MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA - Friday

The MEV group was formed in September 1966 by Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allen Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, and Jon Phetteplace. In the beginning they performed compositions by themselves and others which involved the use of electronic sound produced in real time, or live electronic music. In the summer of 1967, they began to work more with improvisation and less with determinate structures. MEV focus more on interpreting the moment, rather than constructing repeatable programs; creating meaningful rituals, not images; becoming involved with the process, the operation, and not with the result of it, or its effects on people. MEVs music is highly eclectic, resisting ready classification by combining elements of improvised music, computer music, world music, jazz and classical composition, without being clearly definable as any one of them. Being creatures of the 60s, MEV members partook of many of the apparent contradictions which the very richness of those extraordinary times, made possible mixing rationalistic social and political theories and action with magic, mysticism and hashish, musically juxtaposing pseudo-primitive rhythmic pulses, drones and chants with avant garde post-serial textures and techniques, inter-connecting organic rhythms of the human body with cutting edge, high-tech synthesizers. But by maintaining an attitude of openness, acceptance, and inclusiveness that allowed for any and all things to co-exist equally, and refusing to regard such dichotomies as contradictions at all, they made what were undoubtedly among MEV, major contributions. For the realization of Friday, recorded in London in May 1969, MEV were Frederic Rzewski (piano, electronics, etc.), Alvin Curran (flugelhorn, etc.), Richard Teitelbaum (Moog synthesizer), Franco Cataldi (trombone, etc.), Gunther Carius (saxophone, etc.). The main theme around this MEV piece is communication. Communication by means of music can be a very efficient means of reaching quick agreement among large numbers of people, because when you call something music, you have tacitly accepted a convention by which it is understood that the sounds that you make have no particular meaning, they are just sounds and therefore free to serve the general purpose of pure communication. Music can bring people together where language divides them. When this happens, the concert will come to resemble other other liberated forms such as the party or the day-off, themselves secular remnants or earlier ceremonies. MEV music is not meant to impress people, but to liberate them. This CD is included in a beautiful digipack full-color sleeve with photos and liner notes. Also included is an 8-page booklet with an essay on Friday by Frederic Rzewski as well as MEV Then and Now by Richard Teitelbaum. Alga Marghen\r\n\r\n