Category Archives: Recent projects

Possibility of Action: the Life of the Score

Score by Alice Santoro

MACBA Documentation Centre
17 JUNE – 05 OCT. 2008

«I sometimes think of music as a succession of sounds which on reaching the listener’s ear turns back on itself and retraces its path, in orderly disorder, until re-entering the mind of the person who thought it up», wrote the Italian artist and composer Walter Marchetti.

Together with Robert Ashley, Eugènia Balcells, Joan Brossa, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Pauline Oliveros, Lee Ranaldo and Yasunao Tone, Marchetti was one of the authors whose work was included in the exhibition Possibility of Action. The Life of the Score, curated by Barbara Held and Pilar Subirà at the MACBA Study Center.

The exhibition explored the possibilities of musical notation, loosely understood as a means for musical and visual transmission, and brought together historical and contemporary scores as well as artistic creations not strictly from the field of music. Scores became a field of action, sound became artistic material, the boundaries between art, music and life blurred, and the powers of composers, performers and audiences merged.

The exhibition was presented in conjunction with the RWM program Lines of Sight, a new space for sound experimentation.

“One of the more recent contemporary art exhibitions to provide a historical survey of graphic and experimental scores as visual as well as notational objects was Possibility of Action: The Life of the Score at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona Study Center in 2008.” Cited by Hendrik Folkerts in his text for Documenta 14, Keeping Score: Notation, Embodiment, and Liveness

http://www.documenta14.de/…/464_keeping_score_notation…

Clear Music, Eugenia Balcells

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Bowery Ensemble

The Bowery Ensemble was formed in 1981 by Nils Vigeland and gave an annual series of concerts in The Great Hall of Cooper Union for eight years. The members of the ensemble and their tenure in the group were:

Barbara Held, flute (1981-89) Leonard Krech, trombone (1981-89) Cheryl Pesdan, soprano (1981-3) Tina Pelikan,violin/viola (1985-88) Michael Pugliese, percussion (1981-1989) Nils Vigeland, piano (1981-89)

Season 1 (1981-82)

October 27,1981
Charles Ives Largo 
Charles Ives Sunrise
Morton Feldman Instruments I
Nils Vigeland Summer Music

November 17, 1981
Aaron Copland Violin Sonata
Leo Smit Scena Cambiata
Nils Vigeland Summer Music
Aaron Copland Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson

February 23,1982
Netty Simons The Great Stream Silent Moves
John Newell Lavender Axes
Yvar Mikhashoff Dialogos Y Sobres De Melisande
Lukas Foss Curriculum Vitae with Time Bomb
John Thow Alpha Libri

April 6,1982
John Cage Day
continuous performances from 12 noon
8PM Concert
Etudes Australes
Concert for Piano and Orchestra
Sixteen Dances

Second Season (1982-83)

October 18, 1982
Jon Gibson Untitled
William Hawley Three Japanese Songs
Charles Wuorinen Percussion Duo
Jacob Druckman Animus 1
Frederic Rzewski Les Moutons de Panurge

January 18, 1983
Christian Wolff Duo for Violins
Luciano Berio Sequenza I 
Luciano Berio Sequenza VI
Morton Feldman 4 Songs to e.e. cummings
David Del Tredici Three Songs
Henry Brant Headhunt

April 12,1983
Nils Vigeland Evening
Bernadette Speach Moto
Phil Niblock 261.6+ and –
Dane Rudhyar Theurgy
Ruth Crawford Seeger Three Songs

Third Season (1983-84)

November 1, 1983
Music of Lukas Foss
Music for Six
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Solo
Three Pieces for Violin and Piano
Paradigm

January 17,1984
Roscoe Mitchell Nonaah
Dane Rudhyar Nostalgia
Jo Kondo Sight Rhythmics
Jo Kondo Walk
Jo Kondo Strands III
Jo Kondo Forme Semee
Jo Kondo Diptych

March 13, 1984
Iannis Xennakis Psappha
John Cage Ryoanji
Earle Brown Times Five
Malcolm Goldstein Of Star Bright Mushrooms Bursting In My Head

Fourth Season (1984-85)

October 16,1984
Elliot Sharp VX
Chris Newman Symphony
Chris Newman Sad Secrets
Mauricio Kagel 1898

