Ranking with the most eminent classics of the 20st century, Vinko Globokar does not require a detailed presentation; it would be therefore appropriate to make a brief summary of his life. Vinko Globokar was born on 7th July 1934 in a Slovene emigrant family living in Anderny in France. From the age of thirteen to the age of twenty he lived in Ljubljana, where he finished secondary music school. He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied trombone under Professor Andre Lafoss. He graduated in trombone and chamber music, and then studied composing and conducting with René Leibowitz. He played at premier performances of a number of compositions of such trombone composers as Luciano Berio (Berlin) and René Leibowitz. In addition, he lived as a composer and performer in Buffalo, and set up New Phonic art, a quartet for free improvisation He lectured at the Musikhochschule in Köln, whilst in Paris he was the head of the department for research into sound and the voice at the IRCAM institute. At present, Globokar, a cosmopolitan often returning to his homeland, lives in Berlin unless he is roaming some distant places in pursuit of new artistic challenges.
[...] The question naturally arises about how to define the genesis of the musical present, in which music is interwoven with conflicts between »emancipation of dissonance«, »emancipation of consonance«, »new simplicity«, »new complexity«, »intentionality«, »engagement«, »disinterested aesthetics«, »explosion of tone«, »return to the classical and the old« , and a number of various artistic shades of »the past«, »internality«, »marginality« and in particular »foreignness«? It seems that musical theatre, Globokar´s basic approach towards invention, springs from two ideological environments. Firstly, it is tradition of New Music of postwar avantagardists which has left an imprint on Globokar´s music in that his music echoes a yearning for shaping sound as well as arranging it, a desire for inventing new sonorous constellations as well as a lust for creating and acting. [...]
[...] Globokar's freedom, an illusion which he is aware of, is non-existent as well as comparable to a similarly implausible conviction that music is exclusively world unto itself.« The inventor can only attain freedom by facing captivity. This basic driving force behind invention applies to Globokar as well. Globokar's creative freedom lies in his free selection of his own captivity. Such deliberations shift our attention this time in the light of the relationship between the semantics and formability of the musical discourse - to the notion of the musical work and its equivalence for Globokar´s music: dealing with sounds. [...]
[...] artist's environment and the snares of the inventor's freedom In the realm of music and beyond: music, musics and non-music In 1996, Delo, a Slovene daily newspaper, featured Globokar´s article, in which he expressed an afterthought, typical of his spiritual horizon: I may have never said »Let's go home«, but often you would hear me say »Let's as we were setting off for France, Germany, the United States, France and Germany again His way of life has not only contributed to an array of environments he was exposed to, but also to the moulding of his attitude towards the world as well as his artistic and creative point of view. [...]
[...] Globokar predominantly searches music in a socially engaged sonority, an antipole to the classical-romantic aesthetics of music which is imbedded in the idea of a substantively superior and basically disinterested play of tones. Globokar regards the question of the purpose and message of music as being of equal significance as the question of »how to compose?« »The art is not only an emotional and personal expression, it is also a criticism.« 5 Globokar sees criticism in every great music created in the West: »Lack of concessions is typical of the work.« 6 Each creation is also a criticism simply because »every activity is poltical« 7 Aesthetically, Globokar´s music is homeless. [...]
[...] In sum, it could be claimed that the third interest sphere is the »generator of sounds« of Globokars´s musical instruments, and is therefore intrinsically linked to the question of each materialisation of relationships between music and what lies beyond it. The issue of the interdependence of composers is, on the other hand, an encounter of different musical experiences various musical histories and musical segments. Globokar´s view of the coperformer, like that of a group musical play, is based on a typically practicalpsychological assumption. [...]
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