SLATE PETALS (2023)
for Voice and live electronics
Prémiere: 23 September 2023 @ NU Festival, Novara (IT)
Ljuba Bergamelli (voice), Zeno Baldi (live electr.)
Duration: 45 min.
TRI (2023)
for Saxophone, Percussions, Live electronics
Prémiere: 20 June 2023 @ BKA Theater, Berlin (DE)
Duo Dubois (sax, perc), Z.Baldi (live electr.)
Duration: 30 min.
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TRI is a mobile composition based on interactions between acoustic instruments and electronics, explored through a network of audio and midi connections that form sorts of “hyper-instruments” among the performers.
The electronics’ output include transducers vibrating on acoustic surfaces (drum’s skin, cymbals), and solenoids hitting objects and metal plates, creating a blurred boundary between acoustic- and electronic sounds.
ÈLICE (2022)
for ensemble
Commissioned by Distat Terra Festival.
Instrumentation: B.Fl, B.Hr, B.Cl, 2 Perc, Hp, Va, Db
Prémiere: 17 December 2022 @ Choele Choel, Argentina (AR). Ensemble AntiquaNova, Valeria Martinelli (cond.)
Duration: 6 min.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
TINY STEPS (2022)
for cello
Commissioned by Associazione Amici della Musica Foligno, written for / dedicated to Michele Marco Rossi
Instrumentation: Cello
Prémiere: 30 October 2022 @ Oratorio del Crocifisso, Foligno (IT) . Michele Marco Rossi (Vc)
Duration: 5 min.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
In cima alle corde, muovendosi nei piccoli spazi che separano un armonico naturale dall’altro, le dita procedono per minuscoli passi, talvolta addirittura stando ferme ma “inclinando”/spostando il proprio peso.
Il titolo rimanda – con logica opposta – alla composizione “Giant Steps” di John Coltrane (1960), in cui il percorso armonico è caratterizzato invece da ampi salti (terze maggiori).
COPIA CARBONE (2022)
for ensemble
Commissioned by / Written for Ensemble Proton Bern, in the frame of Protonwerk n.11.
Instrumentation: B.Fl, Lup, C.Cl, Bsn (+Cf), Midi ctrl, Hp, Vn, Vc
Prémiere: 15 March 2022 @ Dampfzentrale, Bern (CH) . Ensemble Proton Bern, Aaron Cassidy (cond.)
Duration: 10 min.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The original plan for this work was to explore the interaction between a group of (mostly unusual) acoustic instruments, and a sampler made exclusively of unprocessed audio samples of the same instruments, a sort of “carbon copy” of the ensemble. Actually, the final version of the virtual instrument also include samples from other acoustic sources (e.g.bells, piano), changing the connection between the two realms of sound production: not a real “copy” of the same material anymore, but rather a transfiguration/amplification/distortion of similar and complementary structures and colors.
GLASKÖRPER (2021)
for Saxophone, Accordion, Percussions
Written for Schallfeld Ensemble, with the support of Styria Artist in Residence Fellowship, 2021.
Instrumentation: Soprano Saxophone, Accordion, Percussions
Prémiere: 04 October 2021 @ Konzerthaus, Klagenfurt (AT)
ZZM Sasion 2021
Duration: 8/9’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Eye floaters (Glaskörpertrübungen) are small dark shapes that float across the field of vision. Tiny strands of the vitreous (the gel-like fluid that fills the eye) stick together and cast shadows on the retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye). Those shadows appear as floating spots or threads, and follow the motion of the eye with a small “delay”. I started noticing quite visible threads and a medium-large black spot on my left eye while writing the piece, and this constant presence ended up having a central role in the concept of the composition. The “mouches volantes” (fliegende Mücken) offered me everchanging examples of layering (between opaque and transparent elements), and patterns of delayed motion, that I tried to explore in microtonal textures across the soprano saxophone, the accordion, and a set of percussions composed of Almglocken, non tempered-Cencerros, Japanese rins, small gongs and bells.
The piece was written in the frame of a Styria Artist-in-Residence Fellowship (St.Air)
LICHENI (2021)
for e.guitar, theorbo, accordion and electronics
Commissioned by Azione_Improvvisa Ensemble, funded by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, with the support of Fondazione Spinola-Banna per l’Arte.
