Maderna between contemporaneity and experimental audiovisual forms

The research continues with the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel

 

Among the composers of the second half of the twentieth century who occasionally or contingently touched on various types of audiovisual experimentation, the figure of Bruno Maderna presents the most interesting traits. Over the course of his career, he has repeatedly had the opportunity to deal with radio, television, cinematographic or theatrical realities, experienced from time to time with different roles: composer, performer, collaborator or even just promoter of new audiovisual entertainment formulas. To date, various research has focused on his production for the cinema - where his collaborations, among others, with the film music of Antonio Leonviola and Giulio Questo are well known (The two truths; We cannibals; Death laid an egg) –, or to his experiences in the field of radio theatre, considerable margins for in-depth analysis and investigation instead present some experiences conducted by Maderna in the field of television and documentary (including the sub-genre of industrial documentary). Furthermore, almost entirely unmentioned are some contacts with multimedia or experimental theater productions which saw him involved as a composer, interpreter or implicit advisor (think, in addition to the more famous From A to Z, of the collaborations developed again in the Dutch environment with Peter Schat for Labyrinth or with Studio Scarabee for Poppetgom).

The completely obsolete methods of Maderna's incursions within the cinematographic production system of the 1950s and 1960s - usually entrusted to "professional" composers and functional to the needs of the system itself - are reflected in the singularity of various other experiences linked to the world of audiovideo which, in turn, have left implicit traces in (or, on the contrary, have been influenced by) a creative or interpretative activity conducted within a "traditional" media diffusion field. It is precisely within this sphere of different experiences and mutual influences that the present research project intends to move, developed by a stable study group engaged in the analysis, rereading and/or in-depth analysis of various experiences conducted (in most varied ways) by Maderna in the following areas:

• cinema and documentary film;
• radio and television experiences;
• experimental audiovisual and/or intermedial productions;
• experiences (authorial or co-authorship) in the fields of musical and/or spoken word theatre, in the classical and contemporary repertoire.