MARCO STROPPA — Miniature Estrose

© Roberto Masotti Marco Stroppa (*1959) Miniature Estrose Primo Libro (1991 – 2003; rev. 2009) 1 Passacaglia canonica, in contrappunto policromatico 08:30 2 Birichino, come un furetto 03:41 3 Moai 09:56 4 Ninnananna 06:04 5 Tangata Manu 10:00 6 Innige Cavatina 11:40 7 Prologos: Anagnorisis I. Canones diversi ad consequendum 13:08 TT 63:00 Erik Bertsch, piano 3 Miniature Estrose interact with the free strings, generating mask this inevitable decay of the sound, clearly defined musical ideas, are in fact countless sympathetic resonances and giv and magically make the piano “sing” (suf brought together within a web of referenc ing rise to the formation of latent harmo fice to think of Chopin’s cantabile) or imi es, ones that Stroppa defines as “imprints”, ny. This mechanism, which lies at the ba tate various orchestral timbres. However, in i.e. a number of gestures, groups of pitch sis of a metamorphosed instrument which the case of the Miniature Estrose, thanks es and repeated notes which return in the “Miniature” as it is used here does not so Stroppa refers to as the pianoforte d’amore, to the use of countless tremolos, trills and various Miniature, transformed each time in much refer to a piece that is brief as it does demands a radical change from the per repeated notes and various approaches to a more or less recognisable manner. I was to one that is fashioned in great detail, like former in his or her approach to the piano. striking the keys, along with a highly refined very much won over by the task of shap the elaborately decorated initials of medie Indeed, the study of the Miniature Estrose use of the sustain pedal, the performer has ing this sort of hidden macroform, full of val illuminated manuscripts or some of the forced me not only to focus my attention on the chance to interact with the full spec the references and anticipations with which miniatures from India. “Estrose” is an un the sound produced directly by the move trum of resonances, modifying their inten the Miniature secretly communicate with translatable word with various shades of ment of my fingers on the keyboard, but al sity and duration, thus allowing for the con one another. The performance of the First meaning, having to do with imagination, cre so to listen with just as much concentration struction and sculpting of the sound over Book in its entirety turned out to constitute ative intuition, inspiration and genius, but al to the prism of sounds emerging as a sec time, and demanding profound dedication an inner narrative capable of shifting sub so extravagance and eccentricity. Suffice it ondary consequence of this action. During to the listening process from the pianist. merged layers of memory and influencing to say that Antonio Vivaldi chose this same the performance, the resonances accumu our perception in unexpected and surpris word for his L’Estro Armonico. late, fade, grow, overlap and are enriched The multitude of agogic directions, of di ing ways. ever more, from which a sort of parallel pia verse character and colour to be found in Marco Stroppa, from Miniature Estrose, no emerges that appears to live a life of its the score, fundamental for the estroso na Primo Libro – Casa Ricordi, Milano own. For me, the most fascinating aspect ture of the work, represented a further, se was indeed the relationship that emerges ductive challenge for me: to yield the in The First Book of Miniature Estrose by with this latent universe of sound. finite timbric variety essential to the sound Marco Stroppa is a work that revolutionised universe in the collection, a kaleidoscopic my relationship with the piano. Each Minia Despite the infinite resources it has to offer, study of imagination and fantasy is in fact tura is based on a complex system of reso the piano has always suffered from one ma necessary, exploiting the extremes of the nances created by a sizeable number of jor limitation compared to the human voice piano’s range of colour and dynamics. keys being lowered silently prior to the per or string, brass and woodwind instruments: formance and then held by the sostenuto the impossibility to control the sound be Lastly, the First Book of Miniature Estrose Erik Bertsch pedal, leaving the relative strings free to vi yond the moment in which it is emitted. is a wonderful journey through percep brate throughout the duration of the Minia There have been countless strategies de tion. The seven pieces in the collection, de translated from Italian by tura. In this manner, the other notes played ployed by composers and pianists alike to spite being characterised by their own very Ben Bazalgette 