Original Score Materials: Bil Smith Composer. Plexiglass, blowtorch (combustion), Robert Doak proprietary oil paint, Wellington Blue and Channel Black, Rapidograph pencils and Pinsum custom pens. Later photographed on silver nitrate coated FujiCjrome.
The inspiration for this tablature comes from the stunning and sensual beauty of Alberto Burri and his work with the flame. I, Bil Smith, was asked to construct a new tablature (score) that was truly disruptive in nature; one that portrayed an experimental interpretation with intense visualization…one that unnerves the sympathetic observer.
Bil Smith Composer
In Burri’s oeuvre, the role of materials is not representational and the compelling presence of matter is the focal point of his work.
As a procedure in which the contingency of fire’s alchemical reaction ultimately informs the aesthetic surface of the tablature, my practice traverses the boundaries between music and life while simultaneously bridging the threshold between the natural and synthetic. Exposed to the destructive power of fire, the natural transformation of perishing materiality forges a new and contingent aesthetic reality.
Original Score Materials; Bil Smith Composer. recalibrated staff, matches, blowtorch, metallic pens, oil
The moment of panic occasioned by fire’s broad devastation is surpassed by the sublime regenerative potentiality which is innate to fire, exactly in the exploitation of that mythical gift which not so much consists in the destructive charge as it does in the possibility of transforming matter…of creating.
I chose to entrust to the flame to “let things happen”. This tablature becomes a raw monumentalization of the “Void”, and therefore redefines the role of the composer, performer and listener. Rules change…
- Bil Smith
Excerpt from "Comeios Beloiter" for Bass Trumpet. Bil Smith Composer. Inspired by Alberto Burri, Hans Arp, Gustavo Chab and Haroldo de Campos