Timbral Spaces Sound Labyrinths - Edizioni Suvini Zerboni

Three premières conclude
the composer’s residence
at the Philharmonisches
Orchester Cottbus
The relation between “voices” at
the centre of research, while an
opera project takes shape linked
to a double residence in France
12
Valerio Sannicandro
Interior Tempos
V
alerio Sannicandro’s residence at the
Philharmonisches Orchester Cottbus ends with the rich
array of three new works. In order, the orchestra will
present, at the Staatstheater Cottbus, Sutra for
ensemble and electronic sounds, on November 30 and
December 2, conducted by Will Humburg and with the
composer in charge of the sound projection; then a
diptych for orchestra: Windströme on January 11 and
13, conducted by Marc Niemann, and Seelenströme, on
February 22 and 24, conductor Evan Christ. The
composer talks about his new works: «In Sutra the
three “sutras” sung by the Japanese Tone Akemi,
whom I met by chance in a monastery in Kyoto,
are transformed electronically and projected so
as to constitute a “soloist” accompanied by an
instrumental ensemble. The latter, consisting of thirteen
wind instruments (mostly brass), percussion and
doublebasses, arranged around the audience, expands
and amplifies the vocal sounds, producing an
“immersive” sound effect. The singing without place or
time, and with a religiosity that is extremely human
because it is passionate, takes possession of the space
within and around us: the instruments (thanks to
various types of mute) imitate the sounds of the singing
and extend and enrich it with a wide range of sonorities,
almost as if to simulate listening in an unusual, wide
space, open to the outside. The percussion
instruments, with their continuous impulses, underline
the character of a ritual with a constant osmosis
between the present and memory, a moment that is
loud and marked, but at the same time dreamlike».
Regarding the diptych for orchestra
Windströme/Seelenströme, the composer says it is
«made up of two short (approx. 6 minutes each) but
extremely characterized pieces for orchestra. In the
wake of an idea of a composition that transcends the
Federico Gardella
simple hic et nunc (as in Ius Lucis) these two pieces
were born almost as an experiment: might I perhaps in
the future, with the aid of electronic techniques, create,
between the two orchestras far from each other playing
in synchrony each of their own pieces, a third
composition that combines and reinterprets the musical
elements in a different musical perspective? For now,
though, I will describe these two precise musical ideas:
the first (Windströme) presents sonorities that recall the
wind (with just a few recognizable pitches), the second
(Seelenströme) consists of melodic lines, microtonal
and tightly packed, often fragmented, which aggregate
and disperse, always ppp. In keeping with the idea that
the soul is identifiable with breath, the conception of this
diptych with its capacity for introspection of the
orchestral apparatus, transfers the expressive accent
into an anti-rhetorical dimension (just a few dynamic
flares, an expanse of particles moving microscopically
and uniformly at the limits of audibility), fixes on an
idea, on a space but also on a multitude of tempi...».
Opportunities to hear the music of Valerio Sannicandro
this Autumn include a performance of Lasco for four
strings, piano (with assistant) and percussion on
September 21 at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, with
the E-mex Ensemble directed by Ch.M. Wagner;
Sonnet X for tuba and live electronics on September
24 at the Mon-naka Tenjo Hall in Tokyo, with Shinya
Hashimoto and Simihisa Arima; Renga for voice and
four instruments, with Akiko Kozato and the New Made
Ensemble directed by Alessandro Calcagnile on 25
October at the Festival Spazio Musica in Cagliari,
during a concert in collaboration with the New Made
Ensemble and ESZ; finally, Epistolae III for bass flute,
percussion and live electronics on October 27 at the
Jayu Theater of the Seoul Arts Center, with the E-mex
Ensemble.
Instrumental Resonances
T
his Autumn sees two premieres for Federico Gardella.
On November 3 in Riva presso Chieri (Turin), during
the series Rive Gauche Concerti, Annamaria Morini will
play Cinque cori notturni sotto la costa for alto flute. The
composer tells us: «The evolution of monodic
instruments is not infrequently linked to the
history of counterpoint: real or virtual,
counterpoint represents for these
instruments a condition to aspire towards
during the definition of their own sonic
personality; I wondered, then, whether it was
possible to imagine a choral writing for these
instruments in which I could include this idea
of counterpoint. To think of an instrument in
analogy with a choir means reflecting on its
complexity of timbres, but also learning to think of the
“solo” as a potential of a “multitude”; in these Cinque
cori notturni sotto la costa for alto flute the progressive
definition of a choral sound coincides with the unveiling
of the form: the “story” of each of these short
compositions proceeds through the construction of a
choral identity, expressed by a single instrument».
On December 3, Sirènes, a chamber opera in one act
on a libretto by Emmanuel Darley from a fragment by
Lycophron, will be presented at the Compagnie
Nationale de Théâtre Lyrique et Musical Arcal in Paris,
in the form of an introductory sketch limited to the I and
III scene, with a replica on December 4 at the Grand
Atelier of the Abbaye de Royaumont. It will be
performed by Dorothée Lorthiois, Sirène 1, Chantal
Santon, Sirène 2, Caroline Meng, Sirène 3, Benjamin
Alunni, Ulysses and the Ensemble Cairn conducted by
Guillaume Bourgogne; the director will be Jean De
Pange. Gardella explains: «In a short extract from
Alexandra, the Greek poet Lycophron, who lived in the
4 th Century B.C., tells of the death of the sirens: the ship
of Ulysses moves away from the cliffs
occupied by the sirens and the three bird
women, according to classical mythology,
decide to kill themselves by throwing
themselves onto the rocks without opening
their wings. This is the starting point for
Sirènes, which is at the centre of a project of
my residence at the Compagnie Nationale de
Théâtre Lyrique et Musical Arcal in Paris and
at the Fondation Royaumont. The solitude of
the sirens and the horror in the face of a destiny in
which everything is already written are amplified by the
immobility and indifference of nature: so I imagined an
instrumental writing independent from the web of
voices, a place of resonance into which the characters
are dropped and have to react». In the meantime it is
possible to hear Federico Gardella’s Tre studi per
riscoprire l’alba for piano on October 4 at the Istituto
Italiano di Cultura in Paris, with Alfonso Alberti, and the
Hofmannsthal-Mikro-Lieder for female voice, violin and
cello on October 25 at the Festival Spazio Musica in
Cagliari, during a concert in collaboration with the New
Made Ensemble and ESZ, played by the New Made
Ensemble: Akiko Kozato, voice, Raffaello Negri, violin
and Guido Boselli, cello.