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Tribute to the mystical physicality of Sylvano Bussotti

Professor Andrea Bedetti

www.musicvoice.it

The figure of Sylvano Bussotti is considered to be one of the most intriguing and problematic in the history of music in the late twentieth century due to its astounding versatility. The fact that he is also a painter, poet, novelist, theater and film director, actor, singer, stage-designer and costume-designer alongside one of the greatest musicians of our time, presents his work as a titanic labyrinth in which one runs the risk of losing himself or rather being already lost. This fact forces the critic and anyone approaching his works to a problem of evaluation and interpretation, since the otherwise valid laws of hermeneutics[1] are not applicable. So it is not risky to say that the size of the Florentine artist lies in the absolute meaning of his message, which, however, always remains elusive. A perpetual eel, therefore, that escapes all archival attempts to inventory the created, as well as it escapes an [artistic] process of recreation.

The musical work of Bussotti focuses precisely on this artistic sphere, being careful to keep the doors open to enter and leave other ideas, concepts and vibrations of other spheres. It is precisely these open doors that offer the ability to communicate different lexical instances, different languages, different idioms set in many forms, (a comparison with mathematical set theory may help here), their aesthetic declaration as one of man's few victories against the curse of the Babylonian tower. And it is precisely this special ability of Bussotti to lend all things [through his power of integration] in such fullness, common life and common body, to live on in [his] students, [co-]musicians, admirers and in those molecular cells, which attributed to the Bussottian vision.

Here, as an ideal tribute to Maestro Bussotti, (who was allowed to celebrate his eighty-seventh birthday in the last few days) a [new] album, with six works for guitar respectively for guitar and human voice, recorded by the German composer and guitarist Hans-Jürgen Gerung. Two of the works are by Bussotti himself, Ermafrodito and Ultima Rara, and the other four come from the unique variety of musicians from the [former] student [circle] of the Florentine master, or the enthusiastic [circle] of his admirers. With the exception of the composition Ultima Rara, all works were commissioned by the [different] composers through the international festival forum of contemporary music – oberstdorf. The album opens with the five-part suite wanted, for guitar (guitar, classical guitar, and electric guitar) by Luigi Esposito. Esposito may be considered as an employee or close friend rather than a student Bussottis. And, by the way - Esposito is also the author of one of those biographies that was most successful in getting very close to Bussotti. Esposito's text achieved this, because he asks Bussotti himself (in the etymological sense) to witness his own [life]. This is followed by Declarative Belfry - Five Variations for solo guitar on a work, originally written for viola, double bass and guitar by Japanese pianist and composer Mai Fukasawa. With the seven miniatures Fantasmi nella Foresta - Hans-Jürgen Gerung presents his own work for solo-guitar and in the Cigno Pesarese of the Japanese artist Hidehiko Hinohara he works on a score that was originally conceived for one or more clarinets. The message that Gerung wanted to give [with] the album is [immediately] clearly recognizable in the title - The Bussotti Circle. It is the circle of those who recognize themselves in the Bussottian uniqueness. It is the idea of circularity, which, founded by one individual, refers to others, and which also radiates and participates in others. A mirror that can guarantee uniqueness and autonomy. (It's an [album]title, which at the same time also commemorates another great poet, namely the German bard Stefan George and the radiant emanation of his circle of visionaries, admirers and followers in vision, aesthetics and poetry)

Gerung therefore took full-capacity form as a musical host, opened new pages for his instrument, adapted [works] for the guitar and saw himself as a direct emanation[2] of the Bussottian conception. And with other [new] and transformed sounds, he gives back the all-encompassing sound idea of the Florentine master. The opening track of the album, wanted by Luigi Esposito could be described as a controversial "style exercise" - as some kind of "Intavolatura-Blues" (which immediately evokes memories of the sound of the Doors by Jim Morrison, and consequently also to the Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley. Both of whom left behind an indelible and uncharacteristically unimpressive impression) in which the three different timbres of the guitars become the symbol for so many entrance and exit Doors. (Bussotti's music, on the other hand - let us return to set theory for a moment - is an uninterrupted flow from one state of mind, sound, rhythm, and conception to another). The five variations of Declarative Belfry transformed by Gerung with the strings of [his] guitar into an acoustic sketch in such a way that it captures the listener's hearing and the mind with its sounds - hiding an ever-changing image behind a false desolation. The Fantasmi della Foresta rest on a completely different anchor-point of the Bussottian sound poetry; - on the Element of Memory of Childhood (this will be seen later in Ultima Rara). Specifically, this are experiences and adventures of the German guitarist and composer to a forest in the Allgäu (a region in South-Bavaria). These memories take on the contours of a past that refuses to exist in order to perpetuate the idea of a present over time. Again, there is the magic of "passage", [or] "crossing", opening a Door, closing another and vice versa. Il Cigno Pesarese is a tribute to the uniqueness of Rossini. By means of some kind of revival-technique, Hidehiko Hinohara transmutes the theoretical positions of baroque aesthetics from the Affekten-Lehre. And these different moods are concentrated in sound symbols and mediated and executed according to the will of the interpreter. There are pieces of a domino in constant evolution; [like] a sound DNA, that adapts to the result of a dice roll, whose impulse is characterized by the sensitivity of the very person who performs the sound itself.

