Fausto Romitelli - Professor Bad Trip: Lesson I (1998 - 14’)

Analysis by José Martínez (UT Austin - Spring 2019)

Instrumentation:
Inserti Coda Coda Coda
Section Intro A B Trans C Trans D1 D2 Trans E
Fl + Bass Fl, B-flat Cl + Bass Cl., E. Guitar, on 1 2 3
Piano + Elect. Keyboard + Kazoo,
Percussion: Vibraphone, glockenspiel, 1-6 7 - 32 33 - 62 - 66 - 101 - 107 - 126 - 131 - 188 - 194 - 213 - 221 - 1:30
Bar #
61 65 100 106 125 130 187 193 212 220 234
marimba, 3 gongs, 3 susp. cymbals, tam-
tam, gran casa, guitar pitch pipe. Vln, Viola, Length
6 26 29 4 35 6 18 5 56 6 19 8 14 ~23
Cello, Electronics (bars)

Larger
6 55 4 35 6 79 6 19 45
sections

Main harmonic elements

Intro Section A Section B Section C

Section D Section E

Coda 1 Coda 2
Instrumental techniques
Flute and Bass Fl.
Harmonics (simple and polyphonic), tongue ram, flutter
tongue (w/wo note) embouchure gliss., quarter tones,
singing in instrument, harmonics tremolo, air only.
Clarinet and Bass Cl.
Harmonica, slap tongue quarter tone, flutter tongue,
embouchure gliss, growling, extreme high register, air only.
E. Guitar
Bending, harmonics, glissando (plectrum), bottle-neck slide,
muting, tremolo, volume pedal, scordatura (6th string).
Multiple effects: distortion, chorus, flanger, reverberation,
etc.
Piano
Kazoo, extreme high register. Synthesizer with prepared
sounds: pitch bend, 1/4 tone tuning, expression pedal.
Percussion
Guitar pitch pipe, singing, glock. mallet on vibraphone,
bowed gong, bowed vibraphone, gong glass in water, bass
drum w/super ball.
Strings
Gliss. (short and long - single and multiple stops - slow and
fast), pizz, regular and metallic mute, sul ponticello, s.p.
tremolo, transition from s.p. to ord, sul tasto, double natural
and artificial harmonics, natural and artificial harmonics gliss
(seagull effect), ponticello harmonics, jeté, overpressure,
quarter tones, transition from bow to legno.
Musical elements
• Development of musical gestures through expansion and
compression.
• Objets sonores of great complexity created through elaboration
of single instrumental lines.
• Fusion of harmony and timbre to create musical structures
• Acoustic simulation of electronic sounds and close interaction
between electronics and instrumental sounds.
• From rock music: interaction between effects and instrumental
gesture. Reference to psychedelia and timelessness.
• From spectralism: Sounds are recognized and treated because
of its spectral component. Sound beyond pitch.
Ever since I was born, I have been immersed in digitalized
images, synthetic sounds, artifacts. Artificial, distorted, filtered
– this is the nature of man today’
“…This inquiry of the perceptive systems through the
hallucinogenic states have become my means to penetrate
into a universe that cannot succumb to the claustrophobic
formalism of contemporary music. It allows me to escape from
the Utopia of the educated and polished sound. That sound
that is coated with full intentionality, but has no body, no flesh,
no blood. In the mescaline territory, education and good taste
are absent…”
Fausto Romitelli