Instrumentation: Electric guitar, Theorbo, Accordion, Electronics (Midi controller)
Prémiere: 21 September 2021 @ Gärtnerei Schullian, Bozen (IT)
TransArt Festival 2021
Duration: 11’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Lichens are places where an organism unravels into an ecosystem and where an ecosystem congeals into an organism. They flicker between ‹wholes› and ‹collections of parts›.” (Merlin Sheldrake – “Entangled Life”)
Lichens are the symbiotic merging of fungi and algae. They are emergent phenomena, entirely more than the sum of their parts: stabilized networks of relationships. The piece seeks to investigate interactions between acoustic instruments and electronics through a network of audio and midi connections, in the attempt of creating sorts of hyper-instruments. On one side, audio signals coming from the instruments (amplified through piezo microphones) provide spectral material for a resonator controlled via midi; on the other one, the resonator’s output is routed to a tactile transducer, that vibrate and resonate directly on Theorbo’s strings.
LAMINAR FLOW (2020/21)
for piano/percussion quartet
Commissioned by Yarn/Wire. Written with the support of Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, 2021.
Instrumentation: Prepared Piano, Midi controller, Drum set w/audio exciters, Percussions
Prémiere: 09 November 2021 @ Miller Theatre (New York, US), Streaming concert
Yarn/Wire/Currents – Live From Columbia
Duration: 20’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The piece is born after a period of experimentations on tactile transducers, feedback systems, and electroacoustic interactions.
The electronics’ output is routed directly to acoustic surfaces (drum’s skin, cymbals, piano strings etc.), creating a blurred boundary between acoustic and electronic sounds.
Despite the blending of the timbral entities, these two layers follow separate formal paths, or similar paths at different speeds, similarly to what happens in a laminar flow, as described by fluid dynamics (in which each layer move smoothly past the adjacent, with little or no mixing).
The title also refers to the rhythmic flow of ever-changing waves, since the piece has been written in a room literally in front of the Ligurian sea, in early 2021.
During that period, everyday and every night I watched and listened to the winter sea, especially during my late night experimentations with microtonally-tuned bottles and transducers on drum-set.
The deep and dark blue of the sea at night had a great impact on the way I composed this work, leading me to explore (and embrace) low frequencies and vast resonances.
The piece was commissioned by Yarn/Wire, with the support of Fellowships by American Academy in Rome and Bogliasco Foundation.
MELT (2020)
miniature for 4 instruments w/electronics
Miniature for e.guitar, theorbo, accordeon, electronics.
written for Azione Improvvisa Ensemble, as part of 40” Klangroom Project, during 2020 Lockdown.
Video: KOTTOMfilms
BONSAI.PANDO (2020)
for Small Orchestra
Written for Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble / American Academy in Rome 125th Anniversary
Instrumentation: Fl, Cl, Bsn, 2Hrn, Tbn, Perc, Perc synth, Vn I & II, Va I & II, Vc I & II, Db I & II.
Prémiere: 18.04.2020 @ Parco della Musica, Rome (IT) CANCELLED
Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble, Tonino Battista (cond.)
125th Anniversary, American Academy in Rome
Duration: 10′
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The practice of Bonsai develops on a long-term cultivation, crossing and passing down through several generations of growers, an art work that requires patience, precision and care, which is never meant to be “finished”. This dilated time contrasts with a reduced space, a miniature of the original form, supposed to express the same energy of the “normal” plant on a different scale.
Pando (Utah, USA) is a clonal colony of trees with a huge common root system. It is among the oldest living organisms on earth.
Bonsai.Pando is an “augmented” version of the already existing piece “Bonsai” (2017, for 8 instruments), in which the concept of growth of/in a reduced space is extended to the orchestral context.
The piece was written for the 125th anniversary of the American Academy in Rome.
DEEPSTARIA (2019)
for electric trio
Co-commissioned by Ensemble L’arsenale and MAtera INtermedia Festival, with the support of SIAE Classici di Oggi.
Instrumentation: 2 analogue synthesizers and e.guitar with pedals
Prémiere: 07.12.2019 @ S.Gregorio , Treviso (IT)
Nuova Musica a Treviso 2019
Ensemble L’arsenale (Filippo Perocco, Lorenzo Tomio, Roberto Durante)
Duration: 13’ ca.
