GABRIELE MARANGONI
silent
visions from the edge of perception for deaf ensemble, 2 solo voices with extended techniques, percussion, doublebass, live electronics and vibrating surfaces
"A sound immersion perceived and understood in a natural and instinctive way by everyone"
La Regione
"A total enjoyment that combines hearing and deaf people in a single extraordinary experience"
Il fatto quotidiano
"A revolution of sound"
L'osservatore
"A bold project that aims to investigate sound in its presence and absence, inspiring sensations
and perceptions in a unique and total involvement with the audience."
La repubblica
Conception and compositio : Gabriele Marangoni. Conductor : Dario Garegnani. Live electronics : Tempo Reale - Damiano Meacci, Francesco Casciaro, Francesco Canavese.
Installation design : Micol Riva. Soprano : Francesca Della Monica. Male voice with extended techniques :David W. Benini. Percussions : Gabriele Genta, Simone Beneventi.
Doublebass : Dargo Raimondi. Deaf ensemble trainer : Aurora Cogliandro. Interpreter Lis : Francesca Fantauzzi. Production Coordinator and Assistant : Giulia Soravia.
Production : Festival Aperto Reggio Emilia. Coproduction : Tempo Reale. In collaborazione with : Ente Nazionale Sordi.
With the support of : Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia, Fondazione per la cultura UBS, Schweizerischer Gehorlosenbund.
WORLD PREMIERE : 4 NOVEMBER 2017 - FESTIVAL APERTO, TEATRO CAVALLERIZZA, REGGIO EMILIA - ITALY
6 SEPTEMBER 2018 - ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL, LINZ - AUSTRIA
29 JANUARY 2019 - TEATRO LAC, LUGANO - SWISS
21 SEPTEMBER 2023 - OLTRANZA FESTIVAL, TORINO - ITALY
14 OCTOBER 2023 - TEATRO MASSIMO, CAGLIARI - ITALY
CONCEPT
SILENT was born from the idea of observing and listening from the extreme limit of perception, using the sound language as an absolute expression and experience, in one of its most extreme and mysterious (and perhaps also dark) regions, the great silence.
Using and conceiving every possible sound generated by individuals who live in silence, grains of sound as precious particles. The minute, the imperceptible that takes on the great value of absolute precisely thanks to its rarity and its uniqueness but also physicality, physics, sound waves.
With SILENT Gabriele Marangoni experiments and investigates regions of extreme electroacoustics, within the work a frequency sound structure has been designed below the threshold of human hearing that works on the physical and cerebral perception of sound reaching frequencies of 4 Hz where it is the body that perceives the sound and not hearing. The entire stalls of the Teatro Cavallerizza will be transformed into a vibrant and resonant body through the use of an Infra-woofer sound diffusion system, which placed below the stalls will allow all the audience present (hearing and deaf) to physically experience SILENT strongly connected with the artists on stage.
The 12 deaf members of the vocal ensemble will instead interact with the sound (both that produced by them and the soloists and that generated by the live electronics) through specially designed and created vibrating surfaces. These vibrating surfaces constitute a technological system capable of amplifying and expanding in real time all the sounds produced by the vocal ensemble in the form of vibration. It will thus be possible for the members of the ensemble to perceive the sound produced, its manipulation and also create an expressive and “musical” dialogue with the members of the ensemble themselves and with the soloists.
“ Silent's writing is increasingly a mysterious journey towards the unknown and the only imagined, no network, no feedback. A sound work conceived with and for those who cannot hear sounds but can live the physical experience.”
Gabriele Marangoni.
Silent - Teatro Cavallerizza - Reggio Emilia
"Silent is the realization of a dream, it allows us to remember what we felt in the womb, the first great orchestra. The score by G. Marangoni recalls those precious moments. Everything comes back"
"Silent plays deep chords in his exploration of physical sound"
GRAPHIC-TEXTUAL SCORE FOR DEAF INTERPRETERS
Silent is truly a visionary journey to the limits of perception, as the subtitle says, by virtue of the presence of a vocal ensemble made up of deaf people alongside the soloists. The central idea is to access an extreme region of perception, in which sound merges with vibration and gesture. This is made possible by technological and scenic devices capable of putting the performers in communication with each other and with the audience, overcoming the “barrier” of sound.
On stage, as well as in the audience, deaf and hearing people will be able to share the same musical, artistic and human experience.
Silent - Festival Ars Electronica - Linz
Sound is not conceived as a moment of listening, but as a vibration to be experienced. The studio, conducted by the composer Gabriele Marangoni, aims to be an avant-garde that breaks down the barriers between hearing and deaf people, with an artistic product built specifically to be enjoyed without distinction by those who can use their hearing and those who cannot, where for the first time the goal was not to make it possible for deaf people to access the sound world of normal hearing but the opposite, to enter the sound world of deaf people, use their language, articulate and orchestrate their perception of sound and vibration, thus creating a sound work generated by all those sounds that deaf people experience internally and by those intrinsic aspects of the nature of sound where listening can be considered a side effect. The aim of the production is to think of the public in a transversal way with a concept of music that does not distinguish between hearing people, deaf people or hearing-impaired people.
SILENT IN TEMPO REALE
"
Various aspects and motivations intersect the work of Gabriele Marangoni with that of Tempo Reale, the musical research center founded in Florence by Luciano Berio.
First of all, the interest in a new generation “sound theater,” capable of stimulating the spectator primarily on the acoustic-musical sphere, but also capable of proposing new interactions between different categories of performers and devices. In a logic of this type and within an artistic universe that has long been nourished by “participation,” Silent explores the relationship between the contemporary vocal modality (and this is already a further point of contact) and the typical expressiveness of the world of the deaf. The latter use is structural material, never didactic or inclined to fashion, always amplified and modulated by live electronics, a further constant feature of the work.
Over the months, Silent has become an opportunity to meet an enthusiastic work team and has given rise to a series of research on technological modes of interaction, on extreme electroacoustics, on the possibilities of relating to space. If today there are primary objectives for a research center, this approach is undoubtedly one of the most important, together with the possibility of working with young creatives and relating in a constant process of cultural and scientific growth."
Francesco Giomi
Artistic director TEMPO REALE
Silent - Teatro LAC - Lugano
Watch the Trailer of SILENT
Watch the RAI 2 ITALIAN NATIONAL BROADCAST special on SILENT
Watch the specials dedicated to Silent from Rai2 and arteTV
silent
visions from the edge of perception for deaf ensemble, 2 solo voices with extended techniques, percussion, doublebass, live electronics and vibrating surfaces