Deconstructing the structure

Abstract

The idea of having something from the outside – extra-musical events, artifacts or notions that suggest reason, rules and structure with which to compose – is for me both fascinating and essential in respect to my nature as a composer. These various sources of inspiration are mostly external to the music itself. They can relate to ancient history (as in Shabtis), a scientific-visual element (as in Swirling Yellow), a historical story with an immediate family connection (as in my opera An Italian in Ethiopia), a poem (as in Mutabor Semper) and a musical work (as in the Uninterrupted Oneiric Fantasy, where J.S. Bach’s monumental Goldberg variations allowed me to realize the potential of inner balance and musical results that such rational constructions can render). In this thesis, I will demonstrate how extra-musical events or dreams have triggered my imagination and allowed me to find my own musical expression. All these works use evocative sounds as pathways or guiding lines to that “external” idea. These pathways carry striking sounds such as those produced by the Balinese Gamelan Instruments used in Shabtis; or the Singing Bowls and the Japanese Rin; or the Harmonic Device Pedal (HDP); or the Electronic Sounds. These sounds function as an important complementary counterpoint to the main structures of the works. The method I have used in developing my musical language is that of building a solid structure and then deconstructing it. This approach is similar to that used by sculptors, namely, taking away the extraneous material, subtracting the residua to better shape the delicate final object of musical art.