71 research outputs found
L'invenzione della fonologia musicale. Saggi sulla musica elettronica sperimentale di Luciano Berio e Bruno Maderna
No full textL’invenzione della ‘fonologia musicale’ ambiva a coniugare una teoria strutturale della lingua con l’ordine del continuo sonoro operante nella musica elettronica. L’ambiguità del binomio, derivante dallo scambio tra il dominio fisico-naturalistico della fonetica e la dimensione linguistico-strutturale, non fu allora avvertita come un impedimento teorico. Anzi, l’espressione ‘fonologia musicale’ fu scelta dalla direzione RAI nel 1955 per denominare il nuovo Studio radiofonico di Milano. Una ricerca pluriennale del Laboratorio MIRAGE sulle fonti audio e sui fondamenti scrittorî della musica elettronica ha messo in evidenza come Bruno Maderna e Luciano Berio, ricorrendo all’interazione retroattiva uomo-macchina, abbiano di fatto superato la natura anfibologica del connubio fonologia/musica. Nell’esperimento Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) Berio mette in atto un processo di regressione per far convergere lingua e musica a livelli precostituivi il linguaggio organizzato. Diversamente, in Dimensioni II / Invenzione su una voce e poi in Ages, Hyperion, Tempo libero, Maderna usa la tecnologia del nastro magnetico per creare varianza e complessità, riaffermando, anche nella dimensione elettronica, l’identità: composizione = esecuzione = interpretazione. L’analisi dei processi di feedback messi in atto dai due compositori allo Studio milanese ha consentito di raggiungere una formalizzazione della loro prassi compositiva, modellandola sulla formula canonica del mito. Seguendo questa intuizione di Claude Lévi-Strauss gli autori del volume concludono che il vero mito fu l’invenzione stessa della fonologia musicale, fucina mitopoietica che pretese, talvolta riuscendovi, di creare esperienze musicali mai tentate dagli altri Studi
The quest for myriad strains
No full textIn un’epoca in cui il web sta dimostrando pienamente il suo potenziale archivistico, sempre più compositori fanno uso di archivi di suoni, melodie, librerie informatiche. Si tratta di una tendenza molto spiccata nella popular music, ma che si sta insinuando sempre più anche nelle roccaforti della composizione accademica. Oggi gli autori hanno accesso – e contribuiscono alla creazione – di una miriade di materiali audio, di procedure e linguaggi, dove storicità e innovazione coesistono in un eterno presente. A prima vista può sembrare una rivoluzione. Tuttavia, uno sguardo più attento rivela radici antiche nella storia della musica che la riproduzione dell’audio ha reso solo più evidenti: la possibilità di fissare la musica su nastro magnetico, in un primo momento, ha portato alcuni compositori (ad esempio Bruno Maderna) a creare librerie di suoni da riutilizzare in opere diverse, facendo sfuocare così i confini dell\u27opera musicale; in seguito, la smaterializzazione e l’atomizzazione delle procedure, tipiche delle tecnologie dell’informazione, hanno spinto verso una ‘filosofia della condivisione’ (ad esempio le librerie per i sistemi di Composizione Assistita all’Elaboratore), esaltata oggi dalla capillarità e dalla fulmineità della distribuzione via web, sollevando interrogativi profondi sul concetto stesso di autore. Ma muovendosi molto più indietro, verso le pratiche di riutilizzo in Rossini e Mozart, o verso le formule anonime del canto gregoriano, non si potrebbe scorgere la ricorrenza di una ricerca di un mondo di «milioni di melodie che un giorno risuoneranno», dove il compositore può tendere una mano per un’idea musicale, meravigliosamente intravista da Busoni nel suo Abbozzo per una nuova estetica della Musica?In the era in which the web is fully demonstrating its archival potential, more and more composers make use of sound, melody and computer library repositories. It is a clear trend in popular music, which is increasingly being extended also to ‘academic’ composition: today authors can access and contribute to a vast array of audio materials, of procedures and languages, where historicity and innovation coexist in an eternal present. At first glance it may seem a revolution. However, a closer look reveals ancient roots in the history of music that audio reproduction has made only more evident: the fixation of music on tape, at first, has led some composers (e.g. Bruno Maderna) to create sound libraries to be reused in different works, thus blurring the borders of the Opera; later on, the dematerialization and atomization of procedures in IT have pushed towards a philosophy of sharing (e.g. libraries for Computer Assisted Composition systems) – exalted today by the capillarity of the lightning-fast web distribution – raising deep questions about the concept of author itself. Moving further backwards, to the re-uses in Rossini and Mozart, or to the anonymous formulas in Gregorian chant, could we not find the recurrence of a quest for that world of «myriad strains that once shall sound», where the composer can stretch forth a hand for a musical idea, so wonderfully glimpsed by Busoni in his Sketch for a New Esthetic of Music
