related works
Formless Void : for ensemble / Luca N. Stradivari
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
picc 2fl ob eh cl hp 2vn vla vc
Diptych : for oboe and cello / Walter Hekster
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
ob vc
Deducties 1964 : hobo, clavecimbel / Tera de Marez Oyens
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
ob cemb
Now & Wow : for two violins solo, keyboard and string ensemble / Hans Koolmees
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
2vn-solo keyb/org/cemb 2bn vla vc db
composition
Formless Void : for ensemble / Luca N. Stradivari
Other authors:
Stradivari, Luca Natali
(Composer)
Description:
The score is deeply inspired by the Japanese myth of Awaji’s island creation due to the ancient Gods coming from Heaven who dipped a spear’s blade into the Ocean and created the first island of Japan. I did not want to set up a describing score though, a kind of film music, rather I have tried to create a proper atmosphere, conveying the feelings of that remote and mythical moment through early 20th century tonalities.
The very beginning for example does not show any “will”, it just is, since all the “intentions” are here consumed within the music. Yes, we feel the deep movement of the Ocean marked with dark waves and breezes but no natural elements are willing or achieving anything in particular. Bars 21-23 are a kind of non-climax of this Eastern philosophy of non-intentionality and it is interesting to see how with few musical efforts (see also the exploitation of silence throughout the piece), these bars are able to convey tension for something that is about to happen. At bar 15 we hear the theme of “Japan” (with resonances of Japanese themes), as we see it nowadays, as a proper and constituted Country, but as we can notice, at this point it is not settled yet, although its birth dwells already within the natural elements and just at the end of the piece, the theme will come back again not as a whisper but as the main motif, after a process of consolidation and self-consciousness.
Rhetoric and obviousness are avoided throughout the whole piece, as the lack of emphasis on the role of the “Creator” demonstrates. There is emphasis on his entrance (bar 34) but not on his character marked by two opposite forces (ascending and descending harmonic patterns) cohabiting in the same being. Although the Creator could be seen as a titan, as a Prometheus, I have decided to describe him and to report his action following an Eastern conception of power: if we see for example a Thangka (Tibetan Buddhist paintings), power is never conveyed in a Western way, depicting a god or a hero with all muscles flexed. On the contrary, strength dwells in quietness, in stillness, conveying elegance of controlled gestures. The Creator described here, is made up of nostalgia and kindness (see for example the themes at bars 38, 45, 48) toward natural elements that he brushed upon them (basically the opposite of Haydn’s God in The
Creation).
The ocean harmony (that chord developed from bar 26), which represents the other “main character” of the composition, surrenders all the other forces and concludes this score, embracing the constituted Japan within his waves.
Luca N. Stradivari