The Work of Italian Artist Pietro Grossi: From Early Electronic Music to Computer Art

Author(s): Francesco Giomi

Source: Leonardo, Vol. 28, No. 1 (1995), pp. 35-39
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1576152
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Work of Italian Artist Pietro ABSTRACT

Grossi: From Early Electronic Music The authornarratesthe ar-

tisticlifeof the experimentalmu-
sic pioneerPietroGrossi,follow-
to Computer Art ingallthe stages of his
career-from his earlyactivities
as a cellistandinstrumental com-
poserto his laterworkas a com-
puterartist.Grossi'smainexperi-
FrancescoGiomi mentsinelectronicandcomputer
music-fromthe 1950s to the
present-are described.Grossi
has performed,recordedand
taughtmusic.Hehas foundedmu-
sicalassociationsandpromoted
the institution of conservatory
7Tl7he career of Italian experimental music com- After receiving a degree in coursesinelectronicmusic.His
contributions to the development
poser Pietro Grossi has crossed the artistic landscape from composition, he wrote several in- of newtechnologicalmusicalin-
the post-war period to the present, both in Italy and abroad. strumental works, such as Con- strumentsandto the creationof
Born in Venice in 1917, Grossi began to experiment with certoper Orchestra(1957), Cinque softwarepackagesfor music-pro-
electroacoustic music in the 1950s; by 1962, he had become Pezzi per Archi (1958) and Dodici cessing designhavebeenfunda-
mental.Inrecentyears, he has
the first Italian to carry out successful research in the field of Composizionifor chamber groups beenworkingon newformsof ar-
computer music. His ongoing, vital interest in new ideas in- (1959-1961). In all these pieces, tisticproduction orientedtoward
spired his experimentation and his promotion of new music: Grossi applied, with a punctili- the use of personalcomputersin
Grossi's accomplishments have included founding the Vita ous rigor and in an almost inte- the visualarts.
association; introducing the first elec-
MusicaleContemporanea gral way, some knowledge of
tronic music and computer music courses at the Italian Con- combinatorial analysis [3]. He
servatory in Florence; conducting research at the National was, in fact, attracted to that sci-
Research Council in Pisa and Florence; making important ence because of the infinite number of variations it can of-
early efforts in the development of real-time music systems fer the composer. In spite of their great interest from both
and automated composition; and creating the first Italian da- musical and historical points of view, such instrumental
tabase of traditional music pieces. compositions are seldom played, particularly due to their
As a cellist in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra, intrinsic performative complexity.
Grossi spent more than 30 years interacting with many well- Grossi's 12 instrumental pieces demonstrate a progressive
known conductors, performers and composers (including detachment from a more traditional style of music, with a cor-
Strauss). This period in Grossi's career-between the two responding movement toward the expression of new aspects
world wars and post-World War II-was formative in his de- of musical language. He reduced dynamic signs and
velopment as an artist. performative expression to a minimum, concentrating in-
As a precursor of contemporary musical trends, Grossi has stead on research into melodic profile movements and tend-
proceeded along a unique path: He has not limited his work ing toward musical developments derived from the permuta-
to the musical world, but engaged in contemporary art in a tions of a specific sonic group.
wider sense. Grossi's latest multimedia experiments with in- Between 1960 and 1967, Grossi established the Vita Musi-
teractive sound and graphics (which he calls "homeart") and cale Contemporaneaassociation. This group was a sort of po-
his interests in artificial intelligence and virtual reality dem- lemic alternative to established Florentine musical institu-
onstrate this. In fact, Grossi has always been interested in ev- tions and also to the typical Italian mindset, both of which
ery form of artistic expression, as is illustrated not only by his tended to prevent any form of musical experimentation. But
ties to designers, visual artists and scholars all over the world people did listen to contemporary music concerts arranged
but also by his teaching activity in Italy and abroad. by the group, whose programs included pieces and compos-
ers unknown to the majority of musicians and listeners. And
sometimes such events aroused indignation and excited dis-
THE CF.I.IIST AND INSTRUMENTAL cussions [4].
COMPOSER Grossi's musical activity produced a sort of provocation
Pietro Grossi completed his studies in traditional music in Bo- that-though it sometimes had no practical effect on the
logna. When he was 19 years old, he won a competition for musical tastes of audiences-helped to disseminate a wide
the position of first cellist in the MaggioMusicaleFiorentinoor- panorama of information on contemporary music that was
chestra [ 1 ]. During his ensuing career with the orchestra, he especially valuable for young musicians.
played with important conductors of the time, such as Ferrara
Francesco Giomi (educator, musician), Divisione Musicologica CNUCE/CNR,
and Walter, and met well-known composers, including Conservatorio di Musica "L. Cherubini," Piazza delle Belle Arti, 2, 50122 Florence,
Dallapiccola and Berio. Above all, he had access to and per- Italy. E-mail: <art@vm.idg.fi.cnr.it>.