January 15, 1985
Morton Feldman Crippled Symmetry

March 19, 1985
Karlheinz Stockhausen Tierkreis
Roger Reynolds “..From Behind the Unreasoning Mask”
Alvin Singleton Argoru V/b
Nils Vigeland A Loud Piece

Fifth Season (1985-86)

October 8, 1985
Charles Casavant Legacy
Stephen Montague Paramell I
Steve Lacy Cloudy
Nils Vigeland Eleven Pages
Yvar Mikhashoff Night Dances
Conlon Nancarrow Blues/Tango/Sonatina
Poul Ruders Break-Dance

January 21,1986
John Cage Music For 4
Chris Newman Final X
Jo Kondo A Scribe
Christian Wolff Bowery Preludes

March 4, 1986
Frederic Rzewski To the Earth
Joel Chadabe Follow Me Softly
Joel Chadabe Interactions 2
Pauline Oliveros Earth Ears

Sixth Season (1986-87)

October 7, 1986
Luciano Berio Sequenza V
Jih Hi Kim X5
Zoltan Jenéy Variation on a Theme by Christian Wolff
Iannis Xenakis Theraps
Zoltan Jenéy Orpheus’ Garden
Carl Vine Miniature III

January 20,1987
Dorrance Stalvey Three Pairs and Seven
Leo Smit In Woods
Leo Smit Flute of Wonder
Igor Stravinsky Elegy
Nils Vigeland Transparent Things

March 2, 1987
Max Lifchitz Night Voices No. 7
Elias Tanenbaum A Bubble In My Eye
Linda Bouchard Transi-Blanc
Luciano Berio Folksongs

Seventh Season (1987-88)

October 27, 1987
John Cage 75th Birthday Concert
Erik Satie Five Nocturnes
Credo in US
Five Songs for Contralto
Nocturne for Violin and Piano
Sixteen Dances

January 26, 1988
Charles Ives Sonata No. 4
Ushio Torakai Movement
David Felder BoxMan
Charles Ives Largo
Nils Vigeland Transparent Things

March 29, 1988
Iannis Xenakis Psappha
Morton Feldman Why Patterns?
Pauline Oliveros Earth Ears

Eighth Season (1988-89)

October 25, 1988
Olly Wilson Trio
Jon Deak Metaphor
Conlon Nancarrow  String Quartet
Michael Gordon Four Kings Fight Five

January 31,1989
Barbara Held, flute
Giacinto Scelsi Hyxos
Jacques Bekaert Song I
Bun-Ching Lam After Spring
Yasunao Tone Aletha:Unconcealment
Yasunao Tone Lyricton
Robert Ashley Superior Seven

April 4, 1989
Merkin Hall
Michael Pugliese, percussion
John Cage Music for 4
Iannis Xennakis Psappha
Morton Feldman The Kind of Denmark
Per Nørgard I Ching
Nils Vigeland Progress
Mancini/Pugliese Peter Gunn

El pianista i la flautista: ació musical per a televisió, Joan Brossa

Performed by Carles Santos and Barbara Held, 1987, circuit català de televisió

I

Interior. Un pianista i una flautista interpreten una peça. El piano, a l’esquerra. (La música continuarà sense interrupció fins al pla setè.)

II

Imatge en negre.

III

Continuació del concert, però amb els papers intercanviats.

IV

Imatge en negre.

V

Exterior. El pianista apuntant cap a l’esquena amb una carrabina.

VI

Imatge en negre.

VII

Pla general. Veiem que el tirador apunta a la noia, dreta al seu davant i sense res a les mans. (Cessa la música.)

VIII

Repetició del pla cinquè, però al moment de disparar. (Tret.)

IX

La cara de la flautista, rient, amb la bala entre les dents.

(1978)

Aquest film, interpretat per Carles Santos i Bàrbara Held, va ser emès l’any 1978 pel circuit català de televisió, dins del programa «Escenari».

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Grup Instrumental Catala , Teatre Lluire 17/10/1978

Music by Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny
Directed by Carles Santos
Ignasi Alcover, Josep Bello, Josep Maria Escribano, Barbara Held, Josep Martinez, Angel Pereira, Pere J. Puertolas, Fernando Quiroga, Angel Resa, Jesus Rodriguez Pico

with Imma Colomer, Laura Culat, Christa Leem, Pep Anton Muñoz, Silvia Munt, Albert Penas, Carlota Soldevila, Jordi Vilà

Directed by Fabià Puigserver
Scenography by Antoni Tapies

photos: Ros Ribas