Archentéron – from ancient Greek “enteron” (intestine) and “arche” (primitive) is the first cavity communicating with the outside which is formed in an animal embryo during the morphogenesis process.
The piece starts from the idea of a melodic line, the embryo of the entire work. The macro form of the piece could be divided into three macro sections: the first one where all the musical characters of the piece are compressed in the low register, a sort of magmatic matter.
The second one, starting with an explosion, is characterized by all this magmatic matter which will try to find an order. And the third section where the line, the archenteron of the piece (easily perceivable in it’s first and crystal appearance played by the english horn) it’s finally generated. This line will rotate on itself exploring the whole possible range, recreating then its vertical alter ego, a big chord (built from the pitches of the line) which in the piece behaves as bearing column. The archenteron is where the music has its origin and its destination, the complex scenario of the human feelings.

“Like Stems, The Wind Dominates” wants to evocate the domination of Nature expressed by the metaphor of a flower’s stem in the wind: a combination of sweetness and brutality that pervades this piece. While composing it, I tried to perceive Nature as that stem, sweetly collapsing, but being irrationally part of the environment. The piece is characterized by three musical elements: Rebound Notes, Glissando, and Arpeggio. These musical elements are led by a “theatrical vision” that conceives them as characters of a play; like in a plot, they meet, fight, combine, transforming each other into something different from their original shape.

A comet, from Greek komētēs ‘long-haired (star)’, is an icy, small Solar system body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process called outgassing or sublimation. “Kométes” is built following this chemical process, considering the gravitational unbound atmosphere surrounding its central nucleus where this nucleus is represented by an inner melodic line which guides all the transformations of the musical matter inside the piece, and the atmosphere by the musical processes on the surface. The central nucleus of the comet is one of the darkest objects of the Solar System, contrary to the collective imagination. Occasionally a comet can live an enormous and sudden explosion of gas and dust, what is called outburst and what is audible in the middle part of the piece where the material blows up and the nucleus is distinctly perceived, played by brass. The continuous deceleration and acceleration of the musical matter, structural principle of the entire piece, refers to the change of the comet’s speed, depending on its position inside its orbit. The coda of the piece is the death of the comet which, after having completed the process of sublimation, is not subjected anymore to any transformation, becoming an inert asteroid into the open space.

As the title “Luci gravitazionali” (gravitational lights) forwarns, the main idea of the piece is based on a constant dialogue between light and darkness both guided by the principle of gravity. Two different elements are presented since the beginning of the piece: a descending (from heaven to hell) line and its vertical alter ego embodied by a big chord. The gravity, applied to both small parts of the range and single pitches, attracts speed and dynamics. This means in plain terms: the farther from the gravitational point the slower and softer the texture, and the other way around. The gravity underlines the interdependency between the two opposites which interact with each other until they eventually merge into something different.