formed a considerable number of new compositions, which Received 21 January 1994.

radically influenced his subsequent musical path [2]. Manuscript solicited by Roger F. Malina.

) 1995 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 35-39,1995

 and Padua, followed Grossi's example
and began to teach electronic music.
S2FM Fig. 1. A reproduc- In Florence during the 1960s, the for-
STUDIO DI FONOLOBIA
tion of the handbill mal approach to realizing musical works
of the S 2F M elec- had been influenced by a radical aes-
MUSICALE DI FIRENZE
tronic music studio thetic: the work in progress became the
in Florence (1966),
describing the operative principle; every work of art
sound materials and was seen as material for successive pro-
NOTIZIA I processing proce- cessing by either the same author or
dures of some of other composers. Italian musician
the compositions Albert Mayr has recounted that many
musica prodotta nel periodo novembre 1965 - gennaio 1966
produced in musicians were trying to do away with
dall'cquipedell' S 2F M durantelo svolgimentodel corso di Grossi's studio.
the concept of intellectual property
musicaelettronicadel conscrvatoriomusicaledi firenze Grossi's research
into combinatorial [10]. Presenting their compositions un-
calculus had a ma- der the aegis of the S 2F M label (Fig. 1)
RICERCA HZ jor influence on the or proposing new ways of listening
other works pro- through sound installations in art galler-
impiegatc10 scrie geomctriche duced in the studio. ies, museums and architectural places of
1" tcrmine ragione interest were means they used to further
80 2 this project. Grossi's historic composi-
110 1,9 tions for magnetic tape-P4M3 (1963),
140 1.8 Progetto4 (1964), Tetrafono(1965) [11]
170 1.7 and Collage (1968)-were composed
200 1.6 during this period [12].
230 1.5 In the summer of 1966, Grossi was in-
260 1.4 vited to open an electronic music course
290 1.3 at the Bloomington (Indiana) School of
320 1,2 Music in the United States, where he
350 1.1 had taught cello technique 10 years ear-
onda sinusoidale lier. After a summer session in Indiana,
Grossi returned to Italy and the course
in Bloomington was continued by an-
REALIZZAZIONI
other electronic music pioneer, com-
combinazionidi 8 fz di ciascunascrie secondoi coefficieni poser lannis Xenakis.
binomiali

