Davide Remigio
*26 June 1963
Works by Davide Remigio
Biography
Davide Remigio (Melbourne, 26th June 1963) is an australian and Italian composer, founder of the Quaternary Music. He graduated in Composition (MMus) in 1992 at the National Academy of S. Cecilia in Rome with Franco Donatoni and Music for Film (1991) with Ennio Morricone in Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. In 1989 was awarded the Silone Price Music for the composition Homage to Silone for narrator and orchestra and in 1993 the Gaudeamus Foundation of Amsterdam rewarded Mordenti for ensemble which was performered on the radio. In 1997 he conceives the Quaternary Music a composition technique with only four notes. In 2002 he participated in the Ateliers del Forum at IRCAM in Paris with electronic works. In 2012 he gave a lecture on the quaternary music at the Vernadsky National Library of Kiev and in 2017 he is invited to hold a workshop in quaternary music composition at the Irvine University (California). His compositions have been performed at the National Academy of S. Cecilia and Ravello Festival in Italy, at the Dutch and Belgrade radio, the Australian Foundation and the British Asian Music Society of Victoria in Melbourne, Di Menna center, Symphonic Space and National Opera Center in New York City. Professor of Composition in Milan Conservatory "G. Verdi", he publishes with Australian Autumn Music in Melbourne, Edipan in Rome, Casa Musicale Sonzogno and Casa Ricordi in Milan, and Universal Edition in Wien.
About the music
... Remigio's catalogue of works is quite extensive. In fact, he began writing at only 11 years of age when he composed Giga for violin, an instrument that would recur frequently in his future production. In the wake of that first work, two years later (1975) came Duettino for two violins and capriccio for solo violine and the following year Foglio d'album for piano, another recurring instrument in Remigio's compositional activity (a second Foglio d'album was written in 1982). To his youthful ferments also belongs the outline of a lyrical work on Manzoni's Adelchi (of which the Overture remains). In the years that followed, other chamber works of an experimental nature saw the light of day, in which Remigio tried out different solutions for the musical writing. In 1980, he composed a theatrical work Orizzonti sonori for 2 mimes, narrator, soprano and two pianos, based on a text by Remigio himself, who would later also be the author of the poetic part. In other pieces from this period, such as Absolute schreibschrif for one or more instruments or Studio for piano, the experimental trait returns, adhering to aesthetic approaches that draw on Cage and Bussotti.The apprenticeship phase ended in 1982 with Due lamenti for soprano and piano with text by the author.
Onirico for violin of 1983, follows a new compositional path, less experimental and Cagean and more organised, it is, in fact, realised only on the simple and double harmonics of the violin. It follows the same tracks in the colour nuances (harmonics and plates) Via del Bargello also from 1983. Trio, for flute, trumpet and violin opens '84 by amplifying the writing of the two previous pieces in a chamber-like play of timbral colours. In the period between 1984 and 1987, Psicostasia (1984) for trumpet and three trumpets stands out for the particularity of the ensemble, while the most significant titles are Tesi (1985) for violin, cello and piano, Free (1986) for four violins, Melisma (1986) for a cappella choir, on a text by Remigio himself, and Soft (1986) for violins, viola, cello and double bass, with very beautiful timbral passages. From Soft came other works, such as Brivido for soprano, guitar and double bass, Sting for guitar, Shelton 87, for computer and magnetic tape, all from '87, and Errante (1988) for violin and computer.
In 1988 Remigio, in an attempt to recover the Italian lyrical tradition by filtering it, took a new path and started the Minus Song cycle. The titles are taken from the first verse of lyrics chosen for their correspondence to Remigio's sensibility and for their qualities of brevity (Minus). Remigio generally prefers the literati of the historical 20th century, such as Lorca, Silone, Hesse, etc., trespassing into the late 19th century, with Poe, or into contemporaneity with Eco. The cycle comprises a dozen or so pieces; in the last ones, the writing is considerably simplified, to give both singer and pianist a gestural expression. It is a wink at 19th-century salon gestures, and it is precisely this somewhat retro taste that constitutes the fascinating veiling of the last pieces.
The first of the lyrics of the cycle Il naso di Lulù (1988) on a text by the same author, is composed using the notes included in the same name Re-Mi-G-A (which derives from the A for David). Others are added to these notes, but the harmonic base and colour always remain linked to the four basic ones. This modus operandi is taken up again four years later, in 1993, in Flix for solo flute, in which only the B is added to the four basic notes as a contrasting note. The work for reciting voice and 11 instruments Omaggio a Silone, on a text taken from L'Avventura di un povero cristiano, received the Regione Abruzzo prize, named after the famous writer. The lyric for soprano and piano, Cuore non mi lasciare (1989) is beautiful: the vocal line is animated, formed by wide intervals, alternating with the piano part; rarely are the two parts together. In the same 1989, Remigio started the Astral Cycle, with two compositions: one for piano Tejat and the other for guitar Hyades. All of the works in this cycle are named after stars, (the idea was born in Remigio with the explosion of the Supernova Shelton 87) and contain timbral-instrumental research of a virtuosic nature. All the pieces are for solo instrument and make explicit reference to the movements of nature reflected in man.