And then Bussotti himself. If there is a musical poster that realizes the Florentine master as a concrete image in the sound of an instrument and that biologically refers exactely to the figure of Sylvano Bussotti, so it is the composition Ermafrodito, commissioned by Hans-Jürgen Gerung himself. It is the idea of a sexual gender not only referring to the [historical] meaning of the Hermaphrodite, but also to the myth of Tiresias. From Zeus, he was given the opportunity to experience both, masculinity and femininity. Finally, femininity appeared as the sex of choice for Teiresias. In this way, the guitar becomes an active and passive instrument - it becomes a producer of sounds and at the same time a receptacle of other pitches and notes (before performing each of the seven movements, Gerung recites every movement title he is going to perform and so he materializes the male component that joins the feminine, namely the guitar itself). Ermafrodito is the quintessence of "mystical corporeality". It is precisely this art for which Bussotti is unique. It is the forerunner of that state in which sensuality and passion for the body elevate one's soul and thus transform [corporeality] into a motive of creativity. Bussotti is an Aleister Crowley who does not need to be loved but who knows how to love. He is the one who physically creates his art, [just like] a new faun in the style of Mallarmé. Who knows how to love, lives the art in everyday life, which is divided into a continuous sequence of moments. These are temporal fragments capable of breaking the pattern, given by Western linearity. And the culmination of this process is precisely Ultima Rara. A valuable and inevitable album sheet, designed for a single guitar or three guitars that (?) concludes the cycle of various Rara-compositions. (Rara is based on an acronym for "Romano Amidei, Romano Amidei" - name and surname of one of the most important companions in Bussotti's life). Gerung effortlessly encloses the compositional line of three guitars of the score (and their lush polyphony) with only one instrument. The human-voices were recorded circularly with a Dolby-Surround effect and then superimposed on the guitar track. To fully enjoy this effect, I’d like strongly recommend listening to audio on headphones. Only a few Bussottian compositions have the power to capture the precise and exciting aesthetics of the Florentine artist in such a way with continuously recurring emotional clusters [like Ultima Rara]. [The work] is pure emotion, which temporally materializes the steps of the story, a love with Romano Amidei (the voice traverses the dimensions from the polarity of suffering to pleasure). A story that becomes a work of art. Carnality, which has indisputably mystical taste and encloses everything, that smoothes everything and is only interrupted, by a last shout by the admonishing voice: "and never forget this!". It forms indelible and cruel tautologically[3]. It is passionate and sentimental with everything that can be transformed in expression. [It is a] "not with you, not without you" - (this, by the way, runs through all of Bussotti's art, through all his works. His constant and uplifting progress has always been driven by a strong will - and he is never failed). Bussotti and his "circle" demonstrate in this album an example of an artistic conception dedicated to the superhuman endeavor to show things that appear different from what they actually are. And that's what always forces you to desire something (whatever it is) and reject it [at the same time] - from the beginning ... no matter what form and substance it is. When you think about it, it can be the heart of art and its function.

The recordings were done with a very tight microphone-technique. This gives back the timbre of the guitar in all its dynamics and allows full unfolding of the harmonic-pitches as well. All the details are precise and rich in its material. And the presence of the voice, when it appears, does not disturb the balance of the overall sound.

Andrea Bedetti

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AA.VV. – Ultima Rara-The Bussotti Circle Contemporary Music for Guitar and Voice

Hans-Jürgen Gerung (chitarra e voce)

CD Gerung-Arts&Music

Giudizio artistico 5/5

Giudizio tecnico 4/5