Programme Note

The title of this work has a double meaning: the first, most obvious one, is the Italian word for ‘sonority’, and in writing the piece, one of my main aims was to use the ensemble to create different textures and ‘sonorities’, juxtaposing them in sometimes sudden and unexpected ways. But the word is also used as a term in 19th-century Italian opera to denote the focal or predominant pitch of a particular passage. Thus, my piece makes play with this element too with certain pitches often used to focus individual lines or acting as pivots for harmonic change. These details, however, will probably not impinge on the first-time listener who is more likely to perceive the overall shape of the piece. Unlike many of my previous works, which often broadly employ a ternary A-B-A form, this piece has a binary (or two-part) shape, the first section being generally energetic and rhythmic with the second slower and more flowing. Both sections, however, present the same basic material in different ways, with some passages from the first returning more or less unchanged in the second, while others are more radically transformed. Furthermore, the generally bright, clear sonorities of the first part are contrasted with the darker hues of the second which employs instruments such as alto flute, cor anglais and bass clarinet. The two parts of the work are further connected by their use of the tritonal A-E flat relationship (these pitches predominate in the work’s introduction) which finally achieves resolution only at the very end.