Apart from the first two, the others were written in 1991. Antares is for clarinet and there is a brilliance of rhythm and changing colour, the final pages are of suffused beauty. Righel is for flute, composed of alternating rapid figurations and longer notes. Elegance and fluency are characteristics found in the various works, such as Algol for cello, based on a lively, well-tied phrasing, alternating ethereal sounds on the tip of the bow with denser figures that give body and rhythm. The conclusion is soft, with barely noticeable notes.The technique is based on sound panels that, variously articulated within them, follow one another in a continuous transfiguration of the source material.
Deneb is for harpsichord, lively, with a jagged rhythm and sharp timbre. Achernar is for vibraphone; it is a virtuosic, kaleidoscopic, shifting of colours. Gestures are an essential element in these pieces. Regulus is for horn, one can hear the pleasure of sound, a taste that has too often been lost in so-called contemporary music. Mirfak is for violin, vaguely similar to Rigel, it is based on fast, substantial figures that alternate between isolated notes and small groups, creating an energetic sequence of sound panels, extremely differentiated within themselves. Lastly, Kursa is for trombone and tenor-bass in Bb-FA; even on less agile instruments like this Remigio manages to achieve a remarkable fluency and quality of sound. Rag (1991) for piano is a short composition in which the idea of the rag is developed: the featured rhythm supports a sequence of dry, well-marked chords that give the piece an edgy character. Also for piano is Una cartolina da "Rima" (A postcard from "Rima"), a piece composed of several quotations from Donatoni's piece entitled Rima. The technique used is that of variation; the beginning of a new variation corresponds to a quotation.
These are micro-variations on an ostinato rhythm. The structure and sound are very compact. Jet for flute, violin and guitar, Lim for twelve players, Le mani sporche for clarinet and strings and others, of the many composed in 1991 and '92, are set in a manner similar to those of Ciclo astrale, taking up a compositional practice very close to that of Donatoni, whom Remigio also frequented at Santa Cecilia. The writing is also ventilated by pauses, the intervals are extensive and arranged in small groups or isolated notes.Curious is the idea of writing a piece for bells, Tuc, which, despite the strange arrangement, retains the prerogatives of Remigio's writing. Mordenti for eleven players is performed at the Gadeamus in Amsterdam, and as an appendix to this piece comes Trenek (1993) for violin and accordion: the violin has a phrasing based on isolated notes or small groups, in which the quintina predominates; the accordion has a dense part, at least until the concluding pages, when it is reduced to long held notes. The sounds of the accordion create a dreamlike atmosphere, on which the violin fits in with short, repeated sound segments of great communicative tension.
The meeting with the musicologist Carlo Vitali became the occasion to design the play Marlene in two acts and nine scenes. The work features 13 characters, plus the chorus. The first result was the oriental-flavoured opera Du hast mit mir gespielt (1993) for soprano and piano: the voice unfolds softly, the singing is insinuating. Remigio drew other pieces from the lyrical work, such as Minimal (1994) for solo piano, a work composed on the notes E-G-A-D-H: the structure makes use of a wide intervallic pattern that gives rise to short sound segments that interlock and alternate quickly. The rhythm is jagged; the difficulty of execution is considerable, but it is a virtuosity functional to the complexity of the construct. Also from Marlene are the pieces for voice and piano, such as Quando vien la sera, When you sit by me, Camerata Hoffmann!, E così miss Dietrich, all written in 1994, as well as the Intermezzo for string orchestra, composed in 1995. They are all pieces that start from the theatre and pass through the stylistic elements of chamber opera to arrive at the European song. A song that is always attentive to tradition, but with a compositional edge updated to the latest techniques.
Among the compositions of 1995 is Truax for violin, based on the rhythmic parameter, with ostinatos in the left hand, Remigio follows two (complementary) strands, one freer and more cantabile, the other more textural, where the composer indulges the leavening of the basic sounds. To this second approach belongs Intermezzo, a fascinating work for strings, based on micro-variations of a self-generating cell. This sound cell repeats itself with variations, creating a kaleidoscope of colours that turn in on themselves, in a sort of spiral of sounds, always the same and always different...