Gianmario Borio, Faculty of Musicology, University of Pavia, Italy: The relationship between musical notation and performance after 1950: Historical survey and theoretical considerations

**PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LECTURE WILL BE ON FRIDAY 21 SEPTEMBER, RATHER THAN THE USUAL THURSDAY, AND IS IN THE CONTEXT OF 'BERTONCINI DAYS'. MARIO BERTONCINI WILL PERFORM AND DEMONSTRATE TECHNIQUES DURING THE LECTURE.

ABSTRACT: 

Innovations in the field of musical notation, introduced by a diverse group of composers during the second half of the 20th century, open a theoretical perspective with which one can rethink the relationship between compositional idea, text and its sonic realization. A series of factors triggered this process: the requirement to affix electronic composition also onto the visual plane; the production of sound events that defy traditional symbolization; the growth as well of various performative components within concert music. The lecture illustrates several tendencies while discussing various theoretical premises.

Special attention is given to the career of Mario Bertoncini. Starting with his work, Cifre (1964-67), for piano(s) and a variable number of performers, he develops in a methodical manner notational practices that conform to sound objects as well to the specific modes of performance implied by these objects. 


ABOUT GIANMARIO BORIO:

Gianmario Borio graduated in Philosophy at the Università di Torino and gained his PhD in Musicology at the Technische Universität Berlin (under Carl Dahlhaus). He held research fellowships from the DAAD, the Paul Sacher Foundation and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. 1993-1999 he was Associate Professor of Musicology at the Università di Pavia, since 2000 he has been a Full Professor at the same university. He has been a visiting professor at various institutions in Europe, Canada and the USA. In 1999 he was awarded the Dent Medal by the Royal Musical Association. In 2012 he was nominated Director of the Institute of Music of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice).

He has been a member of the editorial board of the journals "Il Saggiatore Musicale" (1994-2010) and "Acta Musicologica" (2000-2010); since 2005 he is a member of the editorial board of "Filigrane" and since 2008 of the "Swiss Yearbook for Musicology". He is a member of the advisory boards of "Journal of the Royal Musical Association", "Music Analysis", "Twentieth Century Music" and "Il Saggiatore Musicale". From 1994 to 2010 he was a member of the scientific board of Archivio Luigi Nono (Venice) and since 2010 of the Centro Studi Luciano Berio (Florence). Since 2006 he has been a member of the artistic committee of the Milano Musica festival, and since 2009 of the editorial board of Pavia University Press.

In 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 he was scientific director of a project on the History of Musical Concepts (supported by the Italian Foundation for Research and University). From 2006 to 2010 he directed, together with Hermann Danuser and John Rink, the European Network for Musicological Research.  He is co-director of a research group on the interpretation of audiovisual works (www.worldsofaudiovision.org/).

His publications deal with several aspects of composition in the 20th Century, music theory and aesthetics. He is currently working on a book project on German theory of musical form in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. 

 

VIDEO ARCHIVE - GIANMARIO BORIO

APA video citation:

Borio, G. (2013, June 10). The relationship between musical notation and performance after 1950 -
CIRMMT Distinguished Lectures in the Science and Technology of Music. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e6R1NFk2qM