Page 80 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

The processuality of composing 69

six months between September 2013 and February 2014. The particular
parameters of this creative process stemmed from the fact that the piece is the
fifth part of Ciciliani’s cycle “Suicidal Self Portraits”. And like Karlheinz
Essl, Marko Ciciliani immediately knew that he would be perfoming the piece
with his ensemble Bakin Zub, with him playing keyboards and electronics. He
also planned a video projection. In Ciciliani’s case, we have an audio diary
and copies of his writings. In what follows, we will refer to both.
On the first day of his diary entries, Marko Ciciliani says he has already
decided that this fifth part will be the last of his composition cycle. He then
reflects on what he has done in the previous parts, in terms of both composition
and performance technology. The audio diary thus starts with a reflective
introduction, in which the composer presents his understanding of the situa-
tion. He describes the cycle’s thematic and musical terms of reference, and
how he might respond to them. For the time being, this centres on a thematic
exploring, interpreted as a search for inspiration. The exploring is not entirely
open-ended, since the established cycle prescribes various points of orientation:
thematical (suicide), musical and instrumental (his own ensemble), temporal
(duration of the cycle’s other parts) and pragmatic (performance date and place).
To gain a closer understanding of the composition task he has set himself,
Marko Ciciliani – like Essl in the previous case study – evokes another composer’s
work for comparative purposes, namely Luciano Berio’s cycle “Sinfonia”
(1970). He states that the last part of his own cycle should not attempt to pick
up and resolve any loose threads from its previous parts. He always “very
much regretted this in the fifth movement of Berio’s ‘Sinfonia’, where he does
exactly that and where I got the impression that he’s apologising after the fact
for the things he dared to do in the first four movements.” Ciciliani continues:

[28 Sep 2013] Apart from that, I’d like to have a small video interlude
again, just as I did in all previous pieces. Mind you, it could also extend
into the piece and not remain an interlude, but flow into the last piece.
Then I did a bit of research on possible themes to address in the fifth
part. […] In any case, it would be logical to do something that deals with
the media or pop culture again in some shape or form. I really can’tsay
anything more on that for now. I just need to keep researching and try to
narrow it down.
[29 Sep 2013] Today I did some more research on potential themes and,
as part of that, looked at the website www.secret-confessions.com. But
then I realised that I don’t really want to do another piece about con-
fessions. […] But since the title, at least, contains the subject of suicide –
even though I don’t interpret it as killing oneself – I did some more
research into what things might be possible, i.e. connections between
pieces of music and suicide. And I stumbled across a quite interesting
song from the 1930s, by a Hungarian, Rezso ˝ Seress, who is supposed to
have written a song [Gloomy Sunday], after which quite a few people
committed suicide. Perhaps I could look to that for a point of contact