In the high Medieval times, French monks discovered that superimposing two melodies and playing them contemporaneously would generate interesting acoustics.
Writer, painter, and art theorist Gian Ruggero Manzoni described the modular music of Vagnini's compositions as “circular like the existence, his works are not finished, but merely stimulus for new voices”.
[2] Greek history university professor Umberto Bultrighini describes "Vagnini Modular Music’s ability to satisfy old needs and combine them with modern technology.
The concept of a musical work seen as something closed, limited and immobile evolves into a process of numerous aggregations that allow a composition to become infinite in principle.
“In the initial approach, the artist may choose any style, instrument and musical form, with no limits for the composer’s creativity“, whatsoever.
The approach is being academically discussed at the University of West Georgia[8] and the Carrollton Cultural Arts Centre in the USA, at the “G.
[9] Minas Borboudakis has dedicated the third part of his trilogy ROAI III for piano and electronics to the modular methodology.
Marcel Duchamp's intervention on Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa: the moustache is, in all ways, a modular effect.
Greek-born conceptual artist Leda Luss Luyken, who was initially trained as an architect, has been exploring ModulArt in the medium of painting since the 1990s.
The Gruppo 1, made up of Biggi, Frascà, Pace, Santoro, Uncini and Carrino, in the 1960s elaborated a conception of sculpture being a collective project with works developed by assembling basic elements—modules, in the true sense of the word — which could be modified in any moment, sometimes with the intervention of the public.
The artist's desire to experiment is combined with the necessity to adapt to codes and communicative languages in constant evolution.
Using at the same time different languages is not just the research of innovative aesthetic solutions, superficial strategy used to capture who enjoys with distraction; multimediality becomes, by modular art, a natural answer to the artist that wants to join the project.
Stefano Vagnini's 2002 modular oratorio depicting the fourteen Stations of the Cross, Via Crucis,[16] composition for organ, computer, choir, string orchestra and brass quartet.
Zoo is a modular project made by independent modules created by worldwide composers over eight piano works by Stefano Vagnini.
This means each audience member's experience of the performance is unique, depending on the path they take through the space and the precise moments they happen to be in proximity to each individual musician.
The Zoo world modular project currently comprises the following composers: Martin Vitous (Czech Rep.), George Christophy (Cypro), Anthony Green (U.S.A), Johannes Holik (Austria), Erik Schwartz (U.S.A), Heinz Chur (Germany), Phillip Wilcher (Australia), Ichinose Kyo (Japan), Julian Yu (China), John Sharply (Singapore), Slava Vinokur (Israel), Paul Gordon Manners (England), Giorgia Ragni (Italy).
The Zoo project has been performed since 2000: The FaceBach project, organized by Strathclyde University Choir Director Alan Tavener,[19] was performed on 15 June 2012, at the Barony Hall Glasgow as closing workshop on Modular Music featuring the Strathclyde Barony Hall organ students and AiDADUO (Stefano Vagnini and Giorgia Ragni).