A Comparative Analysis of Macroscopic, Microscopic, and Chemical Alterations in Modern and Ancient Bones: A Preliminary Study
No full textTowards an electronic ‘global work’. Author’s transcriptions of Dimensioni II / Invenzione su una voce by Bruno Maderna
No full textOn the critical editing of Electronic and Mixed Music. Historical matters and new perspectives
No full textToday, the sources of electronic and mixed music produced in the XXth century by analog means have entered the digital documentary domain. Therefore, the theoretical reflection on the ethics of preservation, restoration and re-issue of audiovisual documents cannot ignore the models of communication engineering: encodeing and decoding, audio signal processing – also implemented in the World Wide Web today – are of paramount importance. After World War II, a new musical research was born within the context of acoustical and electro-acoustical communication systems and it found a privileged thread in the Theory of Information. In the world of electronic and mixed music the technological system is an integral part of the compositional project, and the audio tracks represent a ‘projection’ of the production project. Audio recordings deliver to the editor an essential evidence for reconstructing the technical and theoretical world of the composers, which is to say their pre-post-history. In this paper, the meta-conceptual role of Information and Communication Theory is historized and it becomes an integral part of a systemic method for the restitution of the electronic musical work. With a wide range of examples (including works by Edgard Varèse, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Gérard Grisey) we show peculiarities and issues of the critical editing of this repertoire
The Play’s the Thing. Un viaggio in cerca di Ages, l’opera radiofonica di Bruno Maderna e Giorgio Pressburger.
No full textTranscranial static magnetic stimulation for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a bicentric, randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled phase 2 trial
No full textBackground Enhanced glutamatergic transmission leading to motor neuron death is considered the major pathophysiological mechanism of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Motor cortex excitability can be suppressed by transcranial static magnetic stimulation (tSMS), thus tSMS can be evaluated as a potential treatment for ALS. The aim of present study was to investigate the efficacy fi cacy and safety of tSMS in ALS. Methods In this phase 2 trial, we randomly assigned ALS patients to receive daily tSMS or placebo stimulation over a period of 6 months. For each participant we calculated mean disease monthly progression rate (MPR) as the variation of the total ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised (ALSRFS-R) score, before the beginning of the treatment (over a period of at least three months) and over the six-month treatment period. The primary efficacy fi cacy outcome was the difference in MPR before and after the beginning of treatment. Secondary outcomes included safety and tolerability, compliance, and changes in corticospinal output. A long-term follow-up of 18 months was performed in all patients who completed the six-month treatment considering a composite endpoint event (tracheostomy or death). Trial registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT04393467, status: closed. Findings Forty participants were randomly assigned to real (n = 21) or placebo stimulation (n = 19). Thirty-two participants (18 real and 14 placebo) completed the 6-month treatment. The MPR did not show statistically significant fi cant differences between the two arms during the pre-treatment (mean +/- Standard deviation; Real: 1.02 +/- 0.62, Sham: 1.02 +/- 0.57, p-value = 1.00) and treatment period (Real: 0.90 +/- 0.55, Sham: 0.94 +/- 0.55, pvalue = 