CHIARI, GIUSEPPE - INTERVALLI (LP)

"alga marghen proudly presents the historical "Intervalli" by Giuseppe Chiari, a world premiere of the compete cycle of 12 "Intervalli". Elegantly performed and recorded by Reinier Van Houdt, this timeless composition from 1950-56 anticipates Minimalist by a decade as well as Concetual and Sytems-Based-Composition while intersecting the perspectives that would soon be delevoped by Fluxus, the group Chiari would join in 1962. Giuseppe Chiari's "Intervalli" for piano still retain the charm of a discovery, even when considered in the context of their historical perspective. Composed within a time frame that extends throughout the entire first half of the 1950s, they are striking for the precocity of their compositional conception based on a radical reduction of musical parameters on mathematical and rational grounds. One might also be surprised to discover that Chiari's early compositions follow such a rigorous logical approach in the organisation of musical material, particularly in light of the subsequent direction his work took, which established him, within the Neo-Avant-Garde, as the most resolute and determined exponent of gestural music-a genre thus free from any dogma or structural constraints. In "Intervalli" Chiari focuses on the idea of a rational 'arrangement' of the sequence of sounds and/or their simultaneity through a more or less controlled system of repetitions of variants or invariants, defined by their interval features and duration. A system that is more or less controlled, as it operates within a limited set of given possibilities, a factor that leads to a radical narrowing of the musical parameters. The twelve pieces comprising the "Intervalli" cycle are entirely structured around a dual approach: a rigorous vertical and harmonic sequence of sounds (adopted exclusively in Nos. 1, 2 and 5) or their horizontal and linear arrangement (which characterises all the remaining pieces in the cycle). In their sequential development, the vertical/chordal and horizontal/linear directives adopt a similar principle of conjugation, constructed through a system of invariants that repeats cyclically: a pivotal sound is always identified-one that characterises both the chord and the start of a linear sequence-on the basis of which a sequence of interval relationships, either free or governed by their mathematical and numerical significance, is applied alternately. In turn, this pivotal sound may remain invariant (as exemplified by No. 2, where the entire interval structure of each chord is built around a central C repeated throughout), or it may be subject to variation whilst still underpinning a numerical-interval structure that replicates certain constants. The systematic processes of limiting and repeating musical parameters will be elements that, by analogy, will later come to the fore with the birth of musical minimalism. It would, however, be a stretch to regard Chiari's "Intervalli" as a driving force that will have a direct impact on the emergence and establishment of this current. Whilst minimal music employs the systematic reduction of parameters and their repetition to guide unidirectional development as a gradual process, Chiari's "Intervalli" move towards an opposing concept that "explores the relationships between sounds without any temporal hierarchy" in order to achieve "music that strips succession of its discursive power". A clear indication of an objective, almost atomistic conception of sound, aimed at deconstructing its syntactic homologation. Hence its conceptual relevance, which cannot be equated with the canonical currents of minimalism: a nuance that would subsequently predispose Chiari to an informal openness towards the performative gesture. The "Intervalli" cycle thus marked Chiari's first point of arrival, but also a point of no return-save for the final decade of his creative career, when a still surprising new recourse to musical writing was mediated precisely by a gestural instinc" (label info)