81 (2),(8
\,
duramamedia per combinazione 10"
I LAVORI CITATI SONO A DISPOSIZIONE 01 ENTI E PRIVATI
firenze. piazxeta delle belle arti
EARLYELECTRONICMUSIC
IN ITALY
Grossi's relationship with electronic mu-
sic began in Milan at the Studio di
FonologiaMusicaleof Italian Radio (RAI)
[5], where he conducted his first re-
search with electronic instruments in
1961. In Grossi's words, this research
would give rise to an operativeprocess
completely in contrast with previous
ones because of its aims: the acquisi-
tion of sound events of a different na-
ture. This is "musicas research,"which
gives a strong sense to the message,
thanksto the logical instrumentsused
in the processof analysis[6].
8, (8). (16), (7)
1
8)
31 gennaio 1966
During this early period, Grossi com-
posed the electronic piece Progetto2-3,
then founded the StudiodiFonologiaMu-
sicale di Firenze(S 2F M) in 1963 [7].
The S 2F M was originally located in
Grossi's home; it was equipped with an
oscillator rack, a white-noise generator,
some filters, a frequency meter and
some tape recorders. In 1965, the S 2F
M moved to the "Luigi Cherubini" Con-
servatory of Music in Florence, where
Grossi began teaching an electronic mu-
sic course. It was the first course of its
kind to be offered in an Italian school of
music [8]; years later, conservatories in
other Italian cities, such as Turin [9]
THE COMPUTER MUSIC
PERIOD
Grossi's activity in the field of computer
music has followed a path completely
independent from those of musicians in
other European countries.
The year 1962 was an important date
in Grossi's life. Already involved in elec-
tronic music, in 1962 he set out-almost
casually-on an adventure into the
world of computers. After reading a
newspaper article on a computer that
could "play" music, he began looking
for more information. Grossi waited un-
til he was allowed to visit the main com-
puter centers located in Italian banks
(in those years, banks were among the
few Italian institutions using comput-
ers). Eventually, in Siena, he "listened
to" an Olivetti Elea 9300 computer that
gave out phonic signals, which were
used to control tasks. Only the pitch and
dynamics of the sounds could be con-
trolled. In the meantime, Grossi found
that the big computers in use at the time
emitted some audio frequencies that
could be caught by means of standard
radio equipment, because of the low

36 Giomi,The Work of Italian Artist Pietro Grossi

 methods of musical text-processing that
were to be featured in later systems,
Fig. 2. Grossi at
such as the commands MODIFY (used
work on the TAU2
audio system in to change every musical parameter of
Pisa. From his con- the text), GOBACK (for performing a
sole, Grossi could piece totally or partially, starting from
interact with an the end), INVERT (which allowed for
IBM mainframe
inverting the interval ratio) and SCALE
(not shown in the
(used to perform a piece in a differently
picture). Together
with a musical key- tempered system) [15].
board, the main- After the development of the DCMP,
frame controlled the PLAY 1800 system was developed.
the 12-voice synthe- Running on an IBM 1800, it included
sizer that appears high-quality digital/audio converters,
on Grossi's right. and thus allowed a fine control of both
loudness and timbre [16]. Both projects
speed of early digital systems. Grossi the first Italian interactive computer were finalized by the development of
tried to tune a portable radio to those music systems, the Digital Computer the TAU2 audio terminal.
low frequencies and, walking around Music Program (DCMP), which was cre- The TAU2 system, built between 1970
the computer center, made an attempt ated on an IBM 360/67 platform; some and 1975 at the Istituto di Elaborazione
to record them. of the audio output was taken from a dell'Informazione/National Research
In Italy, there was little interest in specific register to build a square-wave Center (IEI/CNR) in Pisa, was a poly-
dedicating space and equipment to ex- monophonic sequence without any phonic instrument with 12 voices, ca-
ploring the applications of computers loudness control. pable of performing music in real time
to music until, in 1967, RAI commis- The DCMP system was presented for under the control of a general purpose
sioned Grossi and the composer the first time at the 1970 Venice mainframe [17]. Using the TAU2 sys-
Domenico Guaccero to produce a series Biennale. This system already included tem, Grossi developed a program for
of radio programs on experimental mu-
sic. One of those programs was devoted
to computer music and included some Fig. 3. Grossi's transcription of some results of an experiment using the TAUMUS pro-
excerpts from Hiller and Isaacson's gram COMBINA. Starting with the first seven notes of a Verdi melody (first line), Grossi
Illiac Suite. Thanks to the series, Grossi asked the computer to perform simple permutations of four sections, defined in hundreds
and Guaccero were contacted by the of seconds. The quarter note has a duration value of one second. The latter 12 lines are
the computer's answer.
Olivetti General Electric company,
which gave Grossi access to a program
that he then used to encode traditional (rF r r r' b
musical texts for the computer. This
took place at the company's Studies and
Research Center in Pregnana Milanese.
The computer played the texts through
a square-wave generator. Grossi main-
tains that, even though the sonic results
were horrible from a strictly timbral
point of view, he was nevertheless
charmed by the sound because of the
new perspectives it opened for his mu-
sic. He also marveled at the rhythmic '^
^JrLfrlr o 'w^4r . ir
precision of the performance and the
relatively short time it took to encode r- fLJTf frLTj i-f^
Sir
any given musical text [13].
The first encoded piece was Pag-
anini's fifth caprice for solo violin. The
computer encoding was recorded by
Olivetti on a 45-RPMdisk and mailed, as
.
LGU..f UL_r.'
-S L' r --r Qr
a Christmas present, to more than
20,000 Olivetti customers all over the 134L.rr :'L.ar^
:r : &U--T
world [14].
Grossi's systematic research activityon
musical text encoding and its infinite L 1
Lri J y:r-r --ur-Qf_r
processing possibilities began in 1969,
when he asked the CNUCE Institute of
the National Research Council for scien- t EiKLI r [t ;Kr'U-'irJ' U
tific hospitality. There, he designed, to- ~-
-fj~j ~f
gether with experts in the field, one of
ff u J' r Lr,r,=
-^rL7r'Vr.

