PRES: Bogusław Schaeffer, Assemblage

Bôłt. Polish Radio Experimental Studio, 2010 (2xCD)

Bogusław Schaeffer, Assemblage

CD 1
1. Assemblage (first simultaneous version)
2. Electronic Symphony (realisation: Bogdan Mazurek)
3. Herakliltiana (soloist: Urszula Mazurek - harp)
4. Project (solost: Zdzisław Piernik - tuba)

CD 2
1. Project (solost: Mariusz Pędziałek - oboe)
2. Listening to Heraklitiana (soloist: Mikołaj Pałosz – cello)
3. Electronic Symphony (realisation: Wolfram)
4. Assemblage (seond simulatenous version)
5. o.t. for B.S. (realisation: Thomas Lehn)

Distribution: online by Monotype Records (roughly since mid-January 2011)
Release Party: 19.01.2011 in CCA Laboratorium, Warsaw during PERSPEKTIVEN / PERSPEKTYWY (one night stand with PRES, more soon)


"Poliversional compositions" were defined by Bogusław Schaeffer already in the 60. They were pieces written down not as “definite aggregates” being an obligation towards an interpreter to perform the sounds composer had in his mind but rather potential aggregates encompassing variety of possible versions. After nearly half-century, a couple of notes should be added to the definition, even if they are nothing more than questions on its margins. They are not rooted in theoretical insight but only in working on that particular album.

Question number one: once the score is missing, can "poliversionality" mean improvising the soloist part upon listening to a fixed tape? (see: Heraklitiana - composition for tape and soloist of which score is possibly still existing but few months long search, including interventions of its author, gave no result). Is the definition of "poliversionality" wide enough to include a tiny mistake in a playback of a tape during a live performance? (see: Proietto, composition for tape and soloist – during the concert in 1994 in Zachęta Gallery played back a semitone lower than expected). If a close listening to an “original version with a score leaves a lot of doubt about the faithfulness to the score, must other – more loose – versions be mere variations? (see: o.t. dec. 2011 by Thomas Lehn). And the last one: does changing of the title free us from an obligation of a faithful performance or is it only a misuse introducing a new author to a performance which is nothing more but one of the possible realizations of Schaeffer’s compositions? [ML / MM]