Kintsugi (2015)

for clarinet and fixed media

Commission: Heather Roche (Composition Competition)

Instrumentation: clarinet in B♭ and fixed media (stereo audio track)

Duration: 9’

Publisher: Casa Ricordi

Première: 09.02.16 @ Brixton East 1871, London (UK), Heather Roche (cl)

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. Besides being a technique, it includes the philosophical attitude of considering breakage and “mistakes” as something beautiful and valuable, as an important part of the object’s history. Following this idea, I collected sounds of different sources and “broke” them into fragments, and then recollected this heterogenous sonic world (clarinet, sounds of different animals and insects, pure waves, morse code etc.) into a fixed media tape. The dialogue between the clarinet and tape develop through very close frequencies, confusing the distinction between pitch and pulse through the exploration of harmonic roughness and beatings.

PERFORMANCES

09.02.16 @ Brixton East 1871, London (UK), Heather Roche (cl). WP

01.02.17 @ Teatro Litta, Milan (IT), Rondò Festival, Maurizio Longoni (cl)

27.10.17 @ Rymer Auditorium, University of York (UK), Heather Roche (cl)

07.12.17 @ Sonic Arts Research Centre – Queen’s University, Belfast (UK), Heather Roche (cl)

29.12.17 @ Casa Municipal das Artes, Seia (PT), DME Festival, Heather Roche (cl)

15.09.18 @ Bozen (IT), TransArt Festival, Paolo Casiraghi (cl)

08.06.19 @ Splendor, Amsterdam (NE), Marco Danesi (cl)

11.06.19 @ Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield (UK), Marco Danesi (cl)

21.09.19 @ Casa Cava Auditorium, Matera (IT), Daniel Boeke (cl)

15.10.21 @ Inter Arts Center, Malmö (SE), Natalie Eriksson (cl)

18.09.22 @ Monte San Vigilio (IT), Paolo Casiraghi (cl)

09.08.24 @ Casa Rossini, Pesaro (IT), Michele Fontana (cl)