Musica Elettronica Viva
Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is an electroacoustic live music ensemble.
The ensemble was founded in Rome in 1966 by Alvin Curran , Richard Teitelbaum , Frederic Rzewski , Allan Bryant , Carol Plantamura , Iván Vándor and Jon Phetteplace . The musicians, mostly composers , wanted to introduce elements of musical improvisation into electronic music and perform them in real time . They experimented with the use of synthesizers at a very early stage . In a concert in Berlin in 1967 they performed John Cage's Solo for Voice 2 , transforming Plantamura's voice through a Moog synthesizer . The ensemble members also used "non-musical" objects such as reinforced glass or olive oil canisters . Over time MEV developed an aesthetic in which the egos of the individual composers were absorbed in the collective act of improvisation, which became more and more decisive for the group
The ensemble expanded its range of tasks as early as the 1960s to have space for free improvisation in constantly changing formations, for street music and theater, for collaboration with amateurs and amateur musicians, for events with audience participation, often involving hundreds of people. His early performances in Italy provoked and regularly led to violent protests from the audience. Later the ensemble members also worked with musicians from the jazz field . Ultimately, MEV's experience has greatly encouraged both the development of electro-acoustic music and that of new improvisational music .
Since the 1970s, ensembles called Musica Elettronica Viva have performed in Paris, Rome and New York, which can be identified by different aesthetic principles. The groups in Rome and Paris, led by Alvin Curran and Ivan and Patricia Coaquette, continued to work towards free improvisation on a mass basis and with an open outcome, while in New York Rzewski and Teitelbaum preferred disciplined structures with new members such as Garrett List and Gregory Reeve . Maryanne Amacher , Karl Berger , Anthony Braxton , Jon Gibson , Steve Lacy , George Lewis , Roscoe Mitchell and Michael Sahl also belonged to the New York group (which lasted for decades) .
Discography
- Friday , recorded in London in 1969 with Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Franco Cataldi and Gunther Carius
- The Sound Pool , recorded in Rome 1969 ( BYG Actuel , re-released 1998 on Spalax CD14969)
- Spacecraft / Unified Patchwork Theory (Alga Marghen, Plana-M 15NMN.038) contains on the one hand Spacecraft , recorded in 1967 with Bryant, Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum and Vandor, and on the other hand Unified Patchwork Theory , recorded in Zurich 1990 with Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Steve Lacy and Garrett List
- Apogee (partly recorded together with AMM in London 2004; Matchless MRCD 61)
- MEV 40 (1967–2007, 4 CDs; New World Records)
literature
- Frederic Rzewski Nonsequiturs - Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and Interpretation. Illogical conclusions - writings and lectures on improvisation, composition and interpretation. Edition Musiktexte , Cologne ISBN 3-9803151-8-5