The title refers to a genus of Jellyfish known for its shape-shifting form. Fascinated by this mysterious and ever-changing animal living in the depth of the ocean, I used the continuous sound transformation as a principle for the composition. Thanks to external rhythmic inputs (step sequencers and arpeggiators), the performers are able to focus almost exclusively on shaping the timbral characteristics of sound matter (of analogue synths), the form of waves, spanning from sharp spikes to fluid sustained tones.
RUGGINE (2019)
for string quartet and electronics
Co-commissioned by De Sono Associazione per la Musica and Fondazione I Teatri – Reggio Emilia.
Instrumentation: String quartet, electronics
Prémiere: 16.06.2019 @ Chiostri di S.Pietro, Reggio Emilia (IT)
Casa del Quartetto
Quartetto Maurice
Duration: 13’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The last five bars of Scelsi’s 4. string quartet (1964) worked as a trigger for a particular quality of sound I wanted to investigate and develop. The whole piece is intended as a sort of “restoration process”, metaphorically removing rust (it. ruggine) and erosions from the acoustic material. The electronics is made almost entirely of small machineries, rusty objects, spinning wheels, springs, dental drills (…), sampled and reworked in broken pulses, nestled in the string quartet’s patterns (or vice versa?).
The piece is written for Quartetto Maurice, to whom the piece is dedicated.
FONDALI (2019)
for 8 instruments
Commissioned by Schallfeld Ensemble, financed by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung 
Instrumentation: Fl/Cl/Sax/Perc/Smplr/Vn/Vc/Db
Prémiere: 19.03.2019 @ Freies Atelier Schaumbad, Graz (AT)
Schallfeld Ensemble
Duration: 10’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Fondali is part of Schallfeld Ensemble’s project “A Clockwork Orange”. Linked from the start to the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s movie, this project explores the concepts of transcription and remixing, while broadening the scope through research into the relationships between tradition and technical innovation, between standards and new creations, between sound and moving images.
Fondali takes its cue from the famed Overture in Rossini’s “La Gazza Ladra”, and makes a drastic departure through a host of manipulations and distortions so that the piece reemerges more or less explicitly after being hypothetically immersed among various fondali, or “seabeds” and underwater scenes, where one might plausibly come across shipwrecks and other vestiges of human activity, besides natural elements. At the same time, fondali may also refer to theatrical backdrops. In either case, the term is pluralized, denoting an array of situations.
In order to avoid mere quotation, or what’s worse, useless re-orchestrations, my aim was to retain the grotesque aspect of the scene in which the main character in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, Alex, beats the writer and rapes his wife, adding remixes and bits of Rossini’s Overture, selected and sampled from various versions and recordings from the past fifty years.
MOLD (2018)
for 6 instruments
Co-commissioned by Divertimento Ensemble, HfMT, Ulysses Network
Instrumentation: Fl/Cl/Pf/Perc/Vn/Vc
Première: 08.05.2018 @ Milan Conservatory (IT)
Società del Quartetto di Milano
Divertimento Ensemble, Sandro Gorli (cond.)
Duration: 9’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Mold (noun): 1. pattern, shape, matrix, form, model
2. fungus, dry rot, must.
The primary interest behind this composition is the fragility of sound, considered and investigated as a dynamic phenomenon, unstable and changing also in situations of apparent static nature. The ensemble and the conductor are asked to mantain a particular concentration, in order to control extremely precarious vibrations (of strings, of air stream, of pressure), to focus their attention on tiny movements, on shadow zones / intermediate states of sound matter, at the border between beatings and rough intervals that melt into unisons.
The title alludes to both meanings of the english word. Concerning the second (fungus), it especially refers to the physarum polycephalum (slime mold), one of the simplest single-celled organisms – with no brain nor nervous system, able to solve complicated problems with a surprisingly simple intelligence, based on the interaction with the surrounding space.
