Franco Evangelisti
s/t

«...the music of Evangelisti starts from zero. Whatever his preferences as a musician may be, his compositional choices occur in an area of unexplored possibilities» (Mario Bortolotto)

Thanks to Edition RZ, a small German record label specializing in the reissue of rare and/or overlooked material by contemporary composers, a double album was released in 1998 containing the complete works of one of the great Italian masters of contemporary music, a pioneer, along with Cage, Schaeffer, and Stockhausen, of electronic music, and member, together with the more famous Ennio Morricone, of the "Gruppo di improvvisazione nuova consonanza": Franco Evangelisti. Born in Rome in 1926, he participated from 1952 to 1960 in the summer seminars on "New Music" in Darmstadt, where he had the opportunity to come into contact with Edgard Varese, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono: such experiences would substantially influence his compositional style, which stands out markedly from pre-20th-century musical tradition; also very important was his commitment with the "Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza", which represents one of the first attempts to combine improvisation with certain compositional techniques such as John Cage’s chance techniques and atonality. In the two albums, each containing 7 tracks (with multiple versions of some compositions, performed by different orchestras), we can immediately grasp some characteristics of the compositional technique that distinguished the great Roman master: the presence of numerous phases of silence between one note (or a group of notes) and another (or another group), and the tendency towards sound deformation that weakens the understanding of the individual instruments from which those sounds derive. Both albums open with "Proiezioni sonore" for solo piano, performed on the first CD by Aloys Kontarsky, a pianist often associated with Karlheinz Stockhausen (to whom the composition is dedicated), being present in many recordings of the German composer’s works, and on the second CD by David Tudor: the musician is free to give breadth to the overall development of the work, which is divided into individual structures, separated by a space that is determined at will by the performer (suffice it to say that in Tudor’s version, the silence after the first note lasts almost twice as long as in Kontarsky's version): here we find an example of Evangelisti's particular conception of score, viewed as a "system" in which the performer can make free and personal choices. "Incontri di fasce sonore" is a composition particularly known and studied at an academic level: it was written in the second half of the 50s, a period when many composers faced the problem of creating an efficient system for transcribing electronic music:

«The problem of creating the score, with explanations and symbols, is fundamental from a historical point of view as proof of our work, due to the fact that [magnetic] tapes deteriorate and only precise documentation can allow us to achieve something from us and, finally, reconstruct our work»


Evangelisti decides to opt for a very accurate and precise graphical score system reporting waveforms, frequencies, reverbs, and other elements. In "Aleatorio", for string quartet, we find very clear references to the six "Bagatelles" by the great Anton Webern: Evangelisti uses both the post-Webernian serial technique and Cage-like chance; in this work, Evangelisti employs nearly all possible sound production methods for string instruments. "Proporzioni", for solo flute, dedicated to Severino Gazzelloni, is characterized by clear and essential structures and by the attempt to give a concrete physical dimension to the sound, through the use of harmonics. "Die Schachtel", a mimodramatic action for mimes, projections, and chamber orchestra on a subject by Franco Nonnis, is an ironic commentary on the fate of the human race. "Campi Integrati n.2", for nine instruments, is the last composition written by the Roman composer: based on the logical-arithmetical game of the magic square, in this composition, the pitches are regulated by a series of twelve chosen sounds by the performers. Among other compositions in the collection are "Ordini", varied structures for sixteen instruments; "4!", small pieces for piano and violin; "Random or not Random", for orchestra.