Giomi,The Work of Italian Artist Pietro Grossi 37

 The term "homeart" has a double
meaning. It refers to the new potentials
Fig. 4. Pietro offered by personal computers, which
Grossi, Homeart, now allow artists to work at home when-
photograph of com- ever they are inspired, rather than rel-
puter video, 10 x 15 egating their work to a studio. The
cm (1993).The pro- home can also become a place for in-
gram used to create
this type of image creased artistic perception: simple pro-
performs random grams can produce graphic images that
variations on the change continuously without repeating
subject of cylinders. themselves, creating a sort of endlessly
variable interior decoration.
Homeart is an expressive form that
Grossi has adopted in order to demon-
strate that people can easily develop
their own artistic abilities. Grossi does
not suggest specific uses for which
homeart has been developed. It has
come out of his need to express himself
graphically by means of the same prin-
score management and processing (the ematical curve, or Sound Life 2, which ciples that inform his musical ideas, as
software TAUMUS); he then created a celebrates the beauty of the main railway well as his interest in using the relatively
database of more than 1,200 encoded station in Milan. accessible medium of the personal com-
traditional pieces [18], including works It is practically impossible to list every puter.
by Bach (The Well-Tempered Clavier, The computer music piece composed by Since 1986, Grossi has applied his au-
Musical Offering, The GoldbergVariations Grossi from the 1970s to the present. A tomatic processes to the creation of im-
and The Art of the Fugue), Scarlatti, last note on this period concerns Grossi's ages, rather than limiting these pro-
Paganini [19], Brahms, Chopin, experiences with musical telematics- cesses to the making of sound
Stravinsky, Debussy, Joplin, Satie and probably the first in the world. His earli- structures. These new applications result
many others (Fig. 2). est musical telematics concert dates back from the same aesthetic trend that has
Every piece could be controlled with a to 1970, when a telephone link between characterized the entire body of Grossi's
sec; each sound param- Rimini (inside the Pio Manzfi Founda- work. Homeart is based on simple com-
precision of l/100oo
eter could be altered in a determinist or tion) and Pisa allowed him to remotely puter programs, written in a common
random way; and it was possible to pro- play and process compositions, frag- programming language and running on
cess and play the whole piece or a frag- ments and random sound structures. small personal computers. These pro-
ment of it. Also, a sort of "electronic in- Following that event, Grossi was invited grams include brief computer graphics
terpretation" could be performed by to Paris by Xenakis to realize a telematic instructions; inside each one Grossi
means of a modulating piece that could performance between Pisa and the gives space to randomness in the con-
be encoded or chosen in the database. French capital in 1974. text of a single compositional idea that
Grossi used the high-speed features of develops into many graphic variations-
the system, with its capacity for the in- just as a composer does in producing
EXPERIMENTS IN
stantaneous changing of sound param- many variations on a given theme.
eters, to design several programs for au- ELECTRONIC ART Grossi describes homeart as "an art
tomated composition, which were often Grossi's work in what he calls homeart created by and for ourselves, extempora-
ruled by pseudo-random processes. started in 1986. His first presentation of neous, ephemeral, beyond the circle of
With these programs Grossi composed a this form of artistic expression was in others' judgments." It is for the artist
group of musical works between 1970 November of the same year at the Nuova who deeply believes in the process he or
and 1985, including the Sound Life and Atlantideexhibition in Venice [20]. she starts, but is not concerned with how
Unicumseries and the earlier Polifonia,
Monodia, UnendingMusic. These compo-
sitions can be defined as musical pro-
cesses with continuously and instanta-
neously changing sonic results that Fig. 5. Pietro Grossi,
often attest to Grossi's relative lack of in- Homeart,photograph
of computer video,
terest in timbre-he concentrated in- 10 x 15 cm
(1993).
stead on the main points of the compo- This is an example of
sitional procedures and on automated homeart on the sub-
ideas (Fig. 3). ject of the egg.
Applying similar methodologies, Grossi produced a
Grossi has also created music inspired large series of "elec-
tronic eggs," conmis-
by organized signs (geometrical pic- sioned by the art
tures, mathematical curves, etc.) or ar- galleryAglaiain Flo-
chitecture, such as Sound Life 11, a rence for a collective
sound description of Peano's math- exhibition.