CRYSTAL LINE (2018)
for Soprano and Ensemble
Commissioned by Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte
Text from “Crystallography” by Christian Bök
Instrumentation: Sopr/Fl/Ob/Cl/Mand/Pf/Hrp/Perc/Vn/Va/Db
Première: 12.05.2018 @ Fondazione Spinola Banna (IT)
Mdi Ensemble
Duration: 10’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Bonsai (2017)
for Ensemble
Commissioned by Divertimento Ensemble
Instrumentation: Fl/Cl/Perc/Nord dr./Vn/Va/Vc/Db
Première: 06.06.2017 @ Piccolo Teatro Studio Melato, Milan (IT)
Divertimento Ensemble
Duration: 10’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The practice of Bonsai develops on a long-term cultivation, crossing and passing down through several generations of growers, an art work that requires patience, precision and care, which is never meant to be “finished”. This dilated time contrasts with a reduced space, a miniature of the original form, supposed to express the same energy of the “normal” plant on a different scale.
The growth and development in (and of-) a reduced space is the main idea underlying the composition, both on the material’s choice and on its form’s articulation.
Sounds are treated [at least on a compositional level] as miniature brunches, following their growth, addressing their curves, bending, adapting and tightening them in the limited space where they raise, live and vanish.
Morene (2016)
for Amplified Doube Bass
Commissioned by Manu Mayr with the support of SKE Fonds
Instrumentation: Amplified Double Bass + Pedals
Première: 25.08.2017 @ JazzFestival Saalfelden (AT)
Manu Mayr
Duration: 15’ ca.
Published by: Casa Ricordi
“Morene” is the result of a close collaboration with the eclectic bassist Manu Mayr. We had several work sessions at his studio in Vienna, starting from abstract ideas, developing together the piece’s sonic material, defining pedals set-ups and at last rehearsing and recording the final score. The three movements of this composition – Triti (trite/crushed), Ritriti (trite, several times), Detriti (debris) – are meant as different expressions of a main, common idea: a geological image. Moraines – sediments of glacial debris – have a double process, both of accumulation and deterioration, erosion, fragmentation. Following this concept, the double bass – amplified and processed through 2 pedals – becomes at the same time the place and the tool for material’s accumulation and corrosion, where repetition leads to sound erosion, where lines becomes points, grains, vanishing dust.
Lo sciame all'interno (2016)
for Orchestra
Commissioned by Fondazione Teatro la Fenice, with the support of Marino and Paola Golinelli
Instrumentation: Orchestra
Première: 04 March 2016
Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice
Omer Meir Wellber
Nuova Musica alla Fenice
Venezia (Italy)
Duration: 6’
In ambito zoologico (e figurato), la parola “sciame” – insieme a stormi, banchi, branchi, mandrie, colonie – indica una moltitudine di animali, persone o cose in movimento.
La teoria dello sciame (“swarm theory”) – elaborata alla fine degli anni ’80 e sviluppata partendo dagli studi sul comportamento animale – analizza i sistemi auto-organizzati nei quali un’azione complessa scaturisce da una sorta di “intelligenza collettiva”.
In particolare, gli stormi di uccelli o gli sciami di insetti sociali (come formiche o api) sono in grado di risolvere problemi di elevata complessità senza un sistema di controllo centrale, grazie alla somma di azioni elementari: milioni di interazioni semplici generano un comportamento collettivo ampiamente complesso, dando vita ad una sorta di super-organismo.
Proiettando questo modello sulla massa orchestrale, ho cercato di gestire il suono complessivo secondo una logica multiscala (scala di grandezza, non -musicale), in cui la complessità a livello macroscopico derivasse dall’azione/interazione fra singoli componenti semplici, o viceversa che un’apparente staticità su larga scala (armonica, ad esempio) derivasse in verità da un’incessante movimento interno, microscopico. Come cellule nel tessuto musicale, gli “oggetti musicali” possono essere percepiti diversamente a seconda della scala temporale in cui sono utilizzati, qui immersi in molteplici articolazioni fino a svanire nel suono d’insieme, dentro lo sciame.
Kintsugi (2015)
for Clarinet and tape
Commissioned by Heather Roche [Heather Roche Composition Competition]
Instrumentation: Clarinet in Bb and fixed media (audio tape)
Première: 09 February 2016
Heather Roche, Clarinet
Brixton East 1871, London (UK)
Duration: 9’
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Besides being a technique, it includes the philosophical attitude of considering breakage and “mistakes” as something beautiful and valuable, as an important part of the object’s history. Following this idea, I collected sounds of different sources and “broke” them into fragments, and then recollected this heterogenous sonic world (clarinet, sounds of different animals and insects, pure waves, morse code etc.) into a fixed media tape. The dialogue between the clarinet and tape develop through very close frequencies, confusing the distinction between pitch and pulse through the exploration of harmonic roughness and beatings.
