ENTREVISTA

Interview with Andrei Pogorilowski by Ana M. Vernia. 2015, October.

AV. When you say that music soun- case, the shortened versus prolonged du- ded in his head but could not write to rations are most times compensated by conventional notation, what do you other prolonged versus shortened musi- ndré Pogoriloffsky is the pen name mean? cal notes, played over a quite rigid giusto used by Andrei Covaciu-Pogorilowski on the left hand. Some peasant songs co- for his book "The music of the Tempo- A A P. I mean that there was neither a gras- llected in Romania in the first half of the ralists". He was born in Bucharest, Romania, in February 1968. Starting with 1982, he stu- pable tempo, nor that I could have discer- 20th Century even defied the idea of mu- died music independently, helped by seve- ned actual rubati, clear aksak structures sical measure… but this is a long debate. ral private professors. In 1989 A.P. started to or a polytemporal pattern in that mu- hear in his head a strange yet beautiful music sic. Anyway, the fact that some 30 years AV. Do you consider a new form of that he was unable to notate. Short excerpts ago a teenager decided that that stran- musical notation is needed? Why? were presented on the piano to his musician ge music, sounding in his head only, was friends who confirmed that the tem- poral fabric of that music could not be rende- great – has no significance whatsoever. AP. Every notation system is a com- red satisfactorily with help from the traditional, bar-rhythmical, semiography. In the The bar-rhythmical "conventional nota- promise, or else musical interpretation late '90s, A.P. discovered cognitive and started to merge his own discove- tion" indeed covers only a fraction of our would be a nonsense. As notations in fact ries with the bulk of scientific contributions from this interdisciplinary domain. After overall competence to produce discrete reflect ideas or concepts, it is important abandoning several approaches, the final result was his last book "The music of the time-patterns. Therefore there is no won- to see what are these concepts. The good Temporalists", available on Amazon.com. der that at some point I found it a bit res- old bar-rhythmical system is based of our trictive with regard both to that "strange capacity to relate various durations cen- music" – and to other, non bar-rhythmical tered around a main beat that is divided musics. or augmented by simple mathematical Ana M. Vernia ratios. It also implies repetition (that is To start meeting Andrei, we must also know his most recent work. What is the AV. The popular music of your coun- why most times we use measures). When fundamentation of "The music of the Temporalists"? try has influenced in your musical trai- I learned about the time-related percep- ning? tual thresholds (only those that are mu- Andrei Pogorilowski sically relevant, of course), I realised that Well, I took great care to base the theoretical ideas presented in the book on va- AP. Actually, a lot. I studied Bartók's or these might have formed the main con- rious time-related perceptual phenomena discovered and substantiated along the Brăiloiu's etc. ethnomusicological output cept laying behind a notation suited for years by cognitive (or: experimental) psychologists (from Paul Fraisse to Bruno Repp) with great care and as such I was someti- that music that I used to involuntarily or by musicians-turned-systematic-musicologists (Henkjan Honing or ). mes baffled by the limitations of the clas- listen to. It took me nearly 20 years to To make a long story short, the main idea is that the way we percieve and produce sical music theory. In some cases, it was put these thersholds together and wea- discrete (musical) time is governed by a system of imuable perceptual thresholds and simply unable to cope with the actual ve them into a comprehensive musical- that these interact functionally whenever we use note-lengths defined by two (or music. For instance, parlando-rubato has representation system. The fact that this more) such thresholds. little to do with the rubato we use when system required an original notation was playing a Chopin Polonaise. In the latter a mere byproduct. núm. 13 | enero 2016 13 | enero núm. 2016 13 | enero núm. A74 ENTREVISTA 2 Sumario 75 E AV. You studied music with private teachers. Why?

AP. SBach, Mozart, Beethoven… They all studied with private teachers, poor fe- llows. No BA, no DMA, no PhD! No academic background!! No peer-reviewed disser- tations!!! I wonder why we are still listening to their amateurish music.

AV. Do you consider that musical education should make changes?

AP. I know very little about , but I think that children should ne- ver be told that most great musicians were actual freaks and that the chance of be- coming one yourself is one in a billion. Shostakovich was able to write down from memory the whole classical repertoire. So did George Enescu. Glenn Gould knew by heart everything he had ever played. What are the chances to equate these capabi- lities? None, no matter how much you work – if you are not that kind of exceptio- nal… exception (sic!). We, the normal people, should rest content with keeping the tradition(s) alive and with enjoying the beauty of music.

AV. To end the interview, what would be your message to an almost dehumanized humanity?

AP. DEHUMANIZED HUMANITY! LISTEN TO ME VERY CAREFULLY! I HAVE NO MES- SAGE TO YOU! THOSE WHO THINK I HAVE ONE WILL SEE THAT ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENS TO THEM!!!

AV. Thank you for your time.

A P. De nada.| núm. 13 | enero 2016 13 | enero núm. 2016 13 | enero núm. A76 ENTREVISTA 2 Sumario 77 E