Symphonic Pieces

This trilogy written in 2022 is a sonata in three movements, each dedicated to particular nymphs: Aloniadi, nymphs of the ravines; Dryads, nymphs of woods; Oreads, nymphs of the mountains.

Like Nené Waltz, this composition is also influenced by my Molise origins which are represented in an epic way: the places of my nymphs have nothing rustic. I see them as a sort of Parnassus where the values ​​of the earth, of Nature, of the past acquire an aulic and choral dimension. This is also the reason why I preferred the title "Symphonic Pieces" to the title "Sonata", where symphonism consists in the plurality of voices and therefore sounds and colors that compose the various movements.

Aloniadi: I took the dominant theme of this first movement from a concerto for piano and orchestra that I never finished. The development had two versions: the first more visionary, the second more structurally adequate for the exposition. The latter was then chosen in the final draft for the musical piece and for the performance on the CD. The descriptive element appears several times in the passages which propose the initial theme in A minor in the major mode; as in many of my other compositions, the difficulty consists mainly in giving the piano the polyphonic character of the orchestra, often with sustained speeds and with continuous crescendo.

Dryads: the second movement of the sonata, in this case a sort of interlude, which was influenced by Schumann's contribution: the Kreisleriana and the Symphonic Studies were part of my programs chosen for last year's recitals. The Schumannian atmospheres, at times fantastic, bucolic, horrid, inspired this second movement of my Symphonic Pieces, characterized by an almost dominant rhythmic motif, alternating with more serene and ecstatic lyrical moments.

Oreadi: the third movement, as often happens in my compositions, is a sort of sonata within the sonata. This is because the cyclical form does not only concern the individual movements, but the entire composition, and therefore the last movement becomes a synthesis of the previous ones, with all the exposed themes that return to be definitively sublimated.

Therefore, the beginning of this third movement is an overture with a meditative character. Furthermore, each movement of the entire composition concerns a particular moment of the day, which is also cyclical in nature: the first moment represents the dawn and the day, the second the twilight and the night, the third the dawn and a new day. The sounds, in turn, follow this scansion, so that the incipit of the third movement is more ecstatic, almost surreal, then the light approaches and the sounds also take shape.

The coral element, present in the first movement, returns in the form of an idea exposed in E minor, which is added to the others and will constitute the connective tissue of this movement.

The mythical, even allegorical, atmospheres are emphasized above all in the central part, a sort of second movement, this time slower, according to the usual canons.

The final recalls all the themes and adds others, of which the last is a revisitation of a Molise folk song. The conclusion respects the cyclical structure and closes this representation just as it began.

The key of the first movement reappears in the last bars and is not accidental: the entire first movement, after the first two pages, settles into the key of E; in the same way the last movement, a chiasmus, gives large space to the key of E and then concludes in the key of the structure. It is not intended to be a sort of Byzantinism, if anything it wants to reiterate the representative character of my compositions which have an approach very similar to a theatrical pièce.

In the Symphonic Pieces, in particular, the myth, the Greekness, have been transposed into the harsh and dark places of my origins.