Piero Mottola
CONCERT WITH A VIEW
Thursday, 28 May 2009 8:00 P.M.
HERMANN NITSCH MUSEUM ARCHIVES LABORATORY FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
vico lungo pontecorvo 29D - 80135 NAPLES - tel.++ 39 081 5641655 / fax.++39 081 5641494 info@fondazionemorra.orgDIFFERING PACES
emotional promenade for voice and instruments, 2009 (duration 11’)
double bass, Massimo Ceccarelli
cello, Silvano Fusco
soprano sax, Massimiliano Fuschetto
soprano, Keiko Morikawa
(first performance ever)
IMPROVISATION ON THE ACOUSTIC HEAVENS (dedicated to Hermann Nitsch)
for E. 10 electronic keyboard and emotional sampler, 2005/2009 (duration 30’)
performed in real time by Piero Mottola
Si può generare una composizione acustica esteticamente significativa e profonda emozionalmente senza
l’atteggiamento espressionista del musicista ispirato? Si può generare in astinenza espressiva una composizione
acustica con un sistema di relazioni a dieci parametri emozionali? Si può arrivare ad una musica partendo
dall’esperienza interiore che ognuno di noi ha vissuto con tutte quelle sonorità della realtà non collocate nell’ambito
della musica codificata dal sistema, culturalmente prodotta e comunemente ascoltata?
Andamenti differenti, scritto per la Fondazione Morra di Napoli, è una delle possibili composizioni musicali non
ordinarie concepite per rispondere a questi interrogativi.
Is it possible to generate a composition which is aesthetically significant and emotionally profound without the
expressive involvement of an inspired musician? Is it possible to generate an acoustic composition in expressive
abstinence, using only a system of ten emotional parameters? Is it possible to arrive at music starting from the inner
experience undergone by each of us with all the sonorous qualities reality possesses before it is set in the sphere of a
music codified by a system, culturally produced and commonly heard? Differing Paces, composed for the Morra
Foundation of Naples, is one possible, unusual musical composition designed to give an answer to these questions.
fig.1 Relational Model of Emotional Distances, 1997/2000
Emotional Distances (fig.1) is a compositional system based on ten emotions. It was created by measuring the
emotional activation of a representative sampling of natural, artificial, human, and animal sounds. For each stimulus
we first determine which emotion receives the highest score, and then determine its distance from the other nine
emotions by evaluating the statistical distribution of the choices. Summing the information accumulated for each
stimulus allows us to construct a space in which to locate the ten emotions according to their distances: 1=maximum
emotional proximity; 9=maximum emotional contrast. Emotional Distances is a system which makes it possible to
construct a large number of emotional structures of varying levels by using figurative and abstract sounds, acoustic
instruments, colours, and images. It also allows us to organise unusual, enigmatic, and captivating aggregations of
timbre. Differing Paces is an emotional promenade with three relational levels and a building crescendo of contrasting
emotions. The algorithm created defines a progressively increasing contrast among emotions as well as among
rhythmic evolutions. The timbres employed are the result of a spectral analysis of emotional sounds. Each sound
evolves according to an experimentally derived algorithm and is representative of one of the 10 emotions. The
numerical evolution assigned to each sound is given an acoustic form by considering the acoustic extensions of the
instruments employed.
fig.2 Differing Paces, Emotional Promenade for Three Instruments and One Voice, 2009
The E.10 Emotional Sampler is an 88-key MIDI keyboard divided into 10 emotional zones (FE fear, AN anguish, AG
agitation, AR anger, SA sadness, EX excitement, AW awe, PL pleasure, JO joy, CA calm). Audio files containing
experimentally derived emotional sequences are assigned to each zone. In addition to triggering the files, each zone can
also perform real-time modifications. The E10 Emotional Sampler can produce multiple emotional promenades which
are complex, unpredictable, enigmatic, and emotionally significant. Improvisation on the Acoustic Heavens combines
an abstract electronic composition for 7 spatialized emotional pathways of increasing emotional contrast (from minimal
to maximal), with the combinatorial potential of the E.10 Emotional Sampler. The Sampler is programmed by the
performer in real time to produce emotional algorithms for the piano.
Piero Mottola
10 April 2009
Piero Mottola was born in Caserta in 1967, and currently lives and works in Rome. An artist and experimental musician, he teaches Multimedia Installations and
Decorative Plastic Arts at the Rome Academy of Fine Art. He received his education and training at the Rome Jartrakor Study Centre, in the context of
Eventualism, developed by Sergio Lombardo at the end of the 1970s. His first exhibition was at the Jartrakor Centre in 1988, where he showed his experiments,
Improvement-Worsening (Miglioramento-Peggioramento). From 1990 to 1994, he took part in the following exhibitions: FIAC in Paris, with the Mara Coccia
Gallery of Rome; Young Artists, curated by A. Perilli at the Rome Exhibition Hall (Palazzo delle Esposizioni); the XXXVII Termoli Prize, curated by A. B. Oliva;
Artissima in Turin, with the Ellequadro Gallery of Genoa; the Serra Gerace Palace of Genoa, curated by O. Calabrese; and Flash Art Young Art, curated by G. Di
Pietrantonio, at the Steam Factory of Milan. Beginning in 1994, his studies have evolved into an original interpretation of evocative acoustic and visual stimuli.
