Cinq grandes Miniatures
Instrumentation :
1 Vlc. - 1 Fg..
pub. Alfonce Production - dur. ca 15' 30
The five large miniatures are pieces that are by turns sarcastic and gloomy, offering a wide range of emotions in the spirit of Satie, with contradictory tempo indications and a touch of humour that here always retains a biting and unsettling quality.
The first movement, Intrada, is a parody of the grand fanfare openings and of their inherently grandiloquent, martial character, so far removed from the murderous reality of conflict.
The second movement, Romanza, is not a romance at all, but rather an expression of the acute pain caused by the very impossibility of romance, a feeling we all know, marked here by a profound sense of isolation.
The third movement, Toccata, takes the opposite approach to the origins of this type of music, which traditionally allows considerable freedom to the performer. Here, by contrast, everything is conceived as a single, unified rhythmic block, without interruption, imposing the necessity of constantly moving forward, without contemplation or freedom.
The fourth movement, Canzon, expresses the desire to be able to sing, to cry out one’s freedom and one’s longing for escape. This movement is at times nostalgic, at times dreamlike, but sadness is never far away.
Finally, the last movement, Finale, is a “non-finale”, in the sense that it does not seek to develop its motifs, but instead remains caught in a circular motion, as though the quest for fulfilment, for a finale in the manner of Beethoven or Mahler, were an artistic idea far removed from the reality of life, in which human beings are constantly searching for meaning and direction.