Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
...
, Italy, in 1966. It is "something of an irregular institution, a band that has come together intermittently through the years". Its founding members have been reported variously as Allan Bryant, Alvin Curran, Jon Phetteplace, and
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski ( ; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. His major compositions, which often incorporate social an ...
; Rzewski, Curran, and
Richard Teitelbaum
Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...
; Curran, Phetteplace, Bryant, and
Carol Plantamura
Carol Plantamura (born February 8, 1941 in Los Angeles, California) is an American soprano specializing in 17th and 20th century music.
She graduated from Occidental College and was an original member of the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Creati ...
George E. Lewis
George Emanuel Lewis (born July 14, 1952) is an American composer, performer, and scholar of experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians ( AACM) since 1971, when he joined the organization ...
subsequently joined the group.
MEV were early experimenters with the use of synthesizers to transform sounds: a 1967 concert in Berlin included a performance of
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fig ...
's ''Solo for Voice 2'' with Plantamura's voice transformed through a
Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 201 ...
. At the end of the 1960s, they took part in the group Lo Zoo, founded by artist
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject matt ...
. They also used such "non-musical" objects as amplified panes of glass and
olive oil
Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: ...
cans.
Their performances achieved notoriety in Italy for their ability to generate riots.
The final MEV tour was in 2017.
Discography
* ''Spacecraft'', recorded in Cologne in 1967 by Bryant, Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum and Vandor
* ''Unified Patchwork Theory'', recorded in Zurich in 1990 by Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Steve Lacy, and Garrett List
Both of the above first issued in 2001 on CD as "Spacecraft/Unified Patchwork Theory" (Alga Marghen, Plana-M 15NMN.038).
* ''Friday'', recorded in London in 1969 by Curran, Rzewski, Teitelbaum, Franco Cataldi and Gunther Carius, reissued 2008 (ALGA 073CD)
* ''The Sound Pool'', recorded 1969, reissued 1998 (Spalax CD14969)
* ''MEV 40'', recorded 1967-2007, a 4-CD set of previously unpublished performances issued by
New World Records
New World Records is a record label that was established in 1975 through a Rockefeller Foundation grant to celebrate America's bicentennial (1976) by producing a 100-LP anthology, with American music from many genres.AMM. The first CD is a studio recording in a joint session in England on April 30, 2004 featuring MEV's Curran, Teitelbaum and Rzewski with the three members of AMM. This is the first occasion that the two ensembles have performed together, but not the first time they have shared a split release - each outfit filled a side of the LP Live Electronic Music Improvised, released on a US label (Mainstream) in 1968. The second CD consists of the performances that each group gave at a festival held in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
on May 1, 2004.
References
Further reading
Liner Notes, ''MEV 40'' * Heißenbüttel, Dietrich. 2013. "Türen ins Offene: Das Labyrinth im musikalischen Denken von Schönberg, Berio und Rzewski". ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'' 174, no. 5 ("Labyrinth"): 26–29.
KHUH-LP
KHUH-LP is a Freeform and Variety formatted broadcast radio station. The station is licensed to Seattle, Washington and serving the Capitol Hill, Cherry Hill, Downtown, Eastlake, Leschi, Madrona, Mount Baker, Pioneer Square, Queen Anne nei ...