and episodes, but also its harmonic structure. In particular, the exposition and coda tend to emphasize the tonic key, whereas the episodes usually explore more distant tonalities. Ratz stressed, however, that this is the core, underlying form ("Urform") of the fugue, from which individual fugues may deviate. Thus it is to be noted that while certain related keys are more commonly explored in fugal development, the overall structure of a fugue does not limit its harmonic structure. For example, a fugue may not even explore the dominant, one of the most closely related keys to the tonic. Bach's Fugue in B♭ major from book one of the Well Tempered Clavier explores the relative minor, the supertonic and the subdominant. This is unlike later forms such as the sonata, which clearly prescribes which keys are explored (typically the tonic and dominant in an ABA form). Then, many modern fugues dispense with traditional tonal harmonic scaffolding altogether, and either use serial (pitch-oriented) rules, or (as the Kyrie/Christe in György Ligeti's Requiem, Witold Lutosławski works), use panchromatic or even denser harmonic spectra.

Fugue is the most complex of contrapuntal forms. In Ratz's words, "fugal technique significantly burdens the shaping of musical ideas, and it was given only to the greatest geniuses, such as Bach and Beethoven, to breathe life into such an unwieldy form and make it the bearer of the highest thoughts." In presenting Bach's fugues as among the greatest of contrapuntal works, Peter Kivy points out that "counterpoint itself, since time out of mind, has been associated in the thinking of musicians with the profound and the serious" and argues that "there seems to be some rational justification for their doing so." This is related to the idea that restrictions create freedom for the composer, by directing their efforts. He also points out that fugue writing has its roots in improvisation, and was, during the Renaissance, practiced as an improvisatory art. Writing in 1555, Nicola Vicentino, for example, suggests that: the composer, having completed the initial imitative entrances, take the passage which has served as accompaniment to the theme and make it the basis for new imitative treatment, so that "he will always have material with which to compose without having to stop and reflect". This formulation of the basic rule for fugal improvisation anticipates later sixteenth-century discussions which deal with the improvisational technique at the keyboard more extensively;

III - Hamburg, officially Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg (Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg), is the second largest city in Germany and the eighth largest city in the European Union. It is also the thirteenth largest German state. Its population is over 1.8 million people, and the Hamburg Metropolitan Region (including parts of the neighbouring Federal States of Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein) has more than 5 million inhabitants. The port of Hamburg, on the river Elbe, is the second largest port in Europe (after the Port of Rotterdam) and tenth largest worldwide.

The official name reflects its history as a member of the medieval Hanseatic League, as a free imperial city of the Holy Roman Empire, a city-state, and one of the 16 states of Germany. Before the 1871 Unification of Germany, it was a fully sovereign state. Prior to the constitutional changes in 1919, the stringent civic republic was ruled by a class of hereditary grand burghers or Hanseaten.

Hamburg is a major transport hub and is one of the most affluent cities in Europe. It has become a media and industrial centre, with plants and facilities belonging to Airbus, Blohm + Voss and Aurubis. The radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers such as Gruner + Jahr and Spiegel-Verlag are pillars of the important media industry in Hamburg. Hamburg has been an important financial centre for centuries, and is the seat of the world's second oldest bank, Berenberg Bank. There are more than 120,000 enterprises.

The city is a notable tourist destination for both domestic and overseas visitors; it ranked 17th in the world for livability in 2012.

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
Wikipedia was the main 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.

credits

released January 1, 2015

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

>>

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

Special Guests: Nausícaaa Ensemble | Zycluz Quartett

Estúdio Yoknapotawpha/BR + Unidade Euromobile

<<

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
Instrumentalist
from
Minas Gerais,
Brazil.
+
Official (English) Site
otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/omenglish
+
PORTAL O|M
(Portuguese)
otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/otaciliomelgaco
+
Site to be viewed exclusively on Mobile Devices (smartphones, etc.)
otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/mobileom
&
"Music is like a bewitched Mistress." (Paul Klee)
... more

contact / help

Contact Otacílio Melgaço

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

Otacílio Melgaço recommends:

If you like Otacílio Melgaço, you may also like: