UNRAVELING
EXTENDED GUITAR
with MARIO DA SILVA
DOCUMENTARY IN 4 EPISODES
DIRECTED BY ANAÍ BAGNOLIN
DIRECTED BY ANAÍ BAGNOLIN
english subtitles
Subtitles in portuguese
IDEA AND PRODUCED BY ALVARO COLLAÇO
UNRAVELING
EXTENDED GUITAR
POR CONTA DE SEUS SABERES E EXPERIÊNCIAS por Luiz Carlos Prestes Filho
Caro Mario, o filme “Desvendando o violão expandido”, dirigido por Anaí Bagnolin, é bem didático. Traz entrevistas sofisticadas e acadêmicas. Embora eu tenha assistido todos, incluindo os compositores Arthur Kampela e Chico Mello, o compositor e maestro, Edino Krieger, na minha modesta opinião, é o que pronuncia termos facilmente entendidos por não acadêmicos e não estudiosos da teoria da música. Apesar de sua composição “Ritmata” ser complexa, ele confessa que realizou a mesma por conta de seus saberes e experiências.
Em quatro episódios as opiniões sobre o tema, além dos compositores abordados Edino Krieger, Arthur Kampela, Chico Mello, também John Schneider, Orlando Fraga, Rocio Infante oferecem informações que aprofundam suas exposições.
Penso que os instrumentos Tar e Alaude, como outros instrumentos árabes e persas, são usados com técnica expandida. Isso desde a antiguidade. O Guqin, instrumento tradicional da China, também é usado com técnica expandida. Quem sabe vale estudar esses universos?
Obrigado por compartilhar. Realização que traz reflexões profundas. Parabéns!
Luiz Carlos Prestes Filho é Especialista em Economia da Cultura; coordenou, entre os anos de 1998 e 2010 os estudos Economia da Cultura - a força da industria cultural do Rio de Janeiro"; “Cadeia Produtiva da Economia da Música"; "Cadeia Produtiva da Economia do Carnaval”; é Mestre das Artes Cinematográficas pelo Instituto Estatal de Cinema da Rússia (1978-1983); Curador do PEN Clube do Brasil; jornalista, escritor e compositor.
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TO SPIRAL by Valéria Alencar
What can be greater than boldness, when it lifts the dense fog of the forest and reveals landscapes as concrete as they are divine? What can be greater than the desire to expand? Desire presupposes passion for something throbbing that stirs up the five senses and the nine consciences, makes emotions full of affections tremble, in a hallucinating intensity, breaks all the rules, overlapping reason. The handling of the Man-Guitar bodies causes raptures! It has to untune the strings torn by the fast light of time, of colorful sounds with poetic timbres, pectoral, visceral, between teeth composing pauses with their hands. Almost a prayer, a rite, evoking Gods asleep by sameness. Here, in this place, to document is to be a child again, to play seriously with the craft of touching the soul, the spirit. staccato, he sweats legato with his fists while he gropes the invisible with his fingers and nails. It's pure lightness to hear the whispers and groans to drink from spoon the lack of air. Love is synonymous of freedom, immemorial tones, it is Ether, the wandering essence, feet floating in fresh water. Nana baby, listen to the artist's tinkle, make me be born - you wake up in strings - wake up in me the dreams of slowness, fathers, mothers, aunts and Terezas from my childhood. I pray on this stage, uterine altars, give me the Light of a painless birth. The artist says “Laugh at myself”, because then to laugh is to transgress, to dance the drama of life between the sacred and the profane and discover yourself in movement, to dance with all your bodies to sharpen the man before the artist.Ping Pong, Ping Pong, a game, a myth to orchestrate, forests, scents and lizards!
Valéria Alencar, actress and writer, with several works for cinema, plays and TV, participated in the film Bicho de Sete Cabeças by director Laís Bodanzky, in addition to numerous appearances in soup operas. He participated in the show Residue (Pares no Lixo e no Luxo) directed by Lu Grimaldi, with Mario da Silva, Rocio Infante and João Vitti.
IMPRESSIONS OF A LAYMAN IN EXPANSION by João Vitti
Sorcerous eyes lay bare the guitar.
The strings groan, hiss, squeak.
The body thinks while the hands dance gesturing choreographies that sculpt sounds.
Not satisfied, the unruly guitarist, introduces objects into his guitar:
springs, Bic pens, ping pong balls and ravings, why not?
Daring and irreverent, he squawks noises and shakes silences with atonal provocations.
Move and move the pegs and violate the tuning of the strings on the guitar head.
Sometimes he stretches them, sometimes he loosens them, he glimpses new timbres and a new sound emerges.
Intoxicated with melodious images,
evokes the memory of ancestral instruments
and fixes vertigo exhaling states of being to stir up the sublime and oneiric composition.
Sensualized , he scratches the wooden silhouette as if scratching an emotion
and drums from time to time on the top, convinced that the movement has sound.
