1. Critical Band (2003)
for flute, bass clarinet, electric guitar,
piano and signal processing
Fabio Bacelle, flutes
Francesco Socal, bass clarinet
Marco Pavin, electric guitar
Bernardino Beggio, piano
2. Tavola VII (1997)
for string trio and signal processing
Stefano Antonello, violin
Giovanni Petrella, viola
Luca Paccagnella, cello
3. Ricercare (2000)
for recorder and signal processing Gianpaolo Capuzzo, recorder
4. Tavola IV (1993) for viola and signal processing Giovanni Petrella, viola
5. Perceptual Melodies (1996)
for electric guitar and signal processing Marco Pavin, electric guitar
6. Transitori (2001)
for contrabass and signal processing Ian Zaureck, contrabass
7. Black Angels (1995)
for soprano, viola, electric guitar,
bass clarinet and signal processing
Chang Hui Chuan, soprano
Giovanni Petrella, viola
Marco Pavin, electric guitar
Alessandro Bisello, bass clarinet
Composer and Psychologist, Michele Biasutti was awarded diplomas at the Padova Conservatory of music. A prize-winning composer (International Composer Competition L. Russolo, International Competition of Bourges, Concour International de Composition de la Societé de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, International Competition Pierre Schaeffer, ... ), his works were radio broadcast (rai, orf, rne 2, Radio Bratislava, rtsi, hrt, Radio Canada) and selected for International Festivals (isea 95 in Montreal, isea 96 in Rotterdam, Soundbox in Helsinki, vi bscm in Rio de Janeiro, jim99 in Paris, vii bscm in Curitiba). His music was performed in Festivals in Europe (Music Now in Dublin, Purcell Room in London, Musica Verticale in Rome, Aspekte in Salzburg, Society for new music in Prague, Neue Musik in Freiburg; Encuentros mùsica europea in Madrid,...) in North and South America (m.i.t. in Boston, smcq in Montreal, San Francisco State University, New York University, III Bienal Internacional de Música Elettroacustica in San Paulo,...), in Japan, Korea (Seul International Computer Music Festival 2003) and Australia (Interfaces, ACMC 2000 in Brisbane). He was composer in residence at the University of Massachusetts. He collaborated with international centers for electronic music and he is in the jury of international competitions of composition. His music was included in Ph.D. thesis in the USA.
As a researcher in psychology of music, he received a Ph.D. at Padova University. For reason of research and advanced study Biasutti spent time at Indiana University in Bloomington and at the University of California at Berkeley. Among his research topics there are the cognitive processes in composition and improvisation, online music learning and the education of music teachers. He is scientific director of research projects, he is a member of the editorial board of journals and he has published articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as Hearing Research (Elseiver), Psychology of Music (Sage), Music Education Research (Taylor & Francis), Computers and Education (Elseiver), Small Group Research (Sage), Creativity research journal (Taylor & Francis). He was the scientific director of the international conferences Psychology and Music education (PME04) and Training Music Teachers (TMT07) and author of seven books.
Michele Biasutti is Associate Professor at Padova University.
Michele Biasutti specializes in ecological music, music which seeks to return to the essential elements of human nature, re-evaluating the primary sphere of human auditory perception. He is interested in the relationship between scientific thought and the logic of music, applying the results to his composition and research.
Critical Band, was inspired by a perceptive phenomenon studied in the field of psychology of music. Critical Band is a range of frequency-ratios which sweeps across the audible spectrum in a band, within which two notes will sound like they are fusing into one rough sound. If the two tones are in Critical Band it is very difficult to discern single tones and there are interferences. The critical bandwidth depends on the octave and on the frequency range. The general aim of the piece is to apply in music composition the results of the research, experimenting new formal developments. The data of the psychological research could give inputs to the composer for transforming the musical material and obtaining new semantic meanings. Formally the piece is based on an ascending semi tone interval, using the tone E as tonal center. The second interval expands itself gradually in a major third, creating perceptive games between a minor third and a major third. The material develops gradually by rhythmic crescendos that become sound clouds, composed of notes in a third interval. The piece is articulated three sections, the first on minor major distinction, the second on timbre exploration, the third on minor major illusion. The piece was premiered in New York (USA), at Loewe Theatre, New York University, on 10th November 2003 by Interensemble.
Tavola VII is one of a series of pieces called Tavole in which the timbre and dynamic possibilities of the musical instruments were studied. Tavola VII, nicknamed “of the sequences of harmonics,” utilizes the sound possibilities that the string instruments allow. The timbre has a very important part. The original idea was to point out on a sound universe that usually is very difficult to hear and made up of attack transitory, rustles and infra sounds. These kinds of sounds are normally not utilized in music. The aim is to work into the sound, directly modeling the acoustic material. The formal organization of the piece is developed starting from single notes that were articulated following timbre principles. The sound discovery and the hypnotic movement were realized with the purpose of extending the perception of space-time. The signal processing stresses special characteristics of the string instruments. The premiere performance of Tavola VII was given at the Computer Art Festival in Padova on the 20th of April 1997 by Interensemble. The piece won the second prize at the International competition Pierre Schaeffer of Pescara.
