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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 June 2021
There is a considerable imbalance between the presence of the music of Italian composer Pierluigi Billone in contemporary musical life and its presence in other media. The composer, now over 60 and based in Vienna since 2004, has appeared regularly on most of the major platforms for contemporary music, yet his music is only rarely reflected upon in print. This article attempts for the first time to illuminate some central aspects of his music, touching specifically on his understanding of Klang,1 on his structural and formal strategies and on the significance of the ritual and the corporeal in his oeuvre.
(translated from German by Neil Thomas Smith)
1 ‘Klang’ is a German term meaning sound or timbre and lacks a direct equivalent in English. Its centrality to the discussion means that where possible it has been left untranslated.
2 Pierluigi Billone, interview with Laurent Feneyrou: www.pierluigibillone.com/it/testi/il_suono_e_la_mia_materia_2010.html, translated by the author (accessed 8 April 2019).
3 Pierluigi Billone, interview, 20 July 2018, during the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.
4 See my analysis of Mani. Mono regarding these strategies (Schick, Tobias Eduard, ‘Klang als Form. Die Entfaltung von Klangräumen in Mani. Mono für Springdrum solo von Pierluigi Billone’, Musik & Ästhetik, 88 (2018), pp. 10–28Google Scholar.
5 Pierluigi Billone, interview, 20 July 2018.
6 The categories of vocal production translate as: audible inhalation; intoned airy sound; intoned sound, no resonance; intoned strongly nasal sound; multiphonic-complex sound (the vocal cords); complex sound (the larynx); complex sound (the larynx), with low intoned sound; pitchless sound; airy pitchless (noisy) sound; exhale; inhale; closed mouth; half-closed mouth.
7 Ibid.
8 Lachenmann, Helmut, ‘Klangtypen der Neuen Musik’, in Musik als existentielle Erfahrung, ed. Häusler, Josef (Breitkopf & Härtel: Wiesbaden, 2004), pp. 1–20Google Scholar.
9 Ibid., p. 15.
10 See Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara, Rituale (campus: Frankfurt am Main, 2013), pp. 9–16Google Scholar.
11 Ibid., p. 11.
12 Ibid., p. 11.
13 Ibid., p. 16.
14 See Goldammer, Kurt, ‘Magie’, in Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, volume 5, ed. Ritter, Joachim (Basel: Schwabe, 1980), pp. 631–36Google Scholar.
15 See the seminal discussion with Mosch, Ulrich, ‘Kunst als vom Geist beherrschte Magie. Zu einem Aspekt von Helmut Lachenmanns Musikbegriff’, in Helmut Lachenmann, Musik-Konzepte 146, ed. Tadday, Ulrich (Munich: edition + kritik, 2009), pp. 76–96Google Scholar.
16 Pierluigi Billone, interview, 20 July 2018.
17 Ibid.
18 Pierluigi Billone, email to the author, 16 April 2018.
19 Huber, Nicolaus A., ‘Über konzeptionelle Rhythmuskomposition’, in Durchleuchtungen. Texte zur Musik 1964–1999, ed. Häusler, Josef (Breitkopf & Härtel: Wiesbaden, 2000 [1983]), p. 219Google Scholar.
20 Mathias Spahlinger, ‘this is the time of the conceptive ideologues no longer’, Contemporary Music Review, (2008). For further detail, see Tobias Eduard Schick, ‘Weltbezüge in der Musik Mathias Spahlingers’ (Beihefte zum AfMw volume 80: Stuttgart, 2018), pp. 48–51.
21 See Nonnenmann, Rainer, ‘Die Sackgasse als Ausweg. Kritisches Komponieren: ein historisches Phänomen?’, Musik & Ästhetik, 36, (2005), pp. 37–60Google Scholar.
22 See Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Hören ist wehrlos – ohne Hören’, in Musik als existentielle Erfahrung, p. 117.
23 Pierluigi Billone, interview with Laurent Feneyrou.
24 Pierluigi Billone, interview, 20 July 2018.
25 Pierluigi Billone, interview with Laurent Feneyrou.
26 Fischer-Lichte, Erika, Ästhetik des Performativen (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main, 2014), p. 153Google Scholar.
27 Ibid., p. 140.
28 Pierluigi Billone, interview, 20 July 2018.
29 See Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare, ed. Lefort, Claude, translated by Giuliani, Regula und Waldenfels, Bernhard (Wilhelm Fink: Munich, 2004 [1986]), p. 183Google Scholar.
30 Ibid, p. 191.
31 See Ibid., p. 186.
32 Fischer-Lichte, Ästhetik des Performativen, p. 169.
