2023 | 6’20” Black Pencil Ensemble
This work was composed for the Black Pencil Prize and was one of the three finalists.
The idea behind this piece is to describe the cyclic repetitiveness that rules our lives as human beings. Realizing we tend to repeat the same patterns again and again is a true disturbing and oppriment feeling. That is precisely why this piece wants to sound oppriment and heavy. At the same time, this tragic realization is also the only hope we have to exit this cyclic cage, or at least to deviate slightly its orbit around our strongest habits and beliefs. That is why in bar 44 something changes: time slows down and leave space for a new hope represented by the viola taking over. This creates a change in the pattern and it inspires the other instruments to follow the light coming from the viola. The end of the piece, with a reprise of the first theme, states that even after a moment of light, we tend to get back in our usual state of repetitiveness, but small traces of change are still present…
These reflections were inspired by a book called The School for Gods by Elio D’Anna.