Klangsauger (2015)
for Pipe Organ
Commissioned by AVAM Society
Instrumentation: pipe organ with drawknobs
Première: 16 July 2015
Deniel Perer, organ
Tempio della Rotonda
Rovigo (Italy)
Callido Project
Duration: 9’
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Klangsauger is written for pipe organ with drawknobs, originally for the Organ at Tempio della Rotonda in Rovigo, built by Gaetano Callido. The piece seeks to explore transitory areas of sound, through the slow opening/closing of the air flow through the drawknobs. A polyrhythm of beatings, immersed in several layers of noise and microtonal frictions, is the ground for the entire composition, used for their specific rhythmic quality. The performer is not anymore focused on the movements of fingers on manuals/feet on pedals, but on the delicate control of stops, dealing with the thickness, the colour and the harmonic structure of sounds in constant mutation.
Principio di Archimede (2015)
for 5 instruments
Commissioned by Fondazione Teatro la Fenice
Instrumentation: Flute, Clarinet, Marimba, Violin, Cello
Première: 09 July 2015
Ex Novo Ensemble
Festival Lo Spirito della Musica di Venezia
Venezia (Italy)
Duration: 3’
Wasserklavier (from Luciano Berio’s “6 Encores“, 1965) is a short piece that investigates the potential suggestions connected to the concept/element of water, particularly in relation to the submerged layers of memory. Principio di Archimede maintains a similar aphoristic form, but trying to approach the idea of water from a different angle, without musical reminiscences nor quotes that emerge to the surface. The underlying idea of this small composition is rather the image/picture – sadly present nowadays – of a lifeless body floating on the high seas, abandoned to a slow deterioration. An illusory stasis, denied from tiny movements that constantly alter its regularity.
Melting POinT (2015)
for Orchestra
Instrumentation: Orchestra
Duration: 7’
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Spikes (2014)
for Viola d’amore and Tape
Instrumentation: Viola d’amore and tape
Première: 20 April 2015
Marco Fusi, Viola d’amore
Kompakt
Bundeshaus zu Wiedikon
Zürich (Switzerland)
Duration: 8’35’’
Published by: Casa Ricordi
The tape’s sources of this piece include a heterogeneous mix of instrumental and acoustics recordings, bioacoustical fragments of insects, and synthetized sounds. The degree of proximity between the instrument and the fixed audio tape constantly change, leading to section of tight affinity or wider contrast. The constant element running under (or above?) the rest for almost the entire duration of the piece, is the rhythmic pulsation of spikes, a set of periodic “faults” (fast transients in an electrical circuit) rearranged in regular patterns.
Buonadomenica (2014)
for Soprano, Bass and large Ensemble
Written for ManiFeste Academy
Instrumentation: Soprano, Bass
Fl, Ob, Cl, BCl, Bsn, Hrn, Tp, Tbn, Perc, 2 Vn, Va, Vc, Cb
Première: 28 June 2014
Juliet Fraser, soprano
Jimmy Holliday, bass
Ensemble Intercontemporain
Julien Leroy (conductor)
ManiFeste Academy
104 Centquatre
Paris (France)
Duration: 5′
Published by: BabelScores
The extracts I chose for the piece are taken from the theatre play “Pornobboy”, by the experimental Italian Theatre Company Babilonia Teatri. Here’s a short description from the Authors:
“Pornobboy is a snap shot of our time. Of reality and its contradictions. It sniffs out for our incoherence, to laugh at them. Cynically. Lovingly. The core of the show is the constant bombing by media. The way we live and perceive all that, our being part of it, the need to show, to show off, to watch, to see everything. We live under the cross fire of an addictive communication system. We are morbidly attracted by pornographic elements, by gruesome details, by news commentaries that only report facts without ever questioning their causes and effects. There is an invincible incapability to divide what’s public from what’s private, a perpetual intertwining of levels, a sort of schizophrenia nourishing us every day. Pornobboy is not a preach on sex, it’s a blob on our saturate present. Everything is pornographically put on show, we all gloat on it, we are scandalized by it, we drown in it.”
