Francesca Verga

Francesca Verga

CV folgt

Supervisors

Prof. Dr. Cristina Urchueguía, Universität Bern, Institut für Musikwissenschaft
Prof. Dr. Teresa Carrasco Garcia, Sound Arts, Musik & Medienkunst, Hochschule der Künste Bern HKB

Doctoral project

Scelsi in translation, authorial philology and performance practice (Arbeitstitel)

Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer of the twentieth century, developed according to his structured system of artistic believes a very peculiar collaborative way of composing that was articulated in three phases. He was first improvising and recording an audible draft of his pieces; then he was giving the tapes to other composers hiring them to realize the score; and finally he was working in direct contact with his performers in order to guide them through the interpretation of his pieces and the development of particular sound techniques. This peculiar process raises questions about the reliability of the score to rebuild the sound idea of the composer that seems enclosed in the domain of oral history or kept on recorded-sound supports. Therefore, since the seven hundred tapes are being catalogued at the Fondazione Isabella Scelsi in Rome, and since many of his trusted perfomers are still reachable and looking forward to transmitting their testimonies, this seems the perfect moment to complete a scientific work of comparison in order to find an adequate way to integrate - possibly extending the meaning of - the musical text with the missing information. The research could also reconstruct the genesis and the development of Scelsi's musical ideas, discerning them from the super-impositive interpretational elements that derived from the contribution of other composers, and may re-open through close-listening and embodiment a dialogue otherwise interrupted between Scelsi’s texts and the modern artists.

Research priorities

Giacinto Scelsi; authorial philology and performance praxis; critical editions; musical textualities; notation, transcription and translation; authorship, collaborative composing / integration of new textualities in the learning process, research and discussion on the sources as a way to re-open the interrupted dialogue with the author, and the creative and historically informed potential of the investigative process