If on a Winter's Night a Composer Unfurling Music: A Conversation with Carlo Forlivesi

IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A COMPOSER UNFURLING MUSIC: A CONVERSATION WITH CARLO FORLIVESI CRISTINA SCUDERI OMPOSER CARLO FORLIVESI IS KNOWN AND APPRECIATED in academia for his research and teaching experience. A recipient of numerous international composition awards, with performances and masterclasses held in many cities around the world, he currently divides his time between Italy, France, Australia, and his beloved Japan. His multiple interests extend from contemporary to early music, from electronics to ethnomusicology, from essay writing to social responsibility. Artist Forlivesi avoids the media hubbub. Like many traditional travelers, he is reserved but comfortable and at ease when you speak to him. He has just returned from the Unique Forms International Composition Workshop in Adelaide and will be leaving soon to lecture at the Kyoto Art University. He is also in the process of planning his future collaborations with the University of California and the Mozarteum of Salzburg, but desired to take the time to talk to us about his work and career. C 94 Perspectives of New Music * * * CRISTINA SCUDERI: Maestro, let’s start from the beginning. You were among the youngest composition students ever admitted at the Bologna Conservatory of Music (Italy) when you entered. What happened during these ten years of school? CARLO FORLIVESI: In the junior course, I studied with maestro Costante Fantini from Forlì. In Bologna, he and Capuchin Father Callisto Giacomini were among the greatest professors who taught the basics of classical harmony and counterpoint in a way that many today would find too meticulous. Recalling those years, I realized only after a long time that I had been practicing an incredibly strict mental training, with an approach that had little to do with imagination, but much more to do with practice, rigor, and rules. I was very young then and in no hurry to become a tout court composer, as often happens to creative minds. Later, when I moved to the intermediate course, I continued to study historic music, do my own research, exercises in style, absorbing an attitude towards composition that I had not known before. I was in Ivan Vandor’s class. He introduced me to that mindset and raised my interest in composing, although still at an embryonic stage. In the senior course, I then studied with Alessandro Solbiati. I learned the composition method from the Donatoni School (a more “formalized” school), which was certainly very useful for me, although I never felt it completely mine. Of course, it is important to learn a method to compose, as long as you can invent other more personal methods. The temptation is to remain trapped in your own systems, or even worse, in your teachers’ systems. Although I was aesthetically interested in the school production, I could not remain either intellectually or emotionally tied to it. We can’t forget that the “emotional” and “affinity” factors play a very strong role in contemporary art dynamics. At one point, I “left the moorings” and went down my own path, obviously a hard choice both artistically and for the career. At first, it was extremely difficult. Once you leave a certain world, it doesn’t allow you back in! I did not want to abandon anything of what I had learned, and for which I am certainly grateful—but with a view towards seeking other channels. But this is not always understood. Now that I am a teacher myself, I have realized that the relationship with one’s student risks becoming “possessive.” This possessiveness is not positive and can be even discriminatory; you need to maintain a balance between teacher/student with respect and due liberty. A Conversation with Carlo Forlivesi 95 SCUDERI: After the Conservatory, you arrived at the IRCAM and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. What were your main interests in these two institutions? How did they influence your work? FORLIVESI: In 1996 I graduated from the Conservatory of Milan, and just after, in the academic year 1997–1998, I was selected for the IRCAM. The course selection commission, which included Marco Stroppa and Wolfgang Rihm, selected more “traditional” composers: e.g., not already working with electronics. Rihm, moreover, is known to be a composer who does not...