Organization/Event Rassegna de Musica Contemporanea
Town Parma
Country Italy
Program Notes
“ Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne, were four living creatures.” Revelation 4: 6 “ And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God saying: Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” Revelation 9: 13,14 “ The city is laid out as a square, its lenght, breadth and height are equal."
Revelation 21: 16 A fractal is a kind of structure that retains certain properties no matter to which level (microscopic or macroscopic) we observe it. Therefore certain characteristics that are relevant in the general form of this structure will also be verified in its smaller details. Although a fractal can set up relationships of a very high complexity, usually the generating elements are very simple. It is the way these elements combine among themselves that provoke these more complex relations. Tessares is based on the relations existent between four intervals, each one at a specific range and between two specific notes. Each pair of notes has a function of “tonic-dominant” for each one of the four parts in which the piece is divided. These four parts are in fact structurally equal, although at the foreground level they seem to be different. It is the change in the generating elements that transforms the overall aspect of each part, but the process of construction still remains the same.
Simultaneously there is an attempt to generate at the micro level of the events, structures that resemble the overall structure of the work and each one of its parts: from the four intervalic elements, a sequence of harmonies is generated, and the combination of these harmonies generates blocks of sounds that remain constant for periods of time, and around which the other melodic-harmonic patterns circulate.
Tessares is the second of a group of seven pieces based on the book of Revelation, and relates to the vision of the completeness of God and the creation, simbolized by the number four in the creatures around the throne, the angels and the earth, and finally by the total perfection of the Eternal City.
Commission
Date 1991
Commissioning Body Orchestra Sinfónica dell'Emilia Romagna "Arturo Toscanini"
