This work, influenced by Italian composers Luigi Nono and Salvatore Sciarrino, searches for and fixates on the beauty of sonic transience, fragility and impermanence. An indistinct tremolo opens the piece, at first not even blown with enough air pressure to ‘bring it into being’. This gesture repeats throughout the piece, acting as a refrain or ground, around which more aggressive, but more fleeting punctuation is arrayed. No gesture in this piece is ever stable: deliberate destabilization of the flute’s timbre is a constant presence. The live electronics act as an ‘echo chamber’ or ‘memory net’, freezing and dimly recalling important notes and sonorities heard earlier. In the process of sustaining these tones, the electronics provide the only truly stable sonorities of the piece.
This work was commissioned by and premiered by Roberto Fabbriciani.