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This month's Radiophrenia. features Cucina Povera.

‘I’ and ‘O’ as Compositional Basis by Cucina Povera

In ‘I’ and ‘O’ as Compositional Basis I look at the dual notion of musical empathy and musical tension as two tenets of improvised composition. The formal use of binary notation is inspired by a decorative oak roundel ‘Stirling Head n. 20’ from 1539. Its border shows carved notation used by court harpists. It amounts to some of the earliest courtly notation to have survived from Scottish renaissance. My aim is to follow the notation, incorporating musical traditions I am indebted to – collective, empathy-driven vocal vernacular, harmonies from classical and late modernism, and largely intuitive, found sound percussion. An innate desire, and the immediate possibility to transcend linguistic and epochal boundaries through sound have inspired this work. https://cucinapoveraglasgow.bandcamp.com/