A Score Never to be Performed
"Miranda" by Giuseppe G. Englert
Dario Agazzi
The Swiss composer Giuseppe Giorgio Englert (1927-2007) is remembered primarily for his pioneering work in computer music. During the years 1959-61 he worked on a score entitled Miranda (Sistemi) that remained unfinished, and which is particularly notable in that it was never intended to be performed. The music of Miranda may only be realised in the imagination of the reader of the score. The manuscript of the work is held today by the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Starting from a reading of the score, Dario Agazzi tries to understand why it remained unfinished and asks whether Miranda must be considered an extreme example of what Adorno termed “Papiermusik” (“paper music”).
