Arlìa

Notes

Arlìa is a composition with an acrobatic character in which the sound is tonally modified without making any preparation to the instruments.

In this composition the musical writing entrusted to the violin provides for a continuous timbre alternation between ordinary sounds and natural harmonic sounds which blends with a constant mutation of sound production.

In fact, there are several specific requests placed in the score and regarding the contact points among the horsehair, the horsehair wood or the wood of the bow and the strings.

All of that in an extreme variety of bow passages ranging from the very sound produced on the keyboard to the sound produced in the tailpiece.

These choices have the main purpose of making the tone of the violin different from itself, and, often, similar to that of the flute and vice versa, in search of a single imaginary instrument, created by the total timbre fusion of the two instruments themselves.

Moreover, the aspect of superstition also comes into play in this passage.

The arlìa, in fact, was a dialectal term, used in the Bolognese Apennines and now almost out of use which described a state of ‘possession’ of a person or an animal by some spirit who brought a state of anxiety and inner discomfort for the possessed subject.

This aspect was the inspiration of the piece and it should be audible when listening to it.

The world premiere of this work took place in Baltimore in 2016 and later repeated at San Diego New Music in 2016 and 2017.

All the performances were highly successful and many of those attending the concerts reported that they felt like they had made a space-time, hypnotic journey!