PLS27515

Mario TotaroTOTANTANGO (DUE PIANOFORTI E PERCUSSIONI)

Realizzazione grafica della copertina: Francesco Di ViestiImmagine di copertina tratta dall’album “Mario Totaro, Piano & Percussion Works”© Preludio, da un quadro di Luigi Ravasio ("Trio Diaghilev seconda versione", 2011)riprodotto per gentile concessione dell'autore.

Proprietà per tutti i Paesi Preludio srl edizioni musicali20125 Milano - Viale Monza 169 Tel 02-26116308© 2015 by Preludio srl – Milano (Italy)Tutti i diritti sono riservati. All rights reserved international copyright securedwww.preludiomusic.com

Mario Totaro

TOTANTANGOper due pianoforti (o pianoforte a quattro mani)

e percussioni

MARIO TOTARO - TOTANTANGO

In Totantango the distorsion, the irony, the alchemic procedure are already present in the title, based on a

play on words (“Totar” and “Toten”) that would lead one to suppose an autobiographical and at the same

time macabre connotation.

The composition is based on two arrangements (on a 1968 33 rpm) of two extremely famous tangos, ar-

rangements that aren’t genuinely folk oriented and indeed that “use” the forms of this repertoire as material

to be exploited for commercial ends, counterfeiting the same according to the dictates of an aesthetic ap-

proach that is decidedly kitsch.

This is where the sense of “Totantango” lies; the idea is that by reiterating and bringing these “acts of vio-

lence” on the repertoire (and not just a folk repertoire) to extreme consequences, one inevitably attains the

death and dissolution of the same.

This assumption is underlined in the piece by a series of procedures that progressively denaturize the musical

material that gradually becomes more and more automatic and mechanical, almost as if to symbolise the

growing “dehumanisation” of the product. At the beginning they seem only to produce small, gratuitous,

funny distortions but little-by-little one realises that it is the very development and natural proliferation of

these “moles” that leads to a “cancer” that will cause the death of the infected organism. The same tonal

functions, already “attacked” in the first part of the work, progressively disappear from the second part,

where the chords gradually turn into simple aggregations of intervals to be manipulated according to implac-

able iron rules.

The proliferation of “cancer cells” soon leads to paroxysmal climax, followed by a huge explosion and hence

a slow, inexorable dissolution; in the last part of the piece the material of the two tangos is crushed into tiny

pieces, spun and dispersed up to attaining total extinction, silence, nothingness.

The quotations present in the piece almost pass unnoticed (from Chopin to Rossini, from Rachmaninov to

popular Italian folk “liscio” up to the Donatonian style in the finale), and their heterogeneous nature seems

to allude to a situation in which the artistic products, evermore defiled by a system that mainly follows mar-

ket rules, end up by totally losing their cultural identity.

In Totantango la deformazione, l’ironia, il procedimento alchemico sono presenti già nel titolo, basato su un

gioco di parole (“Totar” e “Toten”) che farebbe supporre una connotazione autobiografica e macabra al tem-

po stesso.

La composizione si basa su due arrangiamenti (facenti parte di un vinile del 1968) di due celeberrimi tanghi,

arrangiamenti che nulla hanno di genuinamente popolare e che anzi “usano” le forme appartenenti a questo

repertorio come materiale da sfruttare a fini commerciali, contraffacendole secondo i dettami di un’estetica

decisamente kitsch.

Il senso di “Totantango” è proprio qui: la tesi è che reiterando e portando alle estreme conseguenze tali “atti

di violenza” sul repertorio (non solo popolare) si giunga fatalmente alla sua morte e dissoluzione.

A questo assunto corrispondono puntualmente, nel brano, una serie di procedimenti di progressiva “denatu-

razione” del materiale musicale che divengono gradualmente sempre più automatici, meccanici, quasi a sim-

boleggiare la crescente “disumanizzazione” del prodotto. All’inizio sembrano solo piccole, gratuite, diver-

tenti deformazioni, ma a poco a poco ci si rende conto che proprio dallo sviluppo e dalla naturale prolifera-

zione di tali “nei” nasce e si sviluppa il “cancro” che causerà la morte dell’organismo infetto. Le stesse fun-

zioni tonali, già “aggredite” nella prima parte del lavoro, spariscono progressivamente nella seconda, dove

gli accordi vengono sempre più interpretati come semplici aggregati di intervalli da manipolare secondo re-

gole ferree ed implacabili.

