AVANT AVANT GARDE # 3

A series dedicated to experimental music before 20th century

curated by Frau W., Maciej Śledziecki (ZAM e.V.) and Michał Libera (Foundation 4.99)

Avant Avant Garde # 3

27/09/2013,

CCA Zamek Ujazdowski, Warszawa, Poland

20.00 Educational Room (free entry)

- Michał Libera, introduction

- Jan Topolski, lecture on early microtonal music instruments

21.00 Cistern (free entry)

- Francesco Cavaliere

22.00 Laboratorium (20 PLN, in framework of Warsaw Gallery Weekend)

- Gamut Ensemble (Maciej Śledziecki & Marion Wörle) 

- Magda Mayas & Tisha Mukarji 

- Steven Stapleton & Andrew Liles 

all pieces are commissions for Avant Avant Garde by ZAM e.V. & Foundation 4.99

(after the concerts - after party at CCA's couryard with Jacek Sienkiewicz, Jacek Staniszewski and others)

- Francesco Cavaliere, performance inspired by 18th and 19th century experiments with electricity, in particular galvanic music of Charles Grafton Page. Cavaliere will prepare a special set for coils, magnets, as well as self-made instruments implementing Helmholtz resonators and other facts and myths on acoustics and psychoacoustics of the times. 

- Gamut Ensemble, a composition inspired by antique and medieval tuning systems and instruments designed for them. Since first Avant Avant Garde concert Maciej Śledziecki and Marion Wörle are enriching their orchestra of instruments constructed by Gerhard Kern and based on instrument blueprints of the times. In Warsaw expect a carillon, monochord and others.

- Magda Mayas & Tisha Mukarji, a duo of a pianist and a pianist as well as pianist and a tuner. Together they prepare a concert alluding to early piano preparations and a tuning system designed by Nicola Vicentino in 1555 - way before the piano has originated. Vicentino designed a special instrument, archicembalo which will serve as an inspiration for tuning of piano. 

- Steven Stapleton & Andrew Liles, performance-mystery based on occult practices on the edges of music and science. Especially for their first appearance in Warsaw, members of Nurse with Wound will prepare a concerto for harpsichord and electronics. 

*

There is no such thing as new music. And there has never been one. Otherwise, when did it start? Was it in 1766 when the futurist intonarumori were first designed by Donato Stopani for Drottningholm Theatre in Stockholm? Few decades earlier, when minimalist idea of combination tones were first theorized by Giuseppe Tartini? Or was it in 13th Century when Cage's chance operations were presupposed by Raymond Llull in his figures? Earlier?

Avant Avant Garde is an anachronistic chase for experimental practices in scores, prints and treatises way before terms such as "new", "contemporary", "experimental" or "avant garde" music were conceived. We dig in the history not in search of schools and trends of music making. We dig to find maverick who could not wait until 20th century to see themselves becoming silent patrons of most thrilling adventures in sound making. What we find is people working with what they had at hands - objects, burning flames, spilling waters and blowing wind studying the mechanics at the heart of music and heralding sound art.

The material researched for Avant Avant Garde forms a body of commissions for four nights of music in Cologne, Krakow, Warsaw, Berlin. Each will contain exclusively world premiers. Dženana Aganspahić, Burkhard Beins, Arturas Bumšteinas, Max Eastley, Lucio Capece, Francesco Cavaliere, Tomek Chołoniewski, Gamut Ensemble, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Frau W, CM von Hausswolff, Gerhard Kern, Aleks Kolkowski, Michał Libera, Magda Mayas, Ralf Meinz, Tisha Mukarji, Mikołaj Pałosz, Karolina Ossowska, Razen, Paweł Romańczuk, Spat'sonore, Maciej Sledziecki, Thomas Tilly, Jan Topolski, Michael Vorfeld and many more will be there to deliver concerts, lectures and presentations on Avant Avant Garde. Over the course of the project Gamut Ensemble will be developing a growing automated orchestra of specifically designed music-machines referring to its Renaissance predecessors but expanded with computer controls.