Leonardo Nevari on Research Trip to Nepal

Leonardo Nevari is a pianist and composer. Nevari is first-prize winner in several international competitions such as ”Nuova Coppa Pianisti” competition in 2012 in Osimo, ”Daniele Ridolfi International Piano Competition” in 2013, ”Grand Prize Virtuoso London” and ”Stresa International competition’’ in 2017. He plays concerts in Switzerland and abroad as solo, member of chamber music groups and with orchestra, with a repertoire that ranges from baroque until contemporary music.

His compositions are performed in several international festivals such as Trimontiada
Radio Festival, Sobrio Festival, EAR electro acoustic room, Piano City Milano etc. and his collaborations include internationally renown musicians such as Robert Kowalsky, Klaudia Baca, Marco Schiavon, Irenè Fiorito and others.

Starting from Hermann Hesse’s approach to Buddhism, Nevari’s research trip aims to arrive at a deepening on the non-linear time concept in the Nepalese artistic and cultural environment, in order to create parallels and conceive ideas concerning circular time in music. Nevari’s intention to reflect on this issue was raised up by reading Hermann Hesse’s books (in particular Das Glasperlenspiel), which stimulated the question about the ontological possibility to create music compositions based on circular (i.e. nonlinear) time.

Read the full artist statement:
“Das Glasperlenspiel and the Buddhist concept of non-linear time in music”
Starting from Hermann Hesse’s approach to Buddhism, this travel’s goal consists of a deepening on the non-linear time concept in the Nepalese artistic and cultural
environment, in order to create parallelisms and conceive ideas concerning the circular time in music. My intention to deepen this topic raised up by reading Hermann Hesse’s books (in particular Das Glasperlenspiel), which stimulated me to question about the ontological possibility to create music compositions based on circular time (i.e. nonlinear). Is it possible to write a composition or a sound artwork that could nor need to have a beginning neither an end? My considerations, at the moment, brought me to elaborate three creative technics: the first, which somehow took inspiration from Das Glasperlenspiel, consists of a formal abstraction of a sound artwork, that is a spaceoriented abstraction (e.g. a painting or a schema) of a time-oriented work (e.g. a musical composition); representing a musical composition in visual terms, you can conceive it in its own most organic form, without necessarily needing this to have a starting or ending point (e.g. the magic circle of infinity of G. Crumb). The second consists in the repetition of perceptive phenomena: an incessantly repeated phenomenon breaks the narrative dimension and the cum-causa system, typical of the occidental forms; this kind of nonnarrative repetition of perceptive phenomena takes easily place in the Buddhist mantras. A third technic, although this field is new and experimental, consists of creating continuously mutating “infinite” compositions, with a their own organic self-sufficiency
and intelligence; this last case mainly refers to software-generated works and installation contexts.
The research trip will last around four weeks, during the which I will be visiting several regions and cities with their urban centers and cultural sites, with a particular attention for the temples. The goal of these visits will concern an ethnologic and ethnomusicologic study. A central importance will be given to the temples and to the mantras and liturgic chants, like the Puja rituals. This study will include an observation on the visual and architectonic aspects of Nepali art (e.g. mandalas) and to possible relations and parallelisms to the sound aspects. During this period I will be creating a dossier containing ethnomusicologic material acquired in loco that will include audio and video recordings of chants and eventual socially relevant situations. The dossier will also include photos, sketches and notes.