March 31. 2016 . 3 pm
City Center Theather
New York City
Suite for Five (1956) - music by John Cage
Fabrications (1987) - music by Emanuel Pimenta
130 West 56th Street
studio 5


April 1. 2016 . noon
92|Y
Buttenwieser Hall
New York City
                        Fabrications (1987) - music by Emanuel Pimenta
Fridays at Noon
Lexington ave at 92nd St





emanuel pimenta
christian wolff


celebrating 30 years of
ShortWaves 1985
SBbr
+ MET NS East Coast 2016

two different performances in two different days and places 

emanuel dimas de melo pimenta
christian wolff

merce cunningham trust workshop
patricia lent
andrea weber

 

ShortWaves 1985 and SBbr are my two first compositions to John Cage and Merce Cunningham, in Cunningham's Fabrications, of 1987.

John Cage and I started working to identify possible compositions of mine for the Dance Company one year before, in 1986.

ShortWaves 1985 was composed with sounds of short-waves radio emmissions from all over the planet, captured in the middle of Brazilian rain forests. What the world was saying, captured from the middle of the forest!

SBbr is a composition of 1984. Its title is taken from the designation for barred spiral galaxy, in astronomy - SB (spiral, barred). The next letter, b, means that the arms of the galaxy are not tightly bound or loosely bound. They are in between. I used the last letter r to indicate random. That is: a composition where a mass of sounds generate two variations in simultaneous, operating randomically. Beyond the electronic sounds, two musicians are invited to perform as a randomic specular reflexion of each other. If just one musician can do it, he will use the electronic basis as the specular other side.

When I sent both pieces to John and Merce, a problem appeared. John and Merce followed the principle of independence of the arts, as advocated by Antonin Artaud. Since I was very young, much before I'd met John and Merce, I also followed Artaud's principle. This means that one cannot know in advance the work of the other. When Merce used the pieces for the first time in the rehearsals, he noticed that the dance - Fabrications - was a little longer than the music. So, John Cage created the silence between both pieces. He did it as a gift. In this way, in fact, Fabrications has three pieces: ShortWaves 1985, SBbr and John's silence.

The first musician that performed ShortWaves 1985 and SBbr was David Tudor. He was not only an amazing musician, but a great person too, extremely attentive and kind.

Be near John, Merce, David, and later Takehisa Kosugi and Christian Wolff, was like to have been integrated in a new family. Also the dancers were important to me. Patricia Lent, Chris Komar, Robert Swinston, Michael Cole, Jonah Bokaer, Carol Teitelbaum, Catherine Kerr and Cheryl Therrien among many others. Patricia Lent started at the Company in 1984, one year before I met John. But, there were also Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and, very specially, Dove Bradshaw and William Anastasi with whom I've been spiritually deeply closed over all these years. Laura Kuhn quickly became also a great friend. And David Vaugham! Later Lynn Wichern. The list would include Audrey Riley, Fast Forward, John DS Adams, David Behrman, Michael Pugliese, Earle Brown, Stuart Dempster, Andrew Culver, John King and many more.

The list is much larger, and the problem is to not be able to mention everybody! I'm sorry for that. It was a great team of research, art, experimentation, and a deep love for what we vulgarly call civilization. Also a strong sense of complicity with the audience was always present.

Now, thirty years passed. The world was different at that time. We had less 2.5 billion people in the planet.

The world has become more and more immersed into continuous entertainment. Reality became noticeable in the emergence of a disposable society, low-cost.

These two simple performances, at the City Center Theater and the Buttenwieser Hall, are dedicated to this wonderful and unforgetable family.

Emanuel Pimenta, New York 2016

merce cunningham trust
patricia lent
andrea weber

city center theater
buttenwieser hall
92|Y

see the complete program
92|Y program

(left) The performances at the City Center Theater will not happen at the large auditorium, as it was made so many times in the past, but yes at its Studio 5. (right) The Buttenwieser Hall.