0.83). Results for secondary clinical endpoints showed that the treatment is feasible and safe, being compliance with tSMS high. The change in corticospinal output did not differ significantly fi cantly between the two groups. At the end of the long-term follow-up of 18 months, patients of real group had a statistically significant fi cant higher tracheostomy-free survival compared with patients of placebo group (Hazard Ratio = 0.27 95% Confidence fi dence interval 0.09-0.80, - 0.80, p-value = 0.019). Interpretation tSMS did not modify disease progression during the 6 months of treatment. However, long-term follow-up revealed a substantial increase in tracheostomy free survival in patients treated with real stimulation supporting the evaluation of tSMS in larger and more prolonged studies
The influence of Luigi Dallapiccola on Bruno Maderna's early serialism
No full textThis thesis examines the influence of Luigi Dallapiccola (1904–1975) on Bruno Maderna's (1920–1973) early serialism by means of a comparative analysis. Two song cycles are compared: Dallapiccola's Liriche greche (1942–45) and Maderna's Tre liriche greche per piccolo coro, soprano solo e strumenti (1948). The author presents separate analyses of each work (Chapters 1 and 2), which form the basis for comparison (Chapter 3). The analysis of Dallapiccola's Liriche greche examines in particular the effects of his non-serial compositional choices on his twelve-tone method. The discussion of Maderna's Tre liriche greche illustrates how his novel methods of serial development result from his aesthetic concern to create diversified musical surfaces. The comparison of the two composers' compositional methods establishes a number of similarities that substantiate Dallapiccola's influence on Maderna. The thesis concludes with a brief investigation of the relationship between Maderna's early and mature serialism.Le présent mémoire examine l'influence de Luigi Dallapiccola (1904–1975) sur les premières œuvres sérielles de Bruno Maderna (1920–1973) au moyen d'une analyse comparative. Deux cycles de chansons y sont comparés : les Liriche greche de Dallapiccola (1942–1945) et les Tre liriche greche per piccolo coro, soprano solo e strumenti (1948) de Maderna. L'auteur présente des analyses de chaque œuvre aux chapitres 1 et 2, sur lesquelles il fonde son analyse comparative présentée au chapitre 3. L'analyse des Liriche greche de Dallapiccolla examine plus particulièrement les effets de ses choix compositionnels non sériels sur sa méthode dodécaphonique. La discussion des Tre liriche greche de Maderna illustre comment les méthodes innovatrices de développement sériel du compositeur résultent de sa préoccupation esthétique de créer des surfaces musicales diversifiées. La comparaison des approches des deux compositeurs établit plusieurs similitudes qui confirment l'influence de Dallapiccola sur Maderna. Le mémoire se termine par un bref examen des relations entre le sérialisme primitif et tardif de Maderna
PON1 is a disease modifier gene in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis : association of the Q192R polymorphism with bulbar onset and reduced survival
No full textIntroduction Previous studies have associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene encoding the detoxifying enzyme paraoxonase 1 (PON1) to the risk of sporadic ALS. Here, we aimed to assess the role of the coding rs662 (Q192R) SNP as a modifier of ALS phenotype.
Materials and methods We genotyped a cohort of 409 patients diagnosed with ALS at our Center between 2002 and 2009 (269 males and 140 females; mean age at onset, 58.3 ± 37.5 years).
Results We found PON1 to be a disease modifier gene in ALS, with the minor allele G associated both with bulbar onset (30.9% vs. 24.6%, p = 0.013) and independently with reduced survival (OR = 1.38, p = 0.012) under a dominant model. No association was found with gender or age at onset.
Discussion As this SNP is known to modify the detoxifying activity of paraxonase 1 with respect to different substrates as well as other activities of the protein, we hypothesize that the identified association might reflect specific motor neuron vulnerability to certain exogenous toxic substances metabolized less efficiently by the 192R alloenzyme, or to detrimental endogenous pathophysiological processes such as oxidative stress. Further exploration of this possible metabolic susceptibility could deepen our knowledge of ALS pathomechanisms
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