Commissioned by Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte (Montepulciano, ITALY - 2021)
The title plays with the verse "from our dark evergreen" in Rilke's Duino Elegies. In Italian, pairing the words “dark” and “evergreen” leaves an interesting level of ambiguity. What is dark in human experience may not be ever ending. Or, what is evergreen - symbol of hope and resilience - may be tainted by dark hues.
Composed for the Talea Ensemble in virtual residency at the Peabody Institute (Baltimore, USA - 2020)
Shades of Abulia is a vocal-instrumental project originally inspired by Andrej Tarkovsky’s Stalker (1979).
This movement is dominated by vertical clashes that, through repetition, generate continuous exacerbation. Chordal pillars are derived from the Bach-name cluster through varying degrees of accumulation.
In the end, all this harshness is shattered and reduced to its ultimate inconsistency. As Stalker says in the central monologue of the film: “Weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing . . . Hardness and strength are death’s companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being.”
Commissioned by DUOroboros (Pistoia, ITALY - 2020)
This work is shaped as a ritual, a personal tribute to the Via Crucis with textual fragments of incisive visual power.
Composed for Hang Liu (Baltimore, USA - 2018)
This movement represents the conceptual core of Shades of Abulia. I borrowed the neurological term ‘abulia’ to describe the radical implosion of the human will in its structural capacity to decide.
Commissioned by Camere Contemporanee at Fondazione Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte (Montepulciano, ITALY - 2017, rev.2019)
This work is a dialogue with Picasso's Nude Woman with Necklace (1968 - Tate Modern, London). When I first saw that portrait of Jacqueline Roque, I felt overwhelmed by its exuding energy. Driven by that vivid memory, I envisioned a musical flux in which mellow sonorities and propulsive gestures are intertwined within a transparent texture, often oscillating between nebulosity and assertiveness.
Version for Altre Voci Ensemble (Modena, ITALY - 2017)
Inspired by the Premio Veretti dance theme of 2016, I composed an etude as a series of sketches of varying pace and tone, ending with an elusive and illusive equilibrium.
Commissioned by Ensemble di Musica Contemporanea "L.Dallapiccola" - Broadcast by Rete Toscana Classica as official commercial of the Conservatory of Music “L.Cherubini” (Florence, ITALY - 2016)
