Comparative Arts

What is Comparative Arts?

Comparative Arts explores the dynamic interaction between Literature, Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Cinema, and Digital Arts. Through comparison of different forms of creative expressions, the field analyzes every compositional style of each single work and places it in direct relationship with the other arts and in particular with Music.

Who might be interested in Comparative Arts?

The Comparative Arts events are ideal for anyone who want to explore the world of Music, Literature and the Arts with as much freedom as possible. All live or online events and workshops in Comparative Arts examine works from several national traditions, often in a variety of artistic forms, and as such it is an excellent way for humanists to expand their horizon. By focusing on the interrelationship of the arts, comparison enables one to appreciate the widest range of works.
No matter what the final goal, anyone with a secret passion for Art, Music, Theater, and Literature will find themselves at home as a minor in Comparative Arts. Professionals and students of the Social Sciences who wish to explore the juxtaposition of the high and low may do so through Lyrics and the Popular Song, Literary and Television Genres, and Western Literature and the Other Arts, for example.

How Comparative Arts works?

The working method in Comparative Arts can follow various paths. Starting from a common subject, for example the classicist period in Europe, we consider various works born in a specific geographical place or in a specific historical context. The comparison between the others, following this common denominator, will take place by examining the various compositional styles of the various works in the different fields and the common elements between them. For example, in the relationship between Literature and Music: the use of rhythm and pitch, repetition and variation, the musical development of symbols. In particular with reference to Music in combination with Psychology, the Comparative Arts take on a different meaning, that is functional more then aesthetic. Alongside the properly comparative aspect between the two disciplines as a way of working on emotions, for example, the field extends to the scientific aspect up to practice through the new musical genre of Imaginative Music by Fernando Fracassi as below described.

WORKSHOPS AND LIVE WEBINARS
WITH FERNANDO FRACASSI

Music and Literature (Essay, Novels, Poetry) or Philosophy

The seminar is divided into four main sections: the first of these deals with the preliminary questions and discusses the elements that Music and Literature (or Philosophy) have in common. The second deals with the relationship between Music and Literature (or Philosophy) for what concerns vocal and Instrumental Music. The third, after an introductory investigation into the fundamental structural principles of the two (or three) arts, discusses the influence of Literature on Music and shows the attempts of writers and playwrights to create works on models of musical compositions. The fourth deals with the opposite problem, namely the influence of Literature (or Philosophy) on Music, especially as regards the so-called Program Music. The seminar includes the performance of live musical examples or listening to pre-recorded music. The reference book is : Six Memos for the Next Millennium: The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1985-86 by Italo Calvino.

Music and Visual Art
(Architecture, Painting, Photography and Sculpture)

The main theme addressed in the above seminar is represented by a careful analysis of the relationship between Music and Visual Arts as a representation of reality or the Imaginary. The first section therefore concerns the common elements between the various arts pertaining to visual art. The second part deals in particular with the relationship between Music, Architecture, Painting , Photography and Sculpture. The third, analyzes the technical tools available to the arts in question, for example the use of color or form. The last part concerns the influence of Music on Visual Arts and vice versa. The seminar includes the performance of live musical examples or listening to pre-recorded tracks.

Music and Psychology
(Imaginative Psychology)

The seminar aims to deal comprehensively with the relationship between musical performance and listening to music and its influence in Experimental Psychology, in particular Imagery Therapy. The first section of the seminar concerns a brief History of Music for therapeutic purposes in the United States and Europe with reference to the various models of active and Receptive Music Therapy, to Biomusic, till the Tomatis method. The second part of the meeting focuses on the study of the unconscious mind, on the altered states of consciousness during music listening and above all on the effects of music on emotions, on its phases (moods, feelings and emotions), on the moods according to the method by Kate Hevner. The third part of the seminar will be based on the general information on the Imagination (historical, anthropological, psychological and similar background) which will be followed by a review of the main lines of Imaginative Therapies (dialogic, autogenous, active, guided, etc.) following the file rouge of the setting that is their own. In particular, it will be examinated in detail the Guided Imagery and Music method by Helen Bonny (GIM Therapy) and the new, innovative Fracassi´s music genre called Imaginative Music. The final part of the seminar will be dedicated to the reference models: pragmatic, psychodynamic and symbolic, to the clinical and non-clinical application fields of Imaginative Music with live musical examples or through pre-recorded tracks made at Fernando Fracassi Music studio.