Short Biography Self Analysis
Notes to the compositions
Short Biography
Grandi Gian Carlo. Italian composer. He studied in Cagliari with Maestro
Vittorio Montis and Maestro Franco Oppo. He achieved the Diploma in Choral Music and Choir's Conducting, and the
Diploma of Composition at the Conservatory Pierluigi da Palestrina, place where he also attended to the
course of Electronic Music taught by N. Bernardini and R. Doati.
Gian Carlo Grandi attended the courses of live electronics by the Experimentalstudio der Henric-Strobel-Stiftung
des Sudwestfunks, Freiburg i. B. held by Maestro Andrè Richard and attended the course Feriekurse für
Neue Musik of Darmstadt (Germany).
In 1990 he founded the CERM Centro Ricerche Musica e Sperimentazione Acustica (CERM Centre of Researches on
Music and Acoustic Experimentation). He had been President of that Centre for the first three years of activity.
He is author of Symphonic, Chamber and Electronic Music. His composing work is mainly orientated towards the study
and the application of the new instrumental techniques (Splitting) often integrated by an electrical-acoustic
mean, (Studio per strumenti a fiato e live electronics;
Sembianze). This latter composition took part in the final of II Concorso Internazionale di
Composizione Elettronica „Pierre Schaeffer" (Second Edition of the International Competition on Electronic
Composition "Pierre Schaffer"), being distinguished by a mention of honour. The study of acoustic matters
of the Sardinian tradition of the a Tenore singing has been used on works for magnetic
tape (Dae sas voches).
The biography, the analysis on his own work as composer and the piece
Sembianze have been published on the Enciclopedia Italiana dei Compositori
Contemporanei (Italian Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Composers).
In 1999 he was invited at the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (Ministry of Education) for a work meeting on
problems related to the experimentation on a musical line side, particularly referring to the nationwide planning
and programming for experimental Arts' Schools which give students a musical education.
He works as a composer and as a researcher syde by side with directing a Choir.
He achieved the Diploma of Choral Music and Choir's Conducting, and the Diploma of Solfeggio,
Theory and Musical Dictation, to teach at the Conservatory.
He taught at the Conservatory Choral Music and Choir's Conducting; presently he teaches Theory Solfeggio
and Musical Dictation.
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Self Analysis
The questions related to my recent composition have been tightly set out by the application of
experiences of research and experimentation on the sound, initially carried out on traditional
instruments (Splitting). Afterwards it developed through the support of electronics (Studio per strumenti
a fiato e live electronics; Dae sas
voches; Sembianze).
These experiences made the timbre's dimension to be the main question together with the sounds relation with the
environment.
The need of using original acoustic materials adds to the traditional composition an extra dimension.
In the past the composer used to have at his disposal an acoustic pre-constituted range, whereas nowadays many
composers realise about the need of forming the essential elements of their own work, in other words of making
up the sound itself. Although in the past there was no lack of research on the timber's matters, we must think about
the steady growth of the instruments considered as a whole and the consequent evolution of orchestral writing.
So it is yet possible to state that the timbre and the relation which the sound establishes with the environment
nowadays become more and more important generative parameters.
The field of research on the sound offers two different methods of approach, which we could distinctly integrate
together: on one hand the experimentation on acoustic instruments, on the other hand the possibility of elaborating
that is given by the electronic mean. On the first side the research of new methods to stress the traditional instruments
needs the advice of a highly qualified interpreter, able to hint solutions and develop the field of research around
peculiar technical-acoustic issues. On the second side the chances of transformation can become definitely more
important, both in the case of live electronics and of electronic elaboration set up and carried out in a studio.
Sembianze (for magnetic tape) belongs to this latter category. The basic material is formed exclusively by clarinet's sounds in b key (Buffet Crampon DG), recorded on hard disk, then elaborated at different stages by using software instruments.
All amongst the several stages of transformation of the sound it is possible to identify on the whole:
a) cases where very small operations made through electronics on the clarinet's sounds could allow us to easily identify the primary material;
b) the processing's operations which mostly alter the primary sound, so that it allows us to identify a connection even if far away from it but that can still be traced back to the primary material;
c) stages of thorough transformation of the sound where the primary source has become something really different, in these cases it is possible to track down analogies with very different acoustic sources, also instrumental, strings, voices, etc…
The stages of transformation, drawn up as above at the points a), b), and c), must not be understood exclusively through the time sequence, but it is possible to get moments of simultaneousness both with different stages of transformation, for example with a) + c), and with stages of transformation similar to a) + a), etc..
The formal level of the question is developed taking its cue from elaborations carried out on short rhythmic-melodic cells, sometimes separate sounds, converted through transpositions, reverberations or which, through filters, harmonic components are emphasized by, reverberated, transposed and transferred through time. The operations produce differentiated materials, subsets of a), b), and c), which in a nutshell they can be distinguished as follows:
a.1 clarinet's sounds without elaboration,
a.2 with reverberation,
a.3 with smallest transpositions;
b.1 clarinet's sounds with significant transpositions,
b.2 with remarkable transpositions and strong increase of the reverberation;
c.1 "vocal" type bands
c.2 "strings" type bands
c.3 impulsive low type glissando
c.3.1 impulsive high type glissando
c.4 "strings" type glissando
c.5 "flute" type sound.
