Livorno Music Festival – Composition Master Class
Livorno Music Festival
Composition Master Class
COMPOSITION AND LIVE ELECTRONICS COLLABORATIVE WORKSHOP – CAPRONI AND LIVORNO
Project and methods of participation
Important DATES:
- May, 15th deadline for the application
- June, 1st (at latest) communication of pre-selection results
- July, 1st deadline for confirmation (participation and project)
- August, 26th – September, 1st atelier
- September, 1st (h. 21:00) concert in the programme of the Livorno Music Festival
THE PROJECT and THE METHOD:
The workshop is aimed at the realization of a concert on September 1, 2019 in the Livorno Music Festival program.
The training is based on a participatory dimension: the knowledge acquired during the courses (composition, music informatics, recording and sound diffusion techniques) are implemented in a composition atelier open to the use of electronics.
The students work in groups, with a collaborative approach on complementary tasks: on the one hand the vocal/instrumental writing, on the other the electronic processing. During the rehearsals and the concert, the students will share the tasks of computer music design and sound engineering, in addition to the musical direction of the performers.
The workshop takes place in Livorno from 26 August to 1 September 2019. The vocal and instrumental material is previously defined by the candidates selected for the course.
Each candidate works on an original artistic project, inspired by the poetry of Giorgio Caproni (Livorno, 7 January 1912 – Rome, 22 January 1990) working on one or more poetic texts (also in fragmentary version) of the poet from Livorno and on the link with his home town.
INSTRUMENTS AVAILABLE:
Instruments available: soprano, flute, clarinet, piano, percussion.
Students can choose among three types of ensemble:
- Voice and instrument/s
- Voice and electronics
- Instrument/s and electronics
DATA SHEET:
The work is characterized by a transparent use of electronics, respecting and merging with the acoustic dimension of the voice and the instruments. The concert includes a multichannel sound projection system exclusively reserved for electronic materials, the voice and the instruments will be projected without amplification.
For the electronic part, it is required to send audio tracks or a running software project, in relation to the formulated proposal. In the case of software, the use of free or copyrighted music software is allowed (if under a specific license, the student takes charge of a personal computer with a regular license to carry out their project).
This material is required for the selection and organisation of working groups, and will serve as a basis for personal and collective work during the workshop. However, the materials submitted will not necessarily be used for the final concert.
Projects based on electronics must respect the following technical constraints:
- A single microphone input for electronic processing
- A maximum of 4 outputs for diffusion
The following equipment is available for the venues where the rehearsals and the concert are held:
- Sound card with 1 analog input and 4 analog outputs
- Mixer with 12 microphone inputs and at least 4 analog outputs
- Multi-channel diffusion system
During the week the students will be entitled to two sessions of work with the teachers, for a total of four meetings, in addition to meetings to be planned with the individual musicians and the tests for the preparation of the concert that will take place in the presence of at least one of the two teachers.
METHOD OF PARTICIPATION AND TIMES:
Applications must be sent to the Festival secretariat by e-mail to infolivornomusicfestival@gmail.com by May the 15th, 2019. The composers must attach together with the participation request, 2 scores of their choice (with recordings, if possible) and a short text of explanation of the aimed project, that will have a strict connection with the poetry of Giorgio Caproni, indicating their intention to include or not the use of electronics.
The first ten candidates selected by the course teachers will then confirm their participation by submitting the online application form. The other candidates will be able to enter a waiting list depending on the score they received, and may substitute the candidates that would withdraw by July the 1st (for withdrawals after that date it is necessary to pay the entire attendance fee). The auditors will not be selected, but will not be entitled to lectures or participation in the concert.
After May the 15th, the ten selected composers will receive two / three options of ensemble and will have to choose one of them in a definitive manner by June the 1st (penalty exclusion from the atelier).
Confirmed participants will prepare a first draft of the score that they will submit to the course teachers by July the 1st. Once the project is approved, the candidates will begin to realize it and complete the draft during the week of meetings with the teachers and the musicians in Livorno. Electronics must build on materials (vocal, instrumental, environmental) chosen and recorded during the workshop by the students; materials pre-recorded by the students are accepted, if they comply with the requirements of the atelier. The realization can take the form of an instrumental, electroacoustic, or live electronics piece.
The festival secretariat will provide a choice of Caproni’s texts, candidates can still freely choose other texts by consulting the complete work of the poet that is available at the publisher Garzanti.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Caproni
http://siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it/cgi-bin/pagina.pl?TipoPag=prodpersona&Chiave=45231
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Caproni
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Caproni
Giorgio Caproni, Tutte le poesie, 1076 p., Garzanti, Milano, 1999 (ISBN 88-11-66901-4).
Edizione critica: Giorgio Caproni, L’opera in versi, edizione critica a cura di Luca Zuliani, Milano, A. Mondadori, 1998 (ISBN 88-04-43586-0).
Maximum 10 students
The organization reserves the right to make some scholarships available to the most deserving students upon request to the secretariat, to be assigned at the end of the course and at the discretion of the teachers