Output details

Dramaturgical use of sound in the work of Hermann Nitsch: Havana, Cuba 2012/Leipzig, Germany, 2013

This PaR output is the result of a project that has explored and experimented on the dramaturgical potential of sound, particularly the possibility of ‘conducting improvisations’ with a full-size orchestra of about 100 musicians. The research focused on the work of the Viennese Actionist Hermann Nitsch and is the result of many years of study, application and experimentation on the principles of the Orgies Mysteries Theatre. It resulted in the development of a decoding system for Nitsch’s visual scores, as well as the invention of a conducting technique through which one can lead both the sound and the performance happenings in Nitsch’s gesamtkunstwerk. This pioneering work in the decodification, interpretation and execution of Nitsch's work is now available to future interpreters, academics and practitioners who are interested in his work or in alternative strategies for music composition and conducting. My research in this direction has brought at least three significative contributions to this field of practice. I have developed and tested:

1. A written and graphical grammar for the decodification of Nitsch's draft scripts

2. An new gestural language both to conduct this very peculiar type of music, and to resolve the dramaturgical issues related to the contextual execution of semi-aleatoric scores and often non-controllable performative actions.

3. An interpretation style which contemplates the translation of Nitsch's visual scores into a codified artistic style. Its success is recognised by Nitsch, who says: ‘Your high musicality matches my works perfectly’.

This interpretive and technical research process reached full manifestation at 11th Havana Biennial in Cuba in 2012, in which I conducted the ‘Orquesta Sinfónica de la ISA de La Habana’ and the ‘Septeto Nacional De Ignacio Piniero’, and in Leipzig Germany June 2013, in which I provided musical direction for Action.138 ‘3 Day Play’ performed by the Orgies Mysteries Theatre.