VA - Ciro Ferrigno: Re-Esistenze (Chamber Music) (2022)

Introduction by Renzo Cresti
Ciro Ferrigno’s new album consists of an admirable and evocative playlist born from a precise planning. It’s a work in progress that arises from the specific features of sound, exploiting the harmonics that constitutes its counterpoint based structure and tone. The choice of the instruments and musicians featured in the record appears strategic, thanks to the artistic and professional value of the performers. Ferrigno considers sound in its structural form, but he doesn’t forget its expressive aspects. He studied, in fact, with Luciano Chailly, a strongly communicative composer, and is also a Music Therapist. Therefore, his structuralism has a narrative character and shows references to existential topics, just as in the Quatuor à corde pour la fin de l’humanitè, dedicated to J.Assange. Sometimes there is a certain songlike quality to his music, other times Ferrigno is guided by history and personal memories in order to rediscover forms and styles. here’s no doubt that his originality is a gift in a period of strong homologation. It is generated not from mannerism, but from personal poetics and beliefs.
True art needs to show that creativity is not extravagance, but an essential condition to find the truth. That’s what Ferrigno seeks in his musical journey.

Ciro Ferrigno
Composer, musician, music therapist, author of a large number of musical works that include ensembles of various kinds featured in publications and recordings. His works have been performed at the Italian Embassy in Berlin, the Circolo Artistico Politecnico di Napoli, the Real Teatro di San Carlo and the Fiati Festival Ferrandina. He has collaborated with many noted soloists and organizations such as: Fondazione San Carlo, Collegium Philarmonicum, US Naval Forces Band, B&B Audiofilm Roma, Italian Ministry of Education, Mediaset.
Quatuor à corde pour la fin de l’humanité
This piece is about the end of humankind, however it goes far beyond what is described in Messiaen’s masterpiece. Ferrigno’s work opens with a larghetto built on repeated dyads. The key of E minor and the use of counterpoint create a steady flow between the parts, as if expressing the temporariness of human life. The spiralling force of the third section (presto) suggests the feeling of being trapped, with no way out. Death is all that is left and it completely envelops humankind.

Trumpet Sonata
The sonata is composed of four subsets with no continuity; therefore the musical discourse appears original and sophisticated. The composition is more “compressed” than is usual for its traditional form, so it has little space to express its message. The consequence is a more lyrical and epic narrative, suggesting rebellion against pre-established structures.

A legend: Elegia
This largo enhances the melodic quality of the double bass. It is structured on expressive harmonic areas built around the key of D major, strangely creating a sort of unresolved tension. It is static but, at the same time, it imitates the tides caused by a centrifugal force. Particular attention is given to the instrument’s timbre.

Suite
Suite for piano begins with a brilliant etude, enriched with melodic and rhythmic musical phrases built on the key of F minor. Technique is nothing but a part of the artistic investigation.
Space is characterized by an airy atmosphere. There is a desire to recover energies through a more contemplative piece, structured on a persistent rhythmic structure. The harmonies based on intervals of fourth and fifth create an evocative suspension. Parafrasi sobre el libertango represents the highpoint of Ciro Ferrigno’s writing. His personal style and expressive capabilities melt perfectly with the theme, in a kind of emotionally impacting metamorphosis.

Tre Personaggi alla Ricerca di un Oboe
This is a very ambitious work inspired by Luigi Pirandello’s masterpiece. The oboes and the English horn are the main focus of this composition. Its style, powerfully identitarian, derives from personal research about the oboe’s role in musical culture and from a desire to enhance the expressive capabilities of this particular instrument, creating something completely new.

Two Variations on a Theme from the Afterlife
Theme Adagio is a solemn and majestic theme for pipe organ taking the listener into a journey of heroic resistance, where personal choices and beliefs are fully embraced and lived until the end.
The first Variation (Maestoso e Scorrevole) has an impulsive rhythmic structure and communicates perfectly the tragedy of the event. The reprise of the theme is intimate and perfectly preludes to the following variation. The key of D minor is utterly superlative.
The second variation is a diaphanous Moderato, with register-crossing ties. The ensuing sound rarefaction is both evocative and disorienting.

Four Miniatures
The first miniature (The Departure) has a choral and intimate nature, and is articulated on a theme of profound awareness: it is necessary to leave everything behind, in order to reach new destinations. Cum Tarantula tries to interpret reality through old legends and traditions. As P. P. Pasolini once said: to be clear, you have to be foolish.
The third miniature (Do You Have a Good Fuga Theme?) is carefree and fluent. Its counterpoint-based structure seems to suggest an atmosphere of choral singing and unity to the listener.
Seguidille derives from Spanish literature. This miniature is extremely rhythmic and is composed of alternating quinary and septenary times, just like the typical structure of Spanish folk dances.

Quetzalcoatl
A fantasy inspired by ancient Aztec and Toltec legends, whose title means “the Feathered Serpent”. It symbolizes the Kundalini force, which is at the foundation of existence. The work is structured in four movements which describe the process of creation. The consequent feeling is that of a whirlwind of colorful wings and feathers between the joy of existence and the final sacrifice of life.

Three Vocalise
The extraordinary flexibility of the Trombone ranks these three Vocalises among Ciro Ferrigno’s most significant compositions. The composer’s freedom is expressed through lyrism and empathy, and gives implicit messages about the great art that embellished music since the twentieth century.

Don Domingo Scarlati in signo
This composition, inspired by Scarlatti’s vision, is brilliant and resolute. Accents and odd groupings switch to create a refinedly modern feeling. Ferrigno expresses orchestral virtuosity through the A B A form of the three movements, which was a structure particularly appreciated by Scarlatti himself. It invites the composer to discover how to be free willed, bold and autonomous.
Filippo D’Eliso © 2022