38 Giomi,The Work of Italian Artist Pietro Grossi


critics and the general public react to
the aesthetic results. Grossi's insights
elicit a better understanding of the
meaning of his artistic work: "with the
instruments that technology offers, each
person can express his thoughts freely-
whether small or big, artistic or fantas-
tic. This is now easily possible."
From 1986 to today, hundreds of
homeart programs and visual realiza-
tions of computer algorithms-often
translated into photographs (see Figs 4
and 5)-have been produced and docu-
mented by the author himself. Among
these are a series of unique books that
have been produced electronically,
which Grossi calls homebooks [21].
Grossi has said, "in my career I have
always made homeart; everything I
made, I made for myself, without worry-
ing about any result, almost as though
taking refuge. What I have done, anyone
can do" [22]. Grossi has remarked that
many of his experiences were of no in-
terest to other people, but, as is evident,
this article does not share that point of
view. As the history of his career shows,
Grossi has not only composed music: he
has helped design the future of music.
References and Notes
1. Curiously enough, Grossi competed with his fu-
ture mother-in-law-who was first cellist at the
time-for this position.
2. Grossi was also a cello teacher at the Conserva-
tory of Music in Florence until 1986.
3. Grossi's first approach to this discipline was
through J. Schillinger's book, The MathematicalBa-
sis of the Arts (New York: Philosophical Library,
1948).
4. See L. Pinzauti et al., eds., Firenzenel dopoguerra:
aspettidella vita musicaledagli anni '50 a oggi (Milan:
Opus libri, 1983).
5. In texts on the history of music, this studio is
listed among the most important. Composers such
as Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna (the
founders), as well as Nono, Cage, Clementi,
Donatoni, Manzoni, Pousser and others worked
there. It is worth noting that a collection of papers
about the studio's activities was included in the
catalog of the exhibition "Nuova Atlantide-Il
continente della Musica Elettronica," which took
place in Venice in 1986. See Nuova Atlantide. II
continente della musica elettronica 1900-1986, exh.
cat., R. Doati and A. Vidolin, eds. (Venice: La
Biennale di Venezia, 1986).
6. P. Grossi, Musica senza musicisti, L. Camilleri, F.
Carreras and A. Mayr, eds. (Pisa: CNUCE/CNR,
1987).
7. Among the composers working in the studio
were Albert Mayr, Giuseppe Chiari and Lelio
Camilleri. One of the rare documents of this activ-
ity is included in La Musica 2, No. 11 (1986), edited
by Florentine composer Daniele Lombardi.
8. Grossi also promoted the first computer music
course to be offered in an Italian conservatory in
1984, again in Florence.
