Music Galleries

Music Galleries

A relatively new breed of galleries in Berlin focuses on music and sound installations. Galerie Mario Mazzoli, based next to the famous Checkpoint Charlie, was founded a number of months ago by Mario Mazzoli, an Italian musician who lived and studied...

 

A relatively new breed of galleries in Berlin focuses on music and sound installations. Galerie Mario Mazzoli, based next to the famous Checkpoint Charlie, was founded a number of months ago by Mario Mazzoli, an Italian musician who lived and studied for many years in the United States and is currently writing a doctoral work on the analysis of electroacoustic music.

Galerie Mario Mazzoli extends the concept of collecting art to music; the gallery includes acoustic and electroacoustic compositions in its catalogue in the form of original scores with recordings and sells the publishing rights to collectors.

Around the corner, on Leipziger Straße, is the Centre for Opinions on Music and Art (COMA), which similarly presents both sound installations and concerts. galeriemazzoli.com / coma-berlin.com

Mario Mazzoli says
How do you sell a piece of music, and make someone feel like they own it? How can someone say ‘this is my piece’ as if they were saying ‘this is my painting’? Even if you own a manuscript, you cannot do this as long as rights on the piece can be claimed by somebody else. It is necessary to allow the owner to dispose of the piece as he pleases, without having to ask permission from anybody else. This can only be achieved through the sale of publishing rights (though not performance rights).
One common objection is: ‘but I do not want my piece to finish in somebody’s closet not to be heard by anyone’. Of course it does not have to be this way, just as a painter, and the owner of the painting, want the work to circulate. It is not my intention to deprive anyone of the possibility of hearing a certain piece of music. Selling the publishing rights gives freedom to the owner, but the gallery and the composer would always retain the possibility of performing the piece, while also promoting it through a catalogue with a recording accessible to everyone.

When I brought a piece for voice, piano and harp at an art fair, I was shocked to see how well it fit in the gallery context, how many people listened to it and appreciated it, people that would have never gone to a concert hall to see a performance of it.

Published on 1 August 2009

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