VA - Giovanni Damiani: Chamber Works (2004 - 2018) (2022)

The title Tramuta. Riaffiora: refers to an ancient, almost ritual work typical of the Sicilian lands, called tramuta del vino (i.e. the pouring of young wine into a new barrel), each stage of which was accompanied by the strophes of a melos reconstructed by P. E. Carapezza. The composition is dedicated to him. This melos (see Ex. 1) slowly resurfaces here: over the sounds of a slow pouring between demijohns; moreover a very detailed notation evokes the spectrum of five odd harmonics, in their natural intonation, but systematically permuted in their position. (For instance, the twelfth can be the lowest, or also the highest interval, as in the inverted harmonics, or in any intermediate position).

The same harmonic-scalar structure is further explored in the duo Doni fra un risveglio. Here, both the harpsichord and the clarinet (whose very sound is formed by odd harmonics) have been re-tuned on this scale of 15 sounds and 24 aggregates. Both instruments weave, with just this material, a thick net of lines and spectra. The underlying structure is that of an Archimedean solid, a truncated octahedron. The entire work is indebted to several kinds of expressionism, and is also the interpretation of complete and expressive itineraries on the 24 vertexes of that solid.

In Arco di ogni scelta all the musical materials are generated through Pascal’s triangle. In it, the unity generates a series of numbers, where every “child” value equals the sum of the two numbers of the preceding generation. Such a triangle is found almost everywhere in arithmetic, algebra, combinatorics math. Analysed by both Tartaglia and Pascal, it is actually found in the studies of Indian and Chinese mathematicians since the eleventh century. I cited Pascal not only for the sake of following a trend, but because I hope this can lead his esprit de géometrie to converge with his esprit de finesse. Here I wished to explore the generative potential of that Triangle, applying it to the rhythmical values, to the chromatic scale, and to natural intervals and their density. For example, every harmonic aggregate generates another with a range twice the former. Moreover the same algorithm allows them to be arranged in an arc that goes from the complete aggregate to all its subgroups, up to single sound (melodic interpretation) and to no sound (silence; a Pirandellian mask in this multiplication of identities?). If the individual sounds of the aggregate are assigned to different instruments, the algorithm becomes a generator of all possible instrumental combinations. Furthermore, in the finale I use what in combinatorics are called ‘compositions’ (the complete ways of breaking down a number into addends) to create micro-compositions that weave an intense clear rhythmic and chromatic work on a given range, with the least possible polarization: as a noise created with determined discrete elements.

Quanto vivi, splendi is the text found on the funereal stele of Seikilos, where one of the very scanty finds of Classical Greek music is engraved. Most of the sounds played here are double, obtained on the guitar with the tapping technique: by hitting the string, the finger produces two pitches. The principal one is amplified by the sound box, whilst the other, a residual one, is located by the fingerboard. The relations between these pitches constitute a compositional etude. My intention, here as everywhere, is to create a mental map, receptive to symmetries, in an attitude entrusted to intelligence and reflection rather to the unnecessary multiplication of gestures. At times the ancient Epitaph of Seikilos resurfaces, “The thematic cell is buried as the seed in a fertile ground, and is merely intuited; but, dying in this way, it gives life to a grandiose development, almost to an aural oak”. (Paolo Emilio Carapezza, from Sicilo dopo duemila anni).

This anthology of musical works closes with two pieces on the magic squares; they can be defined as dense poems of sounds. In a chosen range, each sound is used only once, every “line” can be read also vertically (i.e. harmonically), and their sum is a constant value (in the rhythmic or interval domain). This is a studied balance, with a magical effect. Webern cited the famous Latin textual square Sator Arepo, for its very powerful analogy with the twelve-tone composition. Here this analogy is further explored, and is extended to chromatic regions of 4×4=16 notes, and to analogous blocks of rhythmic values.
The title of the instrumental Trio Melancolia generosa refers to Dürer’s famous etching Melencolia I (1514), which is reproduced here in the detail where one of the forms of the above-mentioned magic square is depicted (see Ex. 3).

In spite of the disciplines’ affinity, many of the generic mathematical properties have no musical relevance. Conversely, however, there are properties I discovered in these squares and that I did not find even in bulky monographs (such as Andrews’ Magic Squares and Cubes). For instance, every number of the square is used to define at what sound to stop in the same sequence of 16 sounds; I thus generate a truly cruel mechanism, in which this sequence tries to expand, but this growth is frustrated and interrupted 16 times in as many different lengths and pitches, and the breakpoints are nothing but the same series…

If one wished to bring these mechanisms into vocal composition, what lyrics could be more fitting than the ones by Bruno Munari which I recalled from my childhood, and which introduced his surreal Macchine? Macchina per salutare l’aurora was requested to me by the indefatigable Luigi Pestalozza, whose sudden death did not allow him to hear the festival he had organized; it is dedicated to his memory.
Here are the values of the square (see Ex. 2), which anyone can have fun in disassembling and employ them as they best see fit.

Magic squares may be reminiscent of riddles or of poetic acrostics. In order to give an idea of this multi-dimensional form, at the beginning of each new verse the pianist intones a syllable of the first line, as an acrostical spelling which reassembles the latter along the entire piece. At a specific point, in order to give an aural idea of the manifold contemporaneous relations of this square, both performers are requested to sing and play in a thick counterpoint, producing a funny quartet almost for non-professionals!

The last of the scrupulous instructions for professionals, instead, is: “those who read this can simply forget it all.“ Enjoy your listening!