3rd edition
2002"40 Anni nel 2000" Competition
The selection of winning projects in the third edition of the Quarant'anni nel Duemila Competition was held at the Goethe-Institut, Rome on 12 November 1999. The object of this competition, organized by CEMAT-Federazione di Centri di Musica Attrezzata and supervised by professor Giuseppe Di Giugno, is to select projects by young Italian composers for realization at the Electroacoustic Music Centres of the Federation.
The subject of the third edition was Narrare in musica - opere per la gioventù (Telling a story in music - Works for the young), the aim being to orientate the works of the composers towards arousing the musical interest of young listeners through a close tie-up between technology and music.
The projects selected foresee a harmonic relationship between music, text and scenic action and envisage electronic processing of live sound, live electronics. The complement foreseen, of not more than six elements, was to be selected by the candidate from the following: a soprano, an actor, a percussion instrument, a trombone and a MIDI keyboard, plus a performer of the candidate's choice (for example: a mime, a dancer or another instrumentalist); the works drew inspiration from material by writers and poets of yesterday and today specializing in literature for children.
The jury for the third edition of the Prize (formed by: Françoise Barrière, Head of the International Electroacoustic Music Institute of Bourges; Fiorella Cappelli a music pedagogy expert and professor at Florence Conservatory; Azio Corghi composer, member of the Artistic-Scientific Committee of CEMAT and professor of composition, Specialization Courses of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome; Eugenio Giordani informatics technology expert and professor of Computer Music at Pesaro Conservatory; Dieter Schnebel, one of the most representative composers of new music in Germany; Giuseppe Di Giugno chairman, without voting right) declared the winners to be the projects presented by Paolo Furlani, Silvia Lanzalone, Lucia Ronchetti and Roberta Vacca.
Paolo Furlani, the Venetian composer who has already won several international music theatre competitions, presented the project entitled LA CASA DEI MOSTRI (Piemme Editions) for children at the first stage of primary school, in collaboration with the writer Maria Vago; the composition foresees the following components: actor, soprano, trombone, sax, percussion, keyboard and electronic processing.
"A story structured according to the classic model of the fairy tale featuring successive ordeals: Livia, the protagonist, is visiting her uncle and aunt and has to face a series of monsters. (Livia's uncle and aunt do not wish her to wander too much around the house and bother them while they are watching television. "Watch out!" they tell her, "the house is full of monsters". But no monster exists capable of stopping Livia). The story has a cyclical trend: Livia passes her uncle and aunt, always glued to the television, each time she confronts a monster. Livia is not afraid. She meets and defeats the Monster of the Sweets, the Monster of the Storeroom, the Monster of the Ugly Rat (who lives in the cellar), the Spiderweb Monsters (who are in the attic). The uncle and aunt instead do not manage to survive the Television Monster which gobbles them up."
Production: MM&T (Musica, Musicisti e Tecnologie) and LaSDIM (Laboratorio per la Sperimentazione e la Didattica dell'Informatica Musicale), Milan.
Silvia Lanzalone, a young composer from Salerno living in Rome, expert in electroacoustic music and music didactics, presented the project entitled JUNOFIRST (Khjay and Neuroboy against web pirates).
"An electronic musical tale for cyber-fans of the fourth and fifth elementary and first secondary, in collaboration with the writer Massimiliano Cascinari; the composition foresees the following components: actor, soprano, mime, video and sound installations, electronic processing.
"A robot accompanied by a child, its friend, makes a virtual trip on the web in order to cure itself of an illness which prevents it from expressing itself with the magical language of sound. The trip is dotted with fantastic events, many surprises and coups de théâtre, culminating in a battle against web pirates. Recovery from the illness coincides with the little magic robot entering once more into possession of its sound and creative capacities."
Production: Edison Studio, Rome
Lucia Ronchetti, a young Roman composer with numerous works realized at leading European Centres of Electroacoustic Music, presented the project entitled L'APE APATICA for first stage primary school children on poems and texts by Toti Scialoja, written for the author's three grandchildren (at that time 6-8 years old); the composition foresees the following components: children's voices, soprano, actor, trombone, percussion instruments and electronic processing.
"The idea of the work was to reconstruct the dramaturgical playground devised by Toti Scialoja in his poetry of the Sixties and Seventies.
From 'Versi del senso perso':
Amid the leaves the naked frog
gulps down a fly neither raw nor cooked,
swallowing some of it, nibbling a little,
and in the end fleecing it inasmuch as he is greedy."
Production: CRM (Centro Ricerche Musicali), Rome in co-production with Teatro Sociale of Rovigo, Teatro La Fenice of Venice and Rovigo Conservatory of Music.
Roberta Vacca, composer native of L'Aquila who followed the specialization courses of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, pianist and expert in musical didactics, presented the project entitled GATTOMACHIA for first stage primary school children. freely adapted from the "Gatomachia" of Lope de Vega (1634), the poem dedicated by the Spanish dramatist to his son; the composition foresees the following components: soprano, two actors, children's voices, flute, MIDI keyboard, percussion instruments and electronic processing.
"With these verses begins a web of amorous deceptions and gory ambushes in a society of cats of any period whatsoever."
Production: Istituto Gramma, L'Aquila
All four projects foreseed the direct participation of groups of children, previously coached in a musical laboratory by an expressly structured training programme that covered the first steps of primary musical education, an elementary acquaintance with the texts and dramaturgies and the relationship (even elementary) with computer technologies of music, integrated with movement.