DISACCORDO (2013) for piano and clarinet
Dedication: Massimiliano Tisano and Massimo Munari
Edition: Da Vinci Publishing (Osaka, Giappone)
Duration: 8 min.
Commission: Festival di Bellagio e del Lago di Como
First perf.: 13/07/2013 Biblioteca Comunale, Bellagio
Massimiliano Tisano: piano
Massimo Munari: clarinet
«the romantic harmony crisis is actually a crisis of the theory of harmony»
Martin Vogel, Der Tristan-Akkord und due Krise der modernen harmonielehre (1962)
“I can’t listen to that much Wagner, ya know? I start to get the urge to conquer Poland!”
Woody Allen, Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
DisAccordo for piano and clarinet (2013), written on the occasion of the bicentennial of Richard Wagner’s birth is based, both in the title both in form and in the choice of the sound material, on the famous chord of Tristan und Isolde, and that drove theorists and musicians to pay unprecedented rivers of ink in harmonic analysis and often in contrast with each other. The Tristan-Akkord marks the traditional harmony break, forcing us to reconsider the tonal system which exceeded size and obsolete: the tension of this chord resolves on a second one which, however, is itself dissonant, and so on, potentially to infinity, revealing a musical thought full of drama, an art of transition that goes so far as to outline sound extreme tension, paradoxically sweet and painful at the same time.
In DisAccordo [the italian title has a double meaning: accordo as chord, as well as disagreement if preceded by “dis”, ndr] the Tristan-Akkord is seen as a harmonic crystal from which unfold joints and leitmotifs, an agglomeration of sounds that in its vertical ambiguity releases, however, a series of horizontality; so, between studio and divertissement, literal quotation and variation, the work develops tightened diachronic paths, speeding, summarizing the wagnerian “desire” and “craving” into a loud pyrotechnics and decisive explosion.
DisAccordo is a Festival of Bellagio’s commission and is dedicated to Massimo Munari and Massimiliano Tisano who premiered this piece on July, 13 2013 at the Municipal Library of Bellagio.
NUR (2013) for amplified ensemble
[work included in NOOS (2013) a MOA Project experimental music film]
Dedication:Nina Sofia Saldicco
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 10 min
Commission: MOA Project
First perf.:27/10/2013 Festival SpazioMusica, Cagliari
MOA Ensemble w/ R. Cassinelli, clarinets; E. Marini, violin; S. Colombelli, double-bass; M. Sanna, electric guitar; C. Cassinelli, keyboards and live electronics.
Filmed and produces in less than a year, Noos is the first chapter of the trilogy and involves ten composers, two video artists and the partecipation of five performers.
At the center of the subject of the work there are the dreamlike suggestions of the ancient rite “the incubation” during the nuragic Sardinia: men afflicted or pervaded by a sense of discomfort and impatience, were guided in a sacred place, by a shaman through a sleep that could last for days in order to return to their communities cleaned of anxiety or hysteria.
A journey, then, driven by the desire to explore the world that lies beyond the veil of waking and behind which are collected and amplified anxieties, instincts and psychology that belongs to the man of all times and all places.
*/Noos (from the Greek language vòo) N. 1 Mind, intelligence, reason. N. 2 (in the philosophical sense) Strenght of thought, creative mind, mind, understanding and unity, the author of the universe. N. 3 (by extension) Soul, heart, mind, will, purpose, desire.
LIFE (2012) for ensemble (fl, ob, cl, vno, vla, vc, perc, pn)
Dedication:Ivan Fedele
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 10 min
Commission: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
First perf.: 28/6/2012 Teatro Studio, Parco della Musica, Roma
Ensemble Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Carlo Rizzari, conductor
In Life suggests a poetic and formal metaphor of the most famous among Cellular Automata: The Game of Life invented by mathematician John H. Conway and popularized under the heading “Mathematical Games” of the Scientific American magazine in 1970. Cellular Automata are mathematical representations of complex systems that evolve over time, capable of modeling an impressive variety of self-organized phenomena. It is a set of cells that, on the basis of simple mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply; however, the piece does not suggest a naturalistic image: the intent is not to slavishly sound the cells that animate the world of Life, rather than convey an image that pushes life towards life itself. Recognizing forms and movements that are in our body, in our thoughts, in our habitat, to enter into resonance with our own Self.