A description on the side of transformation of the sound, which is leader component to the comprehensive structure, generates the following graph:
a.1 ---
a.2 -------------
a.3 - - -
b.1 ---------- -
b.2 . .
c.1 ------ ------ -------------------------------------------
c.2 -------- -- ---- ---
c.3 . . . . . . . - - -
c.3.1 . - - - - - - - -
c.4 . . . . - - - - - - - - - ---
c.5 . . . . . . . .
Time ------------------------------------------------------------------------
0' 1'15" 2'30"
It is then an opened form, where, starting from the material which is "known " (the clarinet's sound), situations are searched and increased to generate acoustic contexts more and more far away from the component that generated them.
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Notes to the compositions
The voices' sounds of the Cuncordu de Orosei vocal group give the generative acoustic elements of Dae sas voches. The essential materials are taken out solely from the Ballu turturinu, which is a song belonging to a very old tradition and is typical of Orosei's area (Sardinia), and was performed and recorded in its original form, in four parts or separate voices, by the Cuncordu de Orosei group. I carried out a processing of the Ballu turturinu taping, using electrical-acoustic instruments through several operations, cuts, loops, delays, transpositions, reverberations, etcetera. It is not a work on the structures and forms of the traditional music. The relation with the original material is deliberately far away. On the contrary it is an operation which takes its cue from particular vocal emission's modes, glottis' hits, voices' guttural emissions, etcetera. It is an attempt of getting close to what, generally, it reminds me of the singularity of the Sardinian voice, which is mixed up with ideas related to time, Nature, Earth, together with rhythmical and acoustic aspects, which are present not just in the Ballu turturinu, but also in the rest of the Sardinian tradition.
Therefore they are sounds and acoustic evocative powers that are derived from the traditional Orosei's astonishing vocalism.
The questions related to my recent composition have been tightly set out by the application of
experiences of research and experimentation on the sound, initially carried out on traditional
instruments (Splitting). Afterwards it developed through the support of electronics (Studio per
strumenti a fiato e live electronics; Dae sas voches).
These experiences made the timbre's dimension to be the main question together with the sounds relation with the
environment.
The field of research on the sound offers two different methods of approach, which we could distinctly integrate
together: on one hand the experimentation on acoustic instruments, on the other hand the possibility of elaborating
that is given by the electronic mean. On the first side the research of new methods to stress the traditional
instruments needs the advice of a highly qualified interpreter, able to hint solutions and develop the field of
research around peculiar technical-acoustic issues. On the second side the chances of transformation can become definitely
more important, both in the case of live electronics and of electronic elaboration set up and carried out in a studio.
Sembianze (for magnetic tape) belongs to this latter category. The basic material is formed exclusively by
clarinet's sounds in b key (Buffet Crampon DG), recorded on hard disk, then elaborated at different stages by using
software instruments.
All amongst the several stages of transformation of the sound it is possible to identify on the whole:
a) cases where very small operations made through electronics on the clarinet's sounds could allow us to easily identify the primary material;
b) the processing's operations which mostly alter the primary sound, so that it allows us to identify a connection even if far away from it but that can still be traced back to the primary material;
c) stages of thorough transformation of the sound where the primary source has become something really different, in these cases it is possible to track down analogies with very different acoustic sources, also instrumental, strings, voices, etc…
The stages of transformation, drawn up as above at the points a), b), and c), must not be understood exclusively through the time sequence, but it is possible to get moments of simultaneousness both with different stages of transformation, for example with a) + c), and with stages of transformation similar to a) + a), etc..
The formal level of the question is developed taking its cue from elaborations carried out on short rhythmic-melodic cells, sometimes separate sounds, converted through transpositions, reverberations or which, through filters, harmonic components are emphasized by, reverberated, transposed and transferred through time. The operations produce differentiated materials, subsets of a), b), and c), which in a nutshell they can be distinguished as follows:
a.1 clarinet's sounds without elaboration,
a.2 with reverberation,
a.3 with smallest transpositions;
b.1 clarinet's sounds with significant transpositions,
b.2 with remarkable transpositions and strong increase of the reverberation;
c.1 "vocal" type bands
c.2 "strings" type bands
c.3 impulsive low type glissando
c.3.1 impulsive high type glissando
c.4 "strings" type glissando
c.5 "flute" type sound.
A description on the side of transformation of the sound, which is leader component to the comprehensive structure,
generates the following graph:
a.1 ---
a.2 -------------
a.3 - - -
b.1 ---------- -
b.2 . .
c.1 ------ ------ -------------------------------------------
c.2 -------- -- ---- ---
c.3 . . . . . . . - - -
c.3.1 . - - - - - - - -
c.4 . . . . - - - - - - - - - ---
c.5 . . . . . . . .
Time ------------------------------------------------------------------------
0' 1'15" 2'30"
It is then an opened form, where, starting from the material which is "known " (the clarinet's sound), situations are searched and increased to generate acoustic contexts more and more far away from the component that generated them.
The clarinettist Maestro Salvatore Grandi performed the original materials.
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The author of the image that separate the sections of the page is Gian Carlo Grandi. It's an elaboration of the wave form of the whole piece Sembianze
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