Père du doux repos [II]

• Year of composition: 2022

• Instrumentation: female voice, Bb clarinet, piano & violin

• Duration: 6' approx.

• Premiere: 10th June 2022 at Haute école de musique in Geneva (CH) by Daria Novik (soprano), Federico Martinello (Bb clarinet, Hana Kim (piano) & Sofia Ruivo (violin)

• Program notes:

The piece takes up the verses of one of the most famous sonnets by Pontus de Tyard, a French poet of the sixteenth century: the formal and expressive structure revolves around the use of the archaic French language and the meaning of his words.

If the atmosphere of what the poet intends to communicate is calm, almost granitic, so is the music. "Come, desired sleep": the composure of the female voice, almost always senza vibrato and with contained nuances, is accompanied by three instruments; almost as a "second voice" that tends to caress the verses, exalting their meaning without adorning the sixteenth-century verses with excessive embellishments, but rather limiting itself to exalting their content and atmosphere with calmness.