Gabriele Vanoni discusses his piece for solo flute, and the challenge of writing music for one performer:
Space Oddities comes as probably the first piece in my recent music where a single detail, a simple and "naked" object, becomes the main feature in the definition of the whole form. In this piece I am trying to describe, in a coherent and consistent musical context, the peculiarities and differences – or, better said, "oddities" - of an object like an arpeggio (that can be actually heard in the piece) when it is put in different time and speed and in different spaces. Thus a silent and still environment could hide the object and gradually reveal it in its delicacy, as much as a violent expansion would reveal a dramatic side, and so forth…when it comes to filtering, repetitions and dissolution throughout the piece.
Solo pieces are probably the most difficult to write, as many composers before myself have said. It is like being without a safety net, and silence and space necessarily become the other instruments you're writing for. This is why I stole (and pluralized) Bowie's famous song, as I felt that even if we are talking about a different "space", nevertheless it is the other real protagonist of this piece.
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Tod Brody will perform Space Oddities on November 8 at 8 pm in Herbst Theatre. Gabriele Vanoni will participate in the pre-concert talk at 7 pm.
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Thursday, October 21, 2010
From the Composer