Rami (2014)
for Violin and Chamber Orchestra
Instrumentation: Violin and Chamber Orchestra
Première: 24 April 2014
Domenico Nordio, violin
Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto
Dario Garegnani, conductor
Teatro Ristori
Verona (Italy)
Duration: 7′
Published by: BabelScores
In 1968 the Hungarian biologist and botanist Aristid Lindenmayer developed a formal language (L-systems), used as a model to describe the growth of living organisms, in particular the expansion of plants’ branches.
This generative grammar, composed of elegant and (relatively) simple algorithms, is used to simulate and graphically model the morphology of several organisms, but also to analyse the mechanisms of growth.
The system consists of an alphabet of symbols that, through specific rules, expands itself in a wider string of symbols, and a mechanism transforming the strings in geometric structures.
This process has been used – freely and with many exceptions – to shape the composition’s form, to manage different musical elements and constantly changing figures (in the orchestration, in the harmonic structure etc.), but keeping a common Self-similarity.
Mimo (2014)
for 5 instruments
Written for Divertimento Ensemble
Instrumentation: Cl / Pf / Vn / Va / Vc
Première: 30 January 2014
Divertimento Ensemble
Sandro Gorli (conductor)
Rondò concert season
Gallerie d’Italia
Milano (Italy)
Duration: 9′
Published by: Casa Ricordi
Mimo (Italian for «Mime») deals with the concept of mimesis at various levels.
The scenes of the piece follow the presence/density of musical elements, considered as expressions of a musical face in constant development, as if they’d be the tiny eyes/wrinkles movements on a silent actor’s face, able to revolutionize the action through his expressivity.
The australian superb Lyrebird (mimus polyglottos) has the impressive ability to mimic many natural and artificial sounds from his environment. Fascinated by this idea of “sonic camouflage”, I tried to consider each element of the ensemble as a mime of other sounds (from other instruments and not only), through the preparation of the instruments with little home-made simil cork objects.
Cantor dust (2013)
for 6 instruments
Written for Voix Nouvelles (Royaumont)
Instrumentation: Bsn, Hrn, Tp, Tbn, Perc, Db
Première: 14 September 2013
Lemanic Modern Ensemble
Azis Sadikovic, conductor
Royaumont Abbaye
Asnières-sur-Oise (France)
Duration: 7’ ca.
Published by: Stradivarius
The structure of this piece is based on one of the first mathematical processes that enables the construction of fractals, known as Cantor dust (or Cantor set). The iteration of this model produces a self-similar geometrical structure, in which the initial material becomes more and more fragmented at each passage; the white space (better said, the space obtained through subtraction) gradually increase, until just the crumbs – the dust – of the original material remains.
This reduction and geometric fragmentation is translated into temporal proportions of the piece: a (temporal) segment of always same duration is repeated, but its internal organisation changes and increases at each passage.
This piece was written during the “Session de Composition – Voix Nouvelles” at Royaumont Fondation.
In punta (2013)
for 5 instruments
1st prize at AFAM Composition Competition
Instrumentation: Fl / Cl / Pf / Vn / Vc
Première: 03 April 2013
Divertimento Ensemble
Sandro Gorli, conductor
Rondò concert season
Auditorium Sole 24ORE
Milano (Italy)
Duration: 9’ ca.
Published by: Stradivarius
The piece takes inspiration from the poem “Acrobata” by Edoardo Sanguineti, gifted with a playful vocabulary and a rhythmical – but at the same time suspended – pace.
In particular, “procedere in punta” (“proceed on tip”) is the main image, used several times in the poem, which I tried to translate and articulate into the musical texture, giving each time a new meaning:
– “in punta di piedi” (on tiptoe) becomes a rhythmical alternation between balance and instability.
– “in punta di mani” (on fingertip) is translated through the gestures of the performers (pizz., punta d’arco etc.)
– “in punta di forchetta” (on tip of a fork) is transferred to dynamic- and register’s limits.
The intension therefore is not to paraphrase the poetic text, but rather to freely draw from the wide set of symbolic, phonetic and perceptual suggestions offered from the words and their sound.
Distillato (2012)
for Saxophone Quartet
Instrumentation: Saxophone Quartet
Première: 17 May 2014
Jonathan Radford
Antonin Pommel
Giuseppe Laterza
Pablo Sanchez
Conervatoire C.N.R.
Versailles (France)
Duration: 8′
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