Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection

Arcángel Castillo Olivari, Pierrot, 1997
(Venezuela)



Recording time: 6 min 29 s.
Remarks: Poem by Arcángel C. Olivari.

Other resources available:
- About Arcángel Castillo Olivari
- Compositions by Arcángel Castillo Olivari

About this composition:

Pierrot is a sonic art or computer music piece that evolved from a poem written by the composer, Mr. Castillo-Olivari.
The poem was inspired by a dance performance that the composer attended in Venezuela in which the choreography revolved around the figure of the French clown Pierrot. The figure, ghost-like and illusionary (through a stage effect created with white powder and flowing figuratively in air) presents a compelling sense of loss and pathos as
it wafts across the stage, a soul lost in search of wholeness.
Resonating with the enigmatic figure of Pierrot presented in the dance, the composer juxtaposes in the music a dialogue between the French clown and the character Colombina (two characters from French commedia dell'arte) to represent a dialectic of two lost human souls: Pierrot, always the pathetic one, is overly-sentimental and drunk on moon,
insane and in love, expresses in tension with Colombina who is perhaps frivolous and silly, yet practical and ambitious. Who is the one who truly suffers? Pierrot or Colombina? The truth is not always actual.....or is it? This piece is the reverse of the coin.......
All the sounds are created from the human voice transformmed using Paul Lansky's Cmix and RT software. The exception is right before the ending when a midi timbre from the synthesizer Proteus 1 is used.
Miriam Brown is the voice of Columbina and Seth Bowling is Pierrot, both were acting students from CCM.

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