Requiem, for 8-channel tape, made up of sounds and samples of choir, strings and ritual objects.
It contains:
01. Komm
02. Les pleurs
03. ( )
Duration: 14'59. Date and place of composition: 2-13 Dec 1999 - DIEM, Aarhus, Denmark.
To compose this music I elaborated sounds and samples of female voice, choir, strings and ritual objects.
The ritual objects in use are from different cultural areas: rain stick (Central America), whistles (Africa), tinklers (South India), dobachi (Japanese bronze vessel), matches and crystal glasses.
This composition titled Requiem does not make use of the formal model of the traditional catholic prayer, but it opens into a personalized structure bearing different meanings and spiritual implications.
I choose the word Requiem primarily for its old Latin literal meaning: to get peace and cessation of tiredness and grief.
Requiem is composed of three sections separated by silence.
1) Cold strings appear from a deep space (pppp) to a full sonority (ffff) until all attention is drawn on a match burning in the foreground. It is the beginning of Komm, a solemn funeral oration developing a syllabic (but not textual) choir and followed by knelling bells. This synthetic choir is a computer elaboration outcome of the first measures of the J.S. Bach's Motet BWV 229.
2) A souvenir of life comes up in Les pleurs, title of a piece for viols by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (17th century) quoted in this movement. I also used a female voice moaning between bitter sobs and orgasmic pleasure.
3) The last movement ( ) is a vacuum between two brackets. It is made up of materials rejected while working on the first two movements.
The piece must end in silence.
Requiem was composed at DIEM, Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music, with funds provided by the Italian Association for Young Artists and the Rolo Bank 1473 Foundation.