CULTURE

del Monaco

First Name Alfredo Last Name del Monaco Expertise / Competencies -Electronic Music. Short description Born in Caracas, 1938, one of the big names on the contemporary music scene of Venezuela. Bio After composing "Cromofonías I" during 1966-1967, and "Estudio electrónico I" during 1967-1968, he moved to New York to study and work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center from 1969 to 1974. There he composed “Metagrama” for tape in 1969-1970, and “Estudio electrónico II”, also for tape, in 1970. These two pieces plus a third one using “long sonorities” and specially composed for Venezuelan choreographer-dancer Sonia Sanoja are also known under the name “Tres Ambientes Coreográficos para Sonia Sanoja” (1970). Later del Mónaco composed "Alternancias", for violin, viol, cello, piano and electronic sounds on tape, in 1971; “Dualismos”, for flute, clarinet, trombone piano and electronic sounds on tape also in 1971; "Syntagma (A)", for trombone and electronic sounds on tape, in 1971-1972; and “Trópicos”, for tape, in 1972; and “Estudio electrónico III”, also for tape, in 1974, when he finished his Doctoral Thesis based on that same electronic music work. Del Mónaco made his first experience on computer music working with an IBM 360 (“… were the punched cards’ days”, he remembers), finishing a sine waves based work on December 25 of 1971: “Synus 12/25/1971”, for tape. For him that “was a test … and no more”. Years later he came back to the electroacoustic world when he composed "Lyrika", for oboe with electronic extensions ad libitum, in 1992. This work could be performed as an oboe solo or oboe plus tape piece. The mixed version uses a prerecorded tape (made by the performer) with background multiphonics played very softly (“pppp”) from around the second part until almost the end of the composition. Alfredo del Mónaco lives today in Caracas, Venezuela. Homepage http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/stage.php?NumPage=556

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