MYTHOSIS (2011) for wind ensemble (fl, ob, cl, hr, tr, tne)
Dedication:Orchestra Giovanile di Fiati di Delianuova
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 7 min
First perf.:Turku, Finlandia, Brinkhall Summer Concert 10/08/2011
Orchestra Giovanile di Fiati Delianuova
Lorenzo Turchi Floris, conductor
CONCHIGLIE ALLA NOTTE (2011) for orchestra (2.2.2.2.-2.2.-1.-Strings)
Dedication:Daniele Federici
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 6 min
First perf.:San Donato Milanese 15/09/2011
Orchestra de I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano
Cond.: Alessandro Calcagnile
Conchiglie alla Notte [Shells at Night] for chamber orchestra is inspired by a poem by Daniele Federici, to whom this work is dedicated. The highly evocative title suggests two interpretations: on one hand, the idea of a «Shell» as a case, a wrapping, a custodian of something extremely fragile; on the other hand the idea of the «Night» considered as a dimension which is free of light but, above all, the ending and the beginning of a new cycle. In this dual perspective the work is based on a exhaustive chord (C-D-E-G) from which a harmonic path develops, a path that sometimes explodes, sometimes thickens the interval molecules through a consistency of the harmonic bond guaranteed by G.
In the poem, moreover, there is a reference to the overcoming of a existential state (“I turned at last / beyond the corners”) that the composer filters and then returns through a simple writing, a sort of «new simplicity», in which the complexity is the result of overlapping simplicities, where simplicity and complexity have become, by now, intrinsic to the subject.
ACOUSTIC COUNTERPOINT (2010) for ensemble of 6 instruments (fl, cl, vno, vc, gt, pn)
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 6 min
Commision: Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali
First perf.: Festival Nuovi Spazi Musicali – Accademia di Ungheria di Roma 13/10/2010
Cond. Francesco Pavan
FramEnsemble
Begun in 2005 and gradually revised until 2010, Acoustic Counterpoint stems from the composer’s need to seek in his own language a fair balance between contemporary music and jazz music. On one hand there is the use of seriality and counterpoint, on the other hand a wide rhythmic variety and a typical harmony of modern jazz: harmony per fourths.
The title then, refers to the famous work “Electric Counterpoint” by the American composer Steve Reich, whose aesthetic has inspired many generations of musicians.
SOVRAESPOSTI CIELI (2010) for string orchestra (6. 5. 4. 3. 1.)
Omaggio a Carla Accardi
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Commission: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 7 min
First perf.:Milano, Centro Asteria 11/9/2010
Orchestra de I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano
Pietro Mianiti, conductor
About a year ago [2009 ndr], in a market in Rome in support of the population affected by the earthquake in Abruzzo, I bought a beautiful watercolor of Carla Accardi, entitled “overexposed skies”.
From the start this struck me as a sign-based research on color, characterized by a two-color luminescence.
On the way, then, I thought long and hard about the meaning, in photographic terms, the “exposure”, identifying two overlapping color levels, where each layer could be treated as a transparent aperture, which varies depending on the intensity of light.
After imported the lithography in photoshop (a dedicated software to digital image processing) I isolated these two layers overlapping them on a violin open fourth-string spectrogram.
This gave me the inspiration for the shape of the piece and at the same time to work on a single field harmonic filtered with different masks, which, in turn, illuminate the same object with different perspectives.
Sovraesposti Cieli is a committee of the Chamber Orchestra of Florence.
PARTITA (2009)for double bass trio
(from an idea by Fabio Cifariello Ciardi in collaboration with Andrea Rellini and Andrea Sommani)
Edition: Unpublished
Duration: 10-15 min
First perf.: Perugia, Contemporaneamente Contrabbasso – Auditorium Conservatorio di Musica, 06/05/2009
Stefano Battaglia, Paolo di Gironimo, Antonio Tiri, double bass
Partita is a musical game designed by me that involves a variable number of composers and performers; a Director, responsible for the concertation and stage direction of the work and an Architect, responsible both for the compositional rules used by the composers and for the composition plot.
