"CONTEMPORARY CHORAL MUSIC IN EUROPE - 2"
San Candido (Bolzano), Joseph Resch Hall - 26th, 27th, 28 June 2003


Repertoire

Pietro Clausetti: L'OMBRA DEI BOSCHI D'ASER (1921) / SALTAVAN NINFE
Sergio Sentinelli: SCIVOLANDO SUI MURI DEI NOSTRI GRIGI CORPI (1993)
Elena Camoletto: CHANSON
Lorenzo Donati: AVE REGINA CAELORUM
Fulvio Caldini: DE PROFUNDIS
Jan Sandström: GLORIA, SANCTUS
Thomas Jennefelt: CLAVIANTE BRILLIOSO
Urmas Sisask: OREMUS
Javier Busto: O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM / SAGASTIPEAN


This year the festival welcame M° Gary Graden coming back, who developed themes related to contemporary music in Italy and Europe.
Other basic questions on choral conducting have been focused, such as gesture, intonation and tuning, always strictly connected with the repertoire in programme.







THURSDAY 27th JUNE 2003

During the first meeting, the students were asked to introduce themselves in a friendly atrmosphere: M° Graden introduced the repertoire, including sacred and secular european and italian contemporary music. He also underlined the importance of knoledge and diffusion of contemporary music from all over the world; the overspread trend of performing pieces from the cultivated tradition of the past together with the isolation between composers and choirs deeply influenced on musical artistic production of our age, with the risk of a cultural gap in the history of music.
Then, he started illustrating the first two pieces in programme, modern madrigals not far from a liberty inspiration, both for themes and atmospheres: "L'ombra dei Boschi d'Aser" and "Saltavan Ninfe" by Pietro Clausetti (1921), both for five voices, in the form of ABA'.
The first one has an omorythmical incipit, then the different voices are treated with free imitation, till the central part, a canon with evocative function; the piece ends with the incipit of the beginning and a suspended coda, exalting the interrogative text. The second piece begins with a canon over 5/4, generating an immediate sense of movement,and some difficulties in the gesture! The central part, in 4/4, underlines a theme in thirds between sopranos and altos, accompained by chords in the other voices; the canon of the incipit ends the piece.

In the afternoon M° Graden illustrated the other two secular italian pieces in programme:
"Chanson", by Elena Camoletto, a very suggestive piece, over a text by J. Prévert, variously distributed between the voices, combined with a calme and lullying clause over the words "vents et marée"assigned to sopranos, altos and tenors.
The second piece, "Scivolando sui muri dei nostri grigi corpi", by Sergio Sentinelli developes a madrigal by A. Ottobre, exalting the text, in particular through the always changing rythm, a short canon and the qouotation of "Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen" diHeinrich Isaac, assigned to solo basses, to underline the text and breaking off the joyful rush of the all piece.
Tecnnically, both the pieces present some difficulties of gesture related to Tempo, speed and to the singers' reflexes.


FRIDAY 28th JUNE 2003

Friday morning was dedicated to gesture, its geography, and more in details, active and passive movement, the participation and coordination of the whole body, including the eyes, especially for expressivity. The students practiced these different combinations on the piece "De Profundis" by Fulvio Caldini, an interesting composition model fragmenting and repeating gregorian chant, slowly integrating the voices, one after the other in a plain canon, reaching a dense poliphony and then vanishing in the second more rough part in eights; the piece ends with the fragmentation and repetition diluted between the voices.

The afternoon was focused on intonation, main question for the beauty and quality of the choirs' sound. In this sense listening is foundamental, as for the perception of overtones, as for the intervals settlement following the natural intonation, quite different from the tempered system. Overtones are furthermore used in contemporary music, such as in "Oremus" by Urmas Sisask, part of 24 pieces dedicated to sidereal space; fruit of mathematical relationship between nine sounds, each one representinbg a planet, it is an example of the so said "astromusic".
Here there' s non idea of melody, words meaning, rythm. The space vibrates of meetings between sounds, voices, silences.
Anoher minimalist piece is "Claviante Brillioso" by Thomas Jennefelt developes a language of fantasy, oriented to exalt rythm and vocal sound, absolutely meaningless. Repercussion andrythmical gamesspeed and the repetition, and moreover the progressive voices stratification turn this musical exsperience gaining and enjoying.


SATURDAY 29th JUNE 2003

Saturday morning turned out an exploration of the work on overtones, space and improvisation: each element can change, exalt produce sound effects on which you can interact and create.
The illustration of reperoire went on with "Ave Regina Caelorum" by Lorenzo Donati, a piece for eight voices choir, made up of a solid composition structure, revealing simmetries on all levels, in aprocess of accumulation and dilution of musical material.
Then M° Graden explained the two pieces in programme by Jan Sandström, one of the most frequently preformed swedish composer "Gloria" and "Sanctus": the Gloria's exposition is assigned to sopranos and altos later reached by tenors and basses in an essential, omorythmical and percussive structure; a chord carpet sustains the melodic line of soprano and tenor solo. The Sanctus, più mosso, for mixed choir, essencially in omorythmical style, exalts the sillabication, also through a witty use of pauses and silence.

In the afternoon M° Graden ended the explanation of the reperoire analyzing the two works by Javier Busto: "O Magnum Mysterium", and "Sagastipean", a piece in basque: both pieces are extremely suggestive and played with an armonic refined taste and rich of dissonances exalted by omorythmical moving of the voices.


Giordana Castillett