These involve complex systems of emotional relations reflecting aesthetic, musical, and emotional values. In 1995, he exhibited acoustic stimuli composed for
Sonorous Boxes (Scatole Sonore), curated by M. Mirolla, at the Bocchi Studio and Arte in Scena Gallery in Rome. Some of his acoustic work is recorded on the
compact disc Emotional Pathways (Percorsi emozionali 1995/01), Muspac Recordings, L’Aquila. From 1995 to 1998, he presented his music at two editions of the
Enchantment Festival (Festival Incantesimi) organised by S. Lux and M. Mirolla in Bomarzo; Macro ex-Slaughter House in Rome; the Zoo Gallery of
Contemporary Art in Bologna, curated by R. Daolio; the Sixteenth Century Castle of L’Aquila: the Trevi Flash Art Museum of Perugia; the “Translations” group
exhibition in Piotrkòw Trybunalski (Poland); and the “Sound” group exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery of Bialymstoku (Poland). In 1998, he participated in the
conference entitled, “Cognition and Behaviour: Relevance to Musical Composition,” where he presented the paper, “Emotional Involvement in the Perception of
Acoustic Stimuli.” In 1999, he took part in the conference, “Trends and Significance in Computer Music,” organized by M.O. Belardinelli at the Psychology
Department of the Sapienza University of Rome,. In 2000 he presented a paper entitled “The Experimental Construction of Abstract Acoustic Stimuli,” at the Macro
Conference in Rome on “Current Research in Eventualism.” In 2006 he gave a presentation on the relations among sound, emotion, and colour for the Radio 3
Science broadcast, “The Palette in the Brain”. He has performed his own acoustic compositions at concerts since 1998, including: Music Project ’98 at the Roman
Aquarium, presented by the Sala Uno Gallery of Rome and organised by E. Cocco; Music Project ’02 at the Pietralata Centre of Rome; Macro of Rome: the
Psychology Department of the Sapienza University of Rome; the Pontignano Certosa of the University of Siena, organised by E. Crispolti; the construction site of
Zisa, Palermo; Music Project ’04 at the American Academy of Rome; a work for four hands, performed together with the composer Mauro Bortolotti at the Goethe-
Institut of Rome; the Stefania Miscetti Gallery of Rome with Giuseppe Chiari, organised by P. Ferri and M. de Candia; the Colonna Castle of Genazzano, organized
by S. Lux; the Auditorium of the John Hopkins University Center of Bologna; and the India Theatre of Rome, at the invitation of the Pio Monti Gallery. He has
designed acoustic environments since 1995 at the Civic Gallery of Termoli; the Santa Rita Hall of the City of Rome; and the Andersen Museum of Rome. Since
1997, he has also constructed complex chromatic-emotional environmental sequences for: the Laboratory Museum of the Sapienza University (directed by S. Lux);
Macro; the Pino Casagrande Gallery (directed by P. Ferri); and Temple University of Rome. Since 2000 he has worked together with collaborators from the
Aesthetic Sound Laboratory (LER) on the construction of the Autocorrelator. This is an automatic system for the production of acoustic and chromatic emotional
promenades, using the complex relations of the emotional maps created beginning in 1997. The method employed has been published in a number of art journals,
including Titolo, Konsequenz, Avanguardia, and the Review of the Psychology of Art. In 2008 he was commissioned by the Home Gallery of Napes to write Missing
Interior (Interno Disperso), a score for three instruments and a soprano voice. This work was performed a second time, together with a version for flute and soprano
voice, at the Cerere Pasta Foundation of Rome. He was invited to give a lecture entitled “From an Aesthetic Choice to Music Not Chosen” for the program in
sound at the Toulouse Academy of Fine Art. In June 2008 he held a solo exhibition entitled Chromatic Promenades at the Pino Casagrande Apartment/Gallery of
Spoleto. He wrote Four Emotional Pianos, a composition created as part of a collaborative project with the choreographer Susan Sentler of the Laban School of
London, who set a dance work to the music. During the summer of 2008, he performed the electronic work, Improvisation on Missing Interior. He also presented
the audio installation Sonorous Immaterial (Immateriale sonoro) at the Bihac Theatre of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and at the Former Prison of Castiadas (Cagliari) at
the Third Art Festival of Sardinia. He was invited to give a performance with the E. 10 Emotional Sampler by the Eliseo Theatre of Nuoro. In January 2009 he
created a wall drawing entitled Awe: Emotional Promenade for a Chromatic Environment (Stupore-passeggiata emozionale per un ambiente cromatico), covering
the entire space of the Pino Casagrande Gallery of Rome. He presented Sonorous Immaterial, a multi-channel installation for autocorrelator, at the Barletta Castle
Svevo Aragonese as part of the group exhibition entitled “On the Ground, Underground” directed by A.B. Oliva and G. Caroppo. He has recently written Differing
Paces (Andamenti differenti), a new composition for three instruments and one voice, for the Morra Foundation of Naple
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