La proliferazione delle “cellule impazzite” conduce ben presto a un climax parossistico, cui fa seguito

un’immane esplosione e quindi un lento, inesorabile dissolvimento; nell’ultima parte del brano il materiale

dei due tanghi viene come triturato, centrifugato e disperso fino a giungere alla completa estinzione, al silen-

zio, al nulla.

Le citazioni presenti nel brano passano quasi inosservate (da Chopin a Rossini, da Rachmaninov al “liscio”

romagnolo, fino alla scrittura donatoniana del finale) e nella loro eterogeneità sembrano alludere a una situa-

zione nella quale i prodotti artistici, sempre più violentati da un sistema che segue prevalentemente leggi di

mercato, finiscono col perdere totalmente la loro identità culturale.

Mario Totaro

TOTANTANGO

Instrumentation

2 Pianos (or Piano four-hands)

Percussion (2 players)

First player:

Gl. = Glockenspiel (to be played always with metal or bone mallets – sounds two octaves higher than written)

W.TT. = Wooden headed Tom-Tom (to be played with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

Bon. = 2 Bongos (high / low - to be played with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

Sn.D. = Snare Drum (to be played without snares and with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

Basq. = Basque Drum (suspended – to be played with the hands or with felt or vibraphone mallets)

Cast. = Castanets (mounted)

Sp.C. = Spring Coil (to be played always with a metal beater)

Timp. = 2 Timpani (to be played with timpani felt mallet, unless otherwise stated)

Second player:

Xyl. = Xylophone (to be played with bone or plastic mallets, unless otherwise stated – sounds an octave higher)

Vib. = Vibraphone (motor off)

Tri. = Triangle (to be played always with a metal beater)

Rat. = Ratched

W.B. = 2 Wood Blocks (high / low – to be played with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

T.B. = 3 Temple Blocks (high /medium / low - to be played with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

Cenc. = 3 Cencerros (high / medium / low)

Sn.D. = Snare Drum (to be played without snares and with felt or vibraphone mallets, unless otherwise stated)

Guiro = Guiro (to be played always with a guiro mallet or a reed handle mallet)

Mar. = Maraca

Gong = Gong (medium-sized – to be played always with a gong beater or a felt mallet)

B.D. = Pedal Bass Drum (a Symphonic Bass Drum played with a felt mallet using a pedal)

Shared instruments:

Cym. = 2 suspended Cymbals (high / low – to be played with soft mallets, unless otherwise stated)

N.B. = 1) Wooden headed Tom-Tom, Bongos, Snare Drums, Wood Blocks, Temple Blocks and Cencerros :

“hard” means = with wood sticks or bone (plastic) mallets.

2) Timpani : “hard” means = with wood sticks or bone (plastic) mallets.

3) Xylophone : “soft” means = with vibraphone mallets.

4) “metal” means = with a metal beater.

5) It is recommended to use two double-headed mallets or four mallets to play some instruments together or in

quick succession (e.g. : Snare Drum/Timpani; Glockenspiel/Timpani; Xylophone/Vibraphone).

6) In some cases it is possible to play the Bass Drum with a felt mallet using the arm instead of the pedal.

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TOTANTANGOper due pianoforti (o pianoforte a quattro mani) e percussioni

Mario Totaro, 1988

a Francesco CalcagniniTempo di Tango ( = 120 - 132)

molto staccato molto ritmato e staccato

PLS27515 - Proprietà per tutti i paesi Preludio srl edizioni musicali

20125 Milano - Viale Monza, 169 - Tel 02 26 11 63 08

© 2015 Preludio srl - Milano, Italy

Tutti i diritti sono riservati. All rights reserved international copyright secured

www.preludiomusic.com

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

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