Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:
Cecilia Arditto (b. 1966 — Argentina / NL)
Cecilia will tell you:
I have always been struck by the sensuality of sound, I have always loved it. The infinite possibilities of instruments constitute a source of inspiration and research. However, the exploration of sound would just be an empty category, a cosmetic idea, if it were not tied to the idea of musical grammar. Here, then, is an introduction to my research: intense exploration of the world of tone-colour – principally of acoustic instruments and the human voice – subordinated to a profound preoccupation with the idea of form. For me form is conferred only by a few elements, by small points. They could be few in number and minimalist; complexity is not a matter of quantity. […]
Musical works transcend the various performances and their historicity, they transcend the composer’s intentions. Music resonates at a historical moment, but also in the most intimate categories of a human being: it resonates in places you cannot grasp, that can only be suggested, that can only be guessed at through a delicate network of relationships. Music is neither notes nor instruments, nor is it time. It constitutes an object that is impossible to define, that gives rise to a multiplicity of simultaneous perspectives. The essence of a musical work is given by the listener. This essence propulses the music into a more abstract condition. […]
I think music has to do with several things at the same time: feelings, thoughts, perceptions that are always changing. I cannot say, “That’s how it is!”. So I cannot answer your question. It is when I write music that I find what I am looking for.
At her site you’ll find the rest of this 2004 interview, along with many MP3s and scores. There’s also a link to her (Spanish-mostly) blog, “La cocina de Ce”.
Really enjoying the samples – anything on a ‘late-Nono’ model is ok w/me.