October 23, 2017

Time:	20:00
Location:	Sala Accademica
Category:	Live Elecctronics and Acousmatic
Duration:	1h03’
Sound Direction:	Pasquale Citera - Marco De Martino
Franck Bedrossian	Propaganda • 10’00
	Saxophone quartet and electronics
Giorgio Nottoli	Ellenikà • 6’00
	Acousmatic
James Dashow	Soundings in Pure Duration n.9 [world premiere] • 13’40
	for bass flute and octophonic electronic sounds
Pierre Jodlowski	Time & Money • 14’00
	for percussions and electronics
Demien Rudel Rey	Khēmia I • 5’30
	for double bass and electronics
John Cage	FOUR5 • 12’00
	for saxophone ensemble
SAXATILE4 [modulable sax ensemble]	Danilo Perticaro, Danilo Perticaro, Alessandro Scalone, Maurizio Schifitto, Marzia Marianantoni, Giulia De Mico, Cristiano Cerroni, Francesco De Cicco
flute	Manuel Zurria
percussions	Ivan Liuzzo
double bass	Mauro Tedesco
live electronics	James Dashow, Federico Scalas

Program Notes

Propaganda [2008] The saxophone quartet has always aroused my curiosity because it constitutes a quasi-electronic instrument in itself. The homogeneity of timbres, their elasticity and the capacity for merging are such that one might, at times, believe that the saxophones are naturally the object of electroacoustical transformations. Consequently, the idea of combining this group with the elaboration of synthesised sounds enabled me to develop this impression of flexibility. Finally, it is the instrumental writing itself that favours the propagation of textures between the acoustic instruments and electronic sounds, provo king unexpected or conflictual encounters. This work is dedicated to James Giroudon, who commissioned it.

Ellenikà [2013] The work is constructed from recordings made in Greece during two living on the island of Thassos, 2012-2013. The records include both sounds from nature, which, although really Greek, could come from anywhere in the Mediterranean sea, and events spoken in the Greek language. Some of the latter have been taken up in crowded places such as markets of the country and, in particular, where the calls of vendors prevail over the buzz of people, others by reading poems of classical antiquity as those of Sappho and Alcaeus. The speech material was analyzed in order to extract elementary trends, in terms of durations and intonation, which constitute the basic articulation of the piece. The pitches are used to filter the concrete material getting complex tonal changes. For example, the sound of the sea filtered by means of resonators tuned on the pitches of a canon, in the first part of the piece, it gradually changed into a clear and varied timbre. The form of Ellenikà is divided into two parts, in the first dominate the sounds of nature, in the second human voices, gradually more recognizable. Then the musical result plays between abstraction and revelation, slowly and gradually, of the elements of the soundscape.

Soundings in Pure Duration n.9 [2016-17] This particular Soundings continues the composer’s explorations in the three principle dimensions of his work: pitch structure, timbre and, especially, spatialization. Timbre is constructed from pitch controlled processes that are in turn derived from a rigorous application of his Dyad System. These structures are then synchronized with various elaborations of the space surrounding the listener: differently sized spaces and spatial zones, often occurring simultaneously as well as in succession are utilized along with multiple trajectories (the choreography) of the sounds in space. These are all integrated into the complex timbral-spatial conception of the work. And, as usual, the soloist is the focal point of this activity and often the trigger for spatial movement. Soundings in Pure Duration n.9 is written for and dedicated to Manuel Zurria.

Time & Money [2004] Questo brano è stato composto dopo People/Time, lavoro di musica da camera commissionato dal festival di Donaueschingen nel 2003. Condivide con esso lo stesso in interrogativo che riguarda la nostra società, i nostri comportamenti con il tempo e il denaro. È un sorta di contestazione al nostro sistema economico, dove l’argomento diventa una sorta di quadro musicale […] la musica inizia con cicli e cicli di modelli ritmici in cui la presenza di suoni radio e film (soprattutto dialoghi) stanno producendo un secondo strato di percezione per il pubblico, attivando alcune memorie collettive. E la musica inizia ad andare sempre più veloce, proprio come a volte accade nelle nostre vite, così spaventati nel perdere il tempo…

Khēmia I [2016] is a work for double bass and electroacoustic. The title of the piece refers to the conceptual axis (Khēmia means transmutation, a term linked with alchemy). The double bass and electroacoustic materials are ‘transmuted’ through saturation processes, where merge into something complex, in an unstable world of sound. Also, the opposite process applies, in other words, the separation of these two sound sources (the instrument and loudspeakers), to more unlinked elements. There are materials consonants (harmonically stable or simple spectrally) expressing certain onirism compared to other chaotic, saturated and highly complex sound objects.

FOUR5 [1991] Single tones in flexible time brackets for four saxophones or multiples thereof. The pitches do not sound as written. The inonation should be his own for each player. A unison will be a unison of differences. Sounds may be long or short. When they have duration the loudness should be soft. Very short sounds are free as to loudness, even sfz if wished or ppp.