Ricercare is a late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition, which have the preludial function to search out the key or mode of a following piece. The term is also used to designate a study that explores a technical device in playing an instrument. In the current piece Ricercare aims to explore the application of some perceptive phenomena studied in the field of psychology of music, such as masking, space-time perception and some perceptive illusions on rhythm. The aim is to apply in music composition the results of this research, experimenting new formal developments. The data of the psychological research are utilized for transforming the musical material. In this way we can obtain new semantic meanings. The sound figures presented in Ricercare are changing constantly: they deform, lengthen, transforming themselves in unexpected ways. The experimentation concerns the space-time organization using poly-rhythms, rhythms that are every time the same physically, but phenomenologically different, and the masking of simple rhythm’s figures that constitutes a more complex context. Are considered the abilities in discriminating chords in the high and low registers and the limits of tonal perception. The perceptive paradoxes are utilized for generating and dissolving structural tensions. Formally the piece is based on an ascending semi tone interval, using the tone G as tonal a center. The second interval expands itself gradually in a major third, creating perceptive games between minor and major third. The material develops gradually by rhythmic crescendos that step by step became sound clouds, composed of a myriad of notes in a third interval. The piece is articulated in sections, each of which on a specific perceptive phenomenon: minor and major third, timbre masking, rhythmic deformation, and limits in the discrimination of minor and major third. The piece lasts eleven minutes and was first performed by Gianpaolo Capuzzo at Auditorium of Maddalene in Padova during the Computer Art Festival 2000 on the 2nd June 2000 and awarded a Mention at the International competition Musica Nova 2002 of Prague.
Tavola IV is one of a series of pieces called Tavole in which the timbre and dynamic possibilities of the musical instruments were studied. Tavola IV, dedicated to the viola and nicknamed “of the rustle,” utilizes the sound possibilities that the string instrument allows. Working on timbre exploration, it was considered a sound universe that usually is very difficult to hear and normally it is not utilized in music, made up of attack transitory, rustles and infra sound. The aim is to work into the sound, directly modeling the acoustic material. The formal organization of the piece is developed starting from single notes that were articulated following timbre principles. The sound discovery and the hypnotic movement were realized with the purpose of extending the perception of space-time. The premiere performance of Tavola IV was given at the Computer Art Festival in Padua on the 24th of February 1994 with Giovanni Petrella, viola. The piece received the second prize at the XVI International Competition Luigi Russolo.
Perceptual Melodies is based on perceptive illusions concerning the space-time perception. It is a virtuoso play that looks like a moto perpetuo. The formal organization of the piece is developed starting from a single tone that grows up and get narrower very slowly. The cluster generated is developed following a harmonic transformation. The single tones are one upon the others, generating special kind of rhythmic patterns. Single melodic fragments are repeated very fast in a virtuoso temporal continuum that leave free the imagination of the listeners of hearing never ending perceptual melodies. The sound discovery and the hypnotic movement were realized with the purpose of extending the perception of space-time. The signal processing stresses special characteristics of the electric guitar. The premiere performance of Perceptual Melodies was given during the concert series Printemps a la Villa Gillet in Lyon on the 11th of April 1997 with Marco Pavin, electric guitar. The piece was selected at the International Competition of Bourges.
Transitori, utilizes the sound possibilities that the string instrument allows. In the piece the timbre has a very important role. The original idea was to explore a sound universe that usually is very difficult to hear, and made up of attack transitory, rustles and infra-sounds. These kinds of sounds are normally not utilized in music. In the piece it was considered important the span between the attack and the emission of the real sound, trying to expand this temporal window. The title of the piece, Transitori, was derived from the kind of sound material used. The formal organization of the piece follows timbre principles and is developed from single frequencies. The sound discovery concerns rustles obtained with particular performing techniques. The rustles became gradually sound or fade into white noise. The aim is to realize research in the timbre aspects, analyzing the physic characteristics of the sound. In the piece the timbre of other musical instruments were simulated starting from the sound of the contrabass: the breath emission of wind instruments, the timbre of percussion instruments, the attack of bells, the sound generator of white noise, the didgeridoo and special effects like a reverse sound. The great timbre richness of the contrabass allows one to obtain a string orchestra starting from a single instrument. The piece was first performed at Amherst at the University of Massachusetts, on 26th August 2001 with Salvatore Macchia, contrabass and awarded a Mention at the International competition Pierre Schaeffer of Pescara.
Dedicated to the Croatian pianist Fred Došek, Black Angels is meant to be a song of human solidarity. The idea of the piece is to re-evoke a hallucinating atmosphere to represent the distressing reality of the Black Angels with the aim of taking the listener to dimensions in which sensory abilities are almost modified. The piece develops on two parallel levels: the voice stresses the dramatic tones and the distressing moments of the poem. The instruments suggest the solo crescendos, the virtuosos openings which sometimes get deformed changing the sounds and spoiling the structures. Such a transformation of the sounds takes place for little variations creating hypnotic effects. The vocal line has a central role in the work and is mainly used in the upper range and with special sonority. A research carried out on the text lead to the use of spoken sounds, voiceless, whispered and mournful tones. The signal processing stresses special characteristics of the voice. The premiere performance of Black Angels was given by Interensemble in Padova on the 16th of October 1995.