THE GESTURE of SOUND, THE GESTURE of COLOUR
CHIRONOMIC ORCHESTRA – THE GESTURE of SOUND, THE GESTURE of COLOUR –
an album
You can listen to the music, view the drawings and read the liner notes on
Parma connection : I met Roberto Bonati, a double bass player from Parma, a few years ago in Trond- heim, Norway. Since then continuous lively inspirational exchange came into being and lead into trustful cooperation. I wrote liner notes for the two albums “Il Suono Improvvise” and “Whirling Leaves”, of the Chironomic Orchestra, founded and led by Roberto, who not only is a teacher at Parma Conservatory but also Artistic Director of the annual Parma Frontière Festival. In 2022 – after the Corona pandemic – the festival invited me to participate as visual artist with projections of my live drawing in the concert of the Chironomic Orchestra in the old Valserena Abbey.
Scenery : this recorded concert took place at the old Valserena Abbey ante portas of Parma. The music was created by a nineteen piece orchestra only on the basis of hand signs and hinting body movements of Roberto Bonati standing in front of the half circle of the executing musicians. Bonati and his musicians built up and unfolded their dramaturgy of orchestrations from the interaction of the gestured signs and their mutual interpretation thereby giving it shape through their instruments in a rich and challenging actual field of interacting sources and forces.
Line-up : 3 vocals, 4 double basses, 3 violins, 1 guitar, 2 trumpets, 3 saxophones, 2 clarinets
Chironomic is derived from old Greek meaning: moving hands/arms in cadence. Roberto Bonati finding inspiration in the conduction practice of US-American musician Butch Morris (1947-2013), the sound painting approach of Walter Thompson (1952) and the hand sign practice in Gregorian Chants in Europe, developed his own approach and practice from it, working with dramaturgical building blocks that are freely, variably and communally given shape in real time creation.
Listening visually projected simultaneously : in this concert visual artist Henning Bolte drew/painted his perception of the music in synch with the inner rhythm, texture, temperature, mood and overall dynamics of the musical real time creation. This live drawing/painting was projected on a large screen visible and followable for the audience.
Documenting tableau : The booklet contains some of these live drawings/paintings that came into being synchronously with the creational performing process of the music by the musicians. They are part of a documenting tableau of that complex and vibrating process of creation in the Valserena Abbey.
You can listen to the music, view the drawings and read the liner notes on