Pause.
COUGH-COUGH-COUGH… THE LIZARD STANK
The guitarist realizes that it is an extension of his guitar.
Guitarist is what he is.
Guitarists is what they are.
“UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR” brings us closer to a wider and unlimited universe, freed, whole and integrated with the nuances of universal sound or the natural and fearless spontaneity of a child in the process of discovering the new by diving curiously into the unknown.
I congratulate my great friend Mario da Silva for this rare, significant record, of deep learning, and I thank him for the precious opportunity to be able to enjoy his knowledge, talent and affection for music and love for the guitar.
Evoé!
João Vitti is an actor graduated in Performing Arts from UNICAMP. Among numerous works for TV and Plays, he also worked in cinema, highlighting Cães Famintos (Hungry Dogs) directed by Beto Oliveira. Participated in the show Residue (Couples in the garbage and luxury) directed by Lu Grimaldi, with Mario da Silva, Rocio Infante and Valéria Alencar
TO SPIRAL by Valéria Alencar
What can be greater than boldness, when it lifts the dense fog of the forest and reveals landscapes as concrete as they are divine? What can be greater than the desire to expand? Desire presupposes passion for something throbbing that stirs up the five senses and the nine consciences, makes emotions full of affections tremble, in a hallucinating intensity, breaks all the rules, overlapping reason. The handling of the Man-Guitar bodies causes raptures! It has to untune the strings torn by the fast light of time, of colorful sounds with poetic timbres, pectoral, visceral, between teeth composing pauses with their hands. Almost a prayer, a rite, evoking Gods asleep by sameness. Here, in this place, to document is to be a child again, to play seriously with the craft of touching the soul, the spirit. staccato, he sweats legato with his fists while he gropes the invisible with his fingers and nails. It's pure lightness to hear the whispers and groans to drink from spoon the lack of air. Love is synonymous of freedom, immemorial tones, it is Ether, the wandering essence, feet floating in fresh water. Nana baby, listen to the artist's tinkle, make me be born - you wake up in strings - wake up in me the dreams of slowness, fathers, mothers, aunts and Terezas from my childhood. I pray on this stage, uterine altars, give me the Light of a painless birth. The artist says “Laugh at myself”, because then to laugh is to transgress, to dance the drama of life between the sacred and the profane and discover yourself in movement, to dance with all your bodies to sharpen the man before the artist.Ping Pong, Ping Pong, a game, a myth to orchestrate, forests, scents and lizards!
Valéria Alencar, actress and writer, with several works for cinema, plays and TV, participated in the film Bicho de Sete Cabeças by director Laís Bodanzky, in addition to numerous appearances in soup operas. He participated in the show Residue (Pares no Lixo e no Luxo) directed by Lu Grimaldi, with Mario da Silva, Rocio Infante and João Vitti.
OVERFLOWS INSTRUMENTAL LIMITS by Orlando Fraga
Since his first Album, Mario da Silva has been concerned with the expansion and renewal of the contemporary Brazilian guitar repertoire. In the audiovisual documentary UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR, he goes further. The election of a group of worldwide important Brazilian composers (Chico Mello, Arthur Kampela, Edino Krieger), in addition to Mario himself (a powerful creator) to form this work is not empirical. The concept of an extended repertoire is not new, nor it is exclusive to the guitar. But Mario da Silva, here, makes a consistent record of this repertoire. I'm not afraid to say that this is the most important work in the guitar scene, which goes beyond instrumental limits to become the greatest contribution to recent Brazilian music. Orlando fraga - Concertist and guitar teacher. He studied at the University Conservatory of Music in Montevideo (Uruguay). Master from The University of Western Ontario (Canada) and Doctor of Performance (D.M.A) from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, NY (USA).
CREATING THE FOREST by John Schneider
“So many visual and sound rhythms... Unraveling the Extended Guitar is a documentary that really created an emotional encounter. Interviews are absolutely essential for every moment. So nice to see the recent images of Arthur Kampela and Chico Mello. Their episodes are excellent. We realize that when Chico Mello picks up his guitar, something magical happens. It's almost as if the scent in the air changes. The colors that emerge are extraordinary. Somehow I come to think of psychedelic drugs from the 1960s and 1970s. We've all seen movies about that, where someone takes a pill and suddenly the world changes. Colors begin to appear, small animals come to life. That's what Chico is doing. I think about Villa-Lobos who said: “I learned from the Indians, I was in the forest”. Chico took a step further. He created his forest. I realized that the documentary creates Chico Mello's 'forest' and I was really touched by it. Mario's performances at the end of each episode are also wonderful - great execution, and production levels are very high - the sound absolutely crystal clear and evocative."
John Schneider, an American guitarist based in Los Angeles who works with the microtonal guitar. He wrote the book “The Contemporary Guitar”, which in addition to addressing the guitar and its composers around the world, in its new edition, includes the Brazilian composers Arthur Kampela and Chico Mello.
UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR by Maria do Céu
“Watching the documentary, in the fourth episode, I was impressed by the amount of information about the infinite possibilities of the guitar, the composer, the performer, and making music. And I had fun with his composition for Arlindo dos Santos. I am amazed at the freedom that the composers presented (Edino Krieger, Arthur Kampela and Chico Mello), including you, experience in their composing process, not only in creating and combining sounds, but also in creating choreographies for the hands, the body, a concern with the visual result.”
Maria do Céu, guitarist ​from Rio de Janeiro
THE NATURALITY OF EXTENDED TECHNIQUES by Sergio Albach
It is very difficult to comment about documentary “UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR” without emotional feelings due to I am a friend of Mario and of the people who participated. And impossible not to emphasize the great quality of this work. There are revealed passions that those artists have for their instruments, a dedication to art at different levels: from composers to performers; from choreographies to image creation. One of the things that draw attention is the ease with which Mario da Silva moves through the so-called “extended techniques”, which, in his hands, become music – the artist's ultimate goal. This term has increasingly lost its meaning for the new sound, already being mandatory study techniques for any performers. Finally, show the experience of the performer to deeply understand the sound and visual result.
Sergio Albach, clarinet and bass clarinet player, arranger and composer from Curitiba, recorded the albums "Clarineteando" (2010) and "Clarone no Choro" (2018). He performed solo and contemporary works for Clarone, also worked with Chico Mello in many chamber groups. Artistic director of the Orquestra à Base de Sopro de Curitiba and clarinetist of the Mano a Mano trio group.
Documentary
UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR – MARIO DA SILVA by Ricardo Tacuchian
"MARIO DA SILVA is recognized as one of the most important Brazilian guitarists today. His technique, his audacity in choosing the repertoire, and his integration of the guitar-guitarist complex, in a choreographic and communicative vision with the public, are unique in the musical panorama of our country. Always restless, MARIO DA SILVA released, in 2018, the precious CD “Violão Expandido”. From there, he began to generate the idea of ​​producing a video, on the subject, at the same time artistic and documentary. Now, the Series UNRAVELING THE EXTENDED GUITAR is born, in four episodes, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. Therefore, it is a large production, with a minimum of resources, but with a highly creative production team. And, naturally, with the art of the great guitarist MARIO DA SILVA. The episodes present the guitarist exposing his ideas about the extended guitar and performing pieces by important Brazilian composers who followed this path. The series was idealized by ALVARO COLLAÇO and creatively directed by ANAI BAGNOLIN, produced by ALVAROCOLLAÇO PRODUCTIONS. The episodes feature important testimonies from foreign and Brazilian musicians, such as ALESSANDRO FERREIRA, CHICO MELLO, ARTHUR KAMPELA, EDINO KRIEGER, DENISE GARCIA, FABIO ZANON, TIM RESCALA, among others, and the dancer and choreographer ROCIO INFANTE. In addition to the incomparable interpretations of MARIO DA SILVA, the episodes also make use of abundant documentary material, choreographies and recordings related to the theme. The view of the film, interspersing the interviews and the performances, is beautiful. The First Episode is an OVERVIEW, where several guitarists talk about what extended techniques are and why the guitar can be an ideal instrument for them: The Second Episode is dedicated to EDINO KRIEGER, with emphasis on the work “Ritmata”: The Third Episode is dedicated to ARTHUR KAMPELA, with an emphasis on the “Percussion Study” series: The Fourth Episode is dedicated to CHICO MELLO, with emphasis on the work “On the side of the finger”: It is a Documentary that shows an aspect of the rich panorama of the guitar in Brazil, especially with regard to EXTENDED TECHNIQUE PRACTICES. It is not a super-production, but a super-document, which interests beyond guitarists, composers and the general public."
Ricardo Tacuchian , composer, Doctor in Composition, was responsible for implementing the Bachelor's Degree in Guitar at the UFRJ School of Music. It has a huge catalog of works for guitar
CONTRIBUTION OF INSTRUMENTAL BRAZILIAN MUSIC by Harry Crowl ”The series of 4 programs on extended guitar techniques far transcends its original proposal. With an emphasis on the work of 3 Brazilian composers who are fundamental for the guitar, Mario da Silva presents the challenges presented by the composers themselves, musical interpreters and/or performers of a universe so characteristic of the end of the 20th century. XX and first decades of the century. XXI. In addition, it shows how fundamental the contribution of experimental Brazilian music is to the advancement of guitar language. It is an unmissable series for all professionals, students and amateurs who are interested in guitar music.”
Harry Crowl Composer, musicologist and professor at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná. He developed a very personal style of composition with works conceived as a musical panel in which most of the ideas are never repeated. Among his works are Concertos for oboe and strings and for piano and orchestra, Sicut erat in principio, for symphony orchestra, Asymmetries for solo guitar.