Horacio Vaggione – Portraitkonzert
Horacio Vaggione wurde 1943 in Argentinien geboren und ist besonders bekannt für seine Fixed-Media Kompositionen. Seit den 1970er Jahren nutzt er Computer für seine kompositorische Praxis. Sein Werk umfasst elektroakustische, gemischte und instrumentale Kompositionen. Es wurde mit zahlreichen Preisen geehrt.
Vaggione war 2015 Artist in Residence am ICST. Während seinem Aufenthalt am Institut komponierte er «Gymel II» für acht Lautsprecher. Acht Jahre später beschäftigte sich Manolo Müller (Master Elektroakustische Komposition ZHdK) für seine Masterthesis «Analyse des räumlichen Denkens in Gymel II von Horacio Vaggione» eingehend mit dessen Komposition und kontaktierte ihn diesbezüglich. Dies wiederum veranlasste Vaggione, das ganze Stück umfassend zu überarbeiten. Die mehrkanalige Version der neuen Fassung wird er im Mai 2024 unter dem Titel «Gymel III» am ICST abschliessend abmischen und im Rahmen seines Portraitkonzertes uraufführen. Darüber hinaus werden am Konzert auch einige seiner selten aufgeführten kammermusikalischen Stücke zu hören sein.
Programm
Mécanique des fluides (2014)
electroacoustic composition, 8 channel
Myr/S (1999)
for violoncello and electronics (fixe media), 2 channel
Isabel Gehweiler (violoncello)
Shifting Mirrors (2016-2017)
for saxophone alto and electronics (fixe media), 6 channel
María Luisa Cuenca (saxophone)
Gymel III (2016/ 2024)
electroacoustic composition, 8 channel
Horacio Vaggione: Gymel III (2024)
«Gymel III» is a new electronic piece which further develops a formal model that has already been outlined in two previous pieces sharing the same title.
The word Gymel derives from old English, referring to an early concept of polyphony in vocal music: a very new idea for the time leading to the invention of counterpoint. The word has not been in use for a long time. I recuperated it to refer to categories applied to the field of computer electronic music.
Basically, a Gymel – as I use it – refers to a concept of highly stratified music, where many different layers are exposed simultaneously. These layers are expressed in many diverse time scales, from the micro-time of milliseconds to the final global macro-form.
Besides the polyphonic aspect, there are other salient musical categories being present on the piece. One of these is the use of reiterations of musical figures in various scales. These reiterations, literal or transformed, are not functioning as repetitions in a minimal sense, but constituted strong figurative appearances that build a kind of narrative character (with only articulatory, specific musical meanings).
Finally, there is also a spatial treatment of this polyphony through a technique that I call ‘phase-decorrelation’; which is employed here to structure the listening space, something which clarifies the position and trajectories of sounds as they develop.
The first piece of mine called Gymel was created at the Bourges Experimental Festival in 2003; the second version, Gymel II, was realized during my residency at the ICST in Zurich in July 2015. The present version of the piece, « Gymel III » (2024), again is being finalized at the ICST. – Horacio Vaggione, February 2024