The final goal of the game is to entertain all the participants and the audience through an experimental workshop between traditional composition and improring.
At this first Partita the following composers take part: Andrea Sommani, Cesare Saldicco and Andrea Rellini; the performers involved are Paolo Di Gironimo, Stefano Battaglia and Antonio Tiri; the Director is Daniele Roccato assisted by Giacomo Piermatti and myself as an Architect.
Fabio Cifariello Ciardi, March 2009
SPHERICAL BEINGS (2009) for 4 hands piano and electronics
(in collaboration with Marcela Pavia)
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 3 min
Commission: Centro Musica Contemporanea di Milano
First perf.:Venezia Mestre, A.GI.MUS., Centro Culturale Candiani, 20/11/2009
Rossella Spinosa and Alessandro Calcagnile, piano
Spherical Beings was born from the collaboration between the Italian-Argentine composer Marcela Pavia and Cesare Saldicco, who declined the experience of 4 hands writing on a 4 hands piano composition with electronics. The piece is a tribute to Igor Stravinsky, with clear quotations to his Piano Rag Music, and with the intention of returning the same rhythmic character and the same energy. The title, however, refers to the “Libro de los seres imaginarios” by Jorge Luis Borges, inspired not so much by the movement of the beings that animate the Borgessian imaginary, but by the consequences of these movements: the imaginary beings can not see, but they can feel exactly like in many energy’s forms happens.
Spherical Beings is a commission of the NewMade Ensemble, and it has been premiered within the project “The Island of San Michele” in Venice.
CODE (2007) for for 8 mixed voices a cappella
Edition: Unpublished
Duration: 4 min.
First perf.: Perugia, Nuove Musiche – Auditorium Conservatorio, 16/11/2007
Gabriella Agosti, conductor
Collegium Vocale Tifernum
EPTACORD (2005)for ensemble (ob, cl, vib, gt, vn, vc)
Edition: ArsPublica
Awards:: 2nd prize ex-aequo at Concorso “Musici Mojanesi”
Duration: 6 min.
First perf.: perf.: Roma, Progetto Sonora – Goethe Institut, 15/10/2005
Cond.: Camillo Mozzoni
Modern Ensemble
VOYELLES (2005) for ensemble (fl, cl, tr, tb, cr and 3 perc)
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 4 min
ESACORD (2003) for ensemble
Edition: Unpublished
Duration: 6 min.
First perf.: Lamia (Greece), Mediterranean Music Centre – Municipal Theatre, 31/4/2004
Miltos Logiadis, conductor
PROPAGANDA #1 (2002) for string quartet and electronics
Dedication:: Carlo Giuliani
Edition: Edizioni Sconfinarte, Milano
Duration: 8 min
First perf.: Perugia, Nuove Musiche in Europa – Auditorium del Conservatorio, 4/12/2003
Gloria Ferdinandi, violin I
Caterina Laura, violin II
Jon Dahlkvist, viola
Tove Torngren, cello
Cesare Saldicco, electronics
Propaganda#1 was born as a reaction to an episode that critically involved the whole italian politics and its establishment: the assassination of Carlo Giuliani, which occurred during the G8 protest march in Genoa, July 2002.
The aim of the composer is not a mere restatement of the “a programma” or “descriptive” music, the most important purpose here is to demonstrate, through the artistic production, a self and social awareness raised by the politic wing and its propaganda exercise.
The only poetic-dialectic interaction which can be traced back to descriptivism can be found among the different roles played by the two organic elements: the string quartet, with its own language and literature, which ideally represents Carlo Giuliano as an high ideological individual who makes opposition towards a repressive and condemnatory government.
The computer sounds, on the contrary, could be an easy metaphor of the power, technocracy, globalization, dictatorship and oppression, characterized in those years by Forza Italia and his premier Silvio Berlusconi.