gruppo di improvvisazione nuova consonanza: musica su schemi

In the early 1970s, Franco Evangelisti assembled Gruppo Di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, a collective of Italian composers that included Ennio Morricone on trumpet. Gruppo aspired to revolutionize composition through group improvisation and—like their peer, Karlheinz Stockhausen—musique concrète, aleatory (controlled chance) techniques and early electronic music. One significant influence in the studio was their use of chess to define key parameters of their music. Musica Su Schemi is unpredictable, fluid and always marked by a tension between the performers and their conscious rejection of traditional forms. Each member of Gruppo would establish themselves as important figures in 20th century music, though no others gained the notoriety of Morricone. Nonetheless, Gruppo’s influence on modern composition endures. As composer / saxophonist John Zorn explains, “[They] were instrumental in founding a radical tradition of Western musical improvisation that owed little or nothing to anybody and created some of the strangest music ever made.”