9. See E. Zaffiri, Due scuole di musica elettronicain
Italia (Milan: Silva editore, 1968).
10. A. Mayr, "1963-1993: Trent'anni di musica
elettronica a Firenze," unpublished paper (1993).
11. Tetrafonoaccompanied an exhibition of Bruno
Munari's Tetracono,a design project consisting of
four colored cones rotating at different speeds.
12. For a complete list of the compositions Grossi
produced in those years, see H. Davis, ed., Interna-
tional Electronic Music Catalog (Paris, New York:
GRM-ORTF/IEME, 1967). For a partial list of
records, see M. Kondracki, M. Stankiewicz and F.
Weiland, eds., Internationale Diskographie
ElektronischerMusik (Mainz, Germany: B. Schott
Verlag, 1979).
13. See P. Grossi, "Computer and Music," Interna-
tional Reviewof theAestheticsand Sociologyof Music 4,
No. 2 (1973).
14. Grossi says that an Italian salami dealer sent
back the record, enclosing a written note saying
that it was a profanation of music.
15. P. Grossi, Manuale di impiego del DCMP, Studi
Musicali (Pisa: CNUCE, 1970).
16. G. De Poli, "La ricerca di informatica musicale
in Italia," in Musica e elaboratore,A. Vidolin, ed.
(Venice: LIMB, 1980).
Giomi,The Work of Italian Artist Pietro Grossi
17. Both the TAU2 audio terminal and Grossi's first
electronic instruments, belonging to the S 2F M
studio, will be shown at the Museum of Musical In-
struments, opening soon at the Conservatory of
Music in Florence (opening date unavailable at
time of publication).
18. See Grossi [6].
19. For a review of the record, including computer
transcriptions of Paganini's pieces, see K. Gaburo,
"The Deterioration of an Ideal, Ideally
Deteriorized: Reflections on Pietro Grossi's
Paganini as Computer," ComputerMusicJournal9, No.
1 (1985).
20. P. Grossi, "Reparto musicologico del CNUCE/
CNR," in Doati and Vidolin [5].
21. P. Grossi, Homeart,GraphicUnicum(1990) and P.
Grossi, Homebook,GraphicUnicum (1991).
22. Grossi made this statement in 1993, during an
interview with Francesco Giomi on the radio pro-
gram "Onda Quadra-Musica Contemporanea e
Sperimentale," edited by Francesco Giomi and
Marco Ligabue and broadcast in Florence by the
radio station Nova Radio.
Discography
P. Grossi, ComputerMusic (OLIVETTI, 1968).
P. Grossi, ComputerMusic (FONOS, TNC 30001/1-2,
1972).
P. Grossi, Computer Music (CNUCE/CNR, CM
00001/2, 1973).
P. Grossi, ComputerMusic-Bach/Grossi (AYMA,ABL
30/1-2, 1976).
P. Grossi, Computer
Music (CNUCE-IEI/CNR, 1978).
P. Grossi, Paganini al computer(EDIPAN, PAN NRC
5018, 1982).
P. Grossi, Computer Music-Satie Joplin Grossi
(EDIPAN, PAN PRC S20-14, 1983).
P. Grossi, Sound Life (EDIPAN, PAN PRC S20-25,
1985).
P. Grossi et al., S 2F M-Musica Programmata(La
Musica, LM86-1, 1986).
P. Grossi et al., ComputerMusic (EDIPAN, PAN PRC
S20-54, 1988).
P. Grossi, ComputerMusic (EDIPAN, CD PAN 3006,
1990).
39