In Limine Contemporary Collection vol. 1

Listening Guide Six compositions for violin, with separate procedures, explore the margins that identify two different cosmos: past and present, known and occult, memory and metamorphosis. In limine helps to find a broken mesh in the net through which to see, peer, discover and renew. The result is a whole new dimension, re-elaborated within the tradition, combining this two realities, no longer split. A crossing point that lets you continue your journey, a cryptic pilgrimage concealing the dark recesses of human meditation, uncalculated and insecure, but also intrepid and imperturbable; and the opportunity, behind the sharp edge, to go beyond the limit of knowledge. In limine does not provide a schism with the spent evo but rather an access, a glimmer through which it is possible to see a fresh new flower bud, germ of a sincere renovation.

SPIRACULUM (Paolo Geminiani) In Spiraculum the exploration is split between antithetical magnitudes: sound and silence, stillness and vitality, verticality and horizontality, over a musical structure organized in five short sections alternating smoothly without breaks. A Lento rituale started with Organum, in which the beginning and the end coincide and the vox principalis consists of a constant color, engages in Floridum. In Continuum, in which the violin juggles between long and pointillistic sounds, it is possible to find the pinnacle of the composition, while in Repercussio the sound bounces around an enigmatic D. In Finalis the monody provides a transformed unknown stability.

GRATIA PLENA (Nicola Monopoli) Gratia Plena summarizes the variability caused by the opposition of different shades linked to the multiple sound experiences, re-reading the past, now linked to the present. No time signatures or bars, the onset is assigned to Sorprendendo, Giocoso where the violin introduces a first fragment, spirited and eloquent, which immediately gives way to a second one, authoritative and violent. The climax of the piece, to be played Veloce Quanto Possibile e Preciso, and determined by margins defined by the subjective dexterity, leads to a docile but eloquent trill, the halfway, immediately followed by one last energetic interference before ending A Tempo, accompanied by a total alteration of color and weaving.

THE ELEMENTS (Andrián Pertout) In The Elements the reflection is designed and organized on a combination of mathematical principles. The title is a reference to Euclid’s mathematical and geometric treatise dated around 300 BC, and the work serves as an exploration of Messiaen’s ‘Modes of limited transposition’ and ‘Non-retrogradable rhythms’ within the structural framework of the first 36 prime numbers. From the 7 modes a collection of twenty-two scales are generated, which are combined to produce one-, two-, three-, and four-octave scales.  ‘Non Retrogradable Rhythms’ are then constructed within the scope of each prime number, where each numerical value is allocated to a duration of a semiquaver note.

DOKTOR FAUSTUS (Riccardo Romano) In Doktor Faustus are metaphorically retraced the main stages of the life of the main character of the famous Mephistophelian pact. The twenty-four years of greatness and wickedness of the musician are represented by twenty-four musical episodes, preceded and started by twenty-four indistinct bow strokes (the youth of the protagonist), which, swaying and growing, culminate in a sequence of acoustic episodes, where ideas independently take shape. The central part, sinuous and agile, seduces and charms, in a domain out of formal restrictions. The epilogue, anticipated by the evil pact, is a musical translation of the inevitability of death, the fatal outcome of a cursed life, narrated through bichords, used as unanswered questions and extinguished by an all-silent gasp.

CION (Gianni Giacomazzo) CION is a virtuoso work dedicated to the composer Domenico De Simone. It consists of a vivace and pressing plot represented by bottom up intermittent movements, culminating in a dense twine of semiquavers and demisemiquavers divided by breaks forming a sort of hectic hoquetus. The strength, flowing through piano and forte, goes along with the evolution of the melody which meanders through a journey full of pizzicatos, glissandos, obsessive rhythms and bowings over the bridge. A piece without bars or indications, in which the time is extracted from the piece itself and where the performance will support the instrumental techniques of the violin.

CARVINGS (Dagfinn Koch) Carvings, written in 2009, is inspired by the works of the Swedish composer Allan Pettersson, and the title is a direct reference to a letter written by Pettersson himself. The first part of the composition is organized as a slow and swinging oscillation where the theme, shifted between two notes, constantly moves on a series of refrained bars. The result is a linear sorrowful lullaby, a hypnotic chant that stealthy settles over a life gripped by tormented events. A slow strain that, led by the loneliness and the sadness, fluctuates among Andanti, Adagi and Larghetti which, obstinately persist over an overloaded whirlwind of notes before collapsing in a silent and resigned pianissimo (ppp).