{"id":16,"date":"2011-08-26T20:42:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T20:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.et-musica.cl\/?p=16"},"modified":"2018-04-02T15:45:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T15:45:29","slug":"michael-pisaro-the-rain-of-alphabets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/et-musica.cl\/en\/michael-pisaro-the-rain-of-alphabets\/","title":{"rendered":"the rain of alphabets \/ Michael Pisaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Memoriam Ra\u00fal Ruiz (1941-2011)<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

work
\nthe rain of alphabets<\/em><\/p>\n

author
\nMichael Pisaro<\/p>\n

year
\n2005<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

description
\nthe rain of alphabets, for 14 musicians, is part of harmony series [2004-2006], a collection of 34 pieces composed as a display of the question of how do we harmonize? This question is the trace of the encounter with the work Swell Piece for Alison Knowles<\/em> [1967] by James Tenney. the rain of alphabets <\/em>is inspired by a poem by Inger Christensen [Denmark, 1935-2009]:<\/p>\n

alphabets exists<\/em><\/p>\n

the rain of alphabets<\/em><\/p>\n

incessant rain<\/em><\/p>\n

grace light<\/em><\/p>\n

intervals and forms<\/em><\/p>\n

of stones and stars<\/em><\/p>\n

courses of rivers and<\/em><\/p>\n

motions of mind<\/em><\/p>\n

tracks of animals<\/em><\/p>\n

their routes and ways<\/em><\/p>\n

nest-building<\/em><\/p>\n

human solace<\/em><\/p>\n

daylight in air<\/em><\/p>\n

sign of the hawk<\/em><\/p>\n

union in color<\/em><\/p>\n

of sunlight and eye<\/em><\/p>\n

wild chamomile<\/em><\/p>\n

at houses’ doorways<\/em><\/p>\n

snowbanks wind<\/em><\/p>\n

houses corners sparrows<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The score stipulated as a structure a segmented sum of musicians, tones and times set chronometrically: first a musician, then two musicians, then three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen. First a tone, then two tones each musician, three tones each musician, and so on. First a minute, then two, then three, provided with a two-minute pause after each section is completed. In musicians: 1, 2, 3, ….13 and 14. In tones: 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100, 121, 144, 169 and 196. In stopwatch: 1 ‘(2’) 2 ‘(2’) 3 ‘(2’) 4 ‘(2’) 5 ‘(2’) 6 ‘(2’) 7 ‘(2’) 8 ‘(2’ ) 9 ‘(2’) 10 ‘(2’) 11 ‘(2’) 12 ‘(2’) 13 ‘(2’) 14 ‘(2’). The play ends at 133 minutes, ie. two hours and thirteen minutes after the start.
\nBut the number is not the experience.
\nIn the words of Pisaro: “A work is the contact made by the score (or any possible kind of musical structuring) and sounds (and performers and actions) under the condition of the site.” The increase in harmonic density is the intensification of a time-intensive experience – not only two-minute breaks are abbreviated: the experience of a long time becomes\u00a0elastic.
\nWe decided to place the musicians in different parts of the exhibition hall of the gallery, freely using a transparent sheet with points from the score Fontana Mix<\/em> [1958] by John Cage, overlapping the sheet to a rough plan of the room. What initially was a strategic decision to break with the traditional management of large groups of musicians (an orchestra), was transformed with the performance on a very different way to experience harmony. Although Western harmony, thanks to musical notation, is\u00a0conceptualized as a vertical phenomenon, that Friday, little by little, it appeared as a horizontal harmony of fields and areas, gas and topography simultaneously, or poetically imagined:<\/p>\n

” courses of rivers and
\nmotions of mind
\ntracks of animals
\ntheir routes and ways”<\/p>\n

NCD<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the players
\nSantiago Astaburuaga, Nicol\u00e1s Carrasco, Sebasti\u00e1n Carrasco, \u00c1lvaro Castro, Renzo Filinich, Sebasti\u00e1n Jatz, Fernanda Ortega, \u00c1lvaro Pacheco, Alejandro Palacios, Camila P\u00e9rez, Gonzalo Ram\u00edrez, Marcelo Troncoso, Benjam\u00edn Vergara y Paulina Wiehoff<\/p>\n

the instruments
\nelectric bass, 2 mouth organs, 3 trumpets, dulcimer, 2 laptops, accordion, 2 violins, acoustic guitar and cello<\/p>\n

place
\nAFA Gallery, Santiago, Chile<\/p>\n

date
\nAugust 26th, 2011<\/p>\n

time
\nfrom 17:00 to 19:30<\/p>\n

duration
\n133 minutes<\/p>\n

the audience
\ngeneral audience<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

audio (recorded on Zoom H4n)<\/p>\n