4 5 along with Ninnananna makes up the oldest a leg of the journey, which each perform element of the cycle, is in fact a canonical er may touch on in the order s/he prefers passacaglia in polychromatic counterpoint. or even singularly. To tell the truth, the map Yet what does this expression refer to ex is still incomplete, insofar as Stroppa has actly? In the strict sense, “polychromatic produced only the first book of his Minia- counterpoint” refers to the diverse shades ture Estrose, despite the fact that the ma of sound of the rhythmic canons generated terial for the entire cycle was outlined right by the refraction of the theme through the from the start on the basis of an overarch preset harmonic fields, but in actual fact ing logic. In other words, the work is waiting it reveals the rhizomatic nature of Strop to be defined as a complete whole, which in pa’s musical thought. Indeed, right from the the artist’s plans ought to happen shortly. In start Passacaglia canonica highlights the actual fact, this apparently incomplete and heterogeneous and interconnecting char fragmentary nature corresponds to the pro The Passacaglia canonica, chosen by Erik acter of the Miniature, endowed not only foundly poetical nature of the score, which Bertsch to open his itinerary through the with a highly refined pianistic writing – it is is made up of independent segments yet at Miniature Estrose by Marco Stroppa, is not by chance that Stroppa defines Aimard the same time ribbed with lines that pass dedicated “à Pierre-Laurent Aimard pour a “sound sculptor” – but also with a series through it in a horizontal, swarming and ar que ‘les parfums, les sons et les couleurs of shapes and compositional processes borescent manner. Perhaps the most fitting se repondent’.” The dedication to Aimard that link the whole cycle together, prolifer metaphor is the elegant geometry of the could not have been more fitting, not mere ating in a horizontal fashion from one Min neuronal network, with its infinite expan ly for the fact of paying homage to the mu iatura to the next. The counterpoint acts sion of connective tissue. Tangata manu, sician who inspired the cycle, but also be on various levels, both linguistic and formal, the most brilliant and virtuosistic Miniatura cause – quoting Baudelaire – it highlights yet in a destructured manner: linear, an in the cycle, highlights this rhizomatic as some of the individual characteristics that tigenerative, in contrast with the tradition pect very well. Dedicated to Luciano Berio make the Miniature Estrose a classic of al characteristics of baroque form. In this in honour of his seventieth birthday, Tanga- modern piano literature. In fact, the corre sense, Passacaglia canonica would appear ta manu is broadly influenced by the num spondences evoked in the tribute do not to be a good starting point to begin an ex ber seven, starting from the one hundred merely concern the aesthetic sphere but al cursus through the realm of the modern pi and fortyseven bars in the score, or rath so and above all the architectural and poet ano, of which Miniature Estrose provides a er seven times twentyone, which in turn ic conception of the work as a whole. The map bereft of specific or peremptory path is three times seven, just as there are sev complete title of this first Miniatura, which ways. Each of the miniatures represents en “p’s” in the opening pianissimo. But the 6 7 homage to Berio also emerges through el is a far cry from any interest of his of an to Renato Dionisi, a maestro deeply root ality. The composer also finds a term with ements embedded in his works: a chord or ethnomusicological nature. The tribute to ed in the Mitteleuropean musical sphere, which to give shape to this experiment of a fragment of melody (Stroppa calls them Yasser Arafat and the citation from a Pal not by chance coupled here with Beetho augmented reality within the instrument: “jewels”), hidden in the writing and invisi estinian poem associated with Moai repre ven. Thus, Stroppa is fascinated by techni pianoforte d’amore, a term which in turn ble as citations, yet perfectly recognisable, sent an eloquent condemnation of colonial cal elements insofar as they greatly expand draws on the name of the ancient baroque like in an anamorphosis, as soon as the per ism, of its barbarous system of exploitation, our awareness of sound and the percep viola d’amore, endowed with sympathetic ceptive axis shifts. However, this analytical of its brutal and inhumane genocide of peo tive potential of the human ear, as long as strings. Composition of this kind calls for a complexity must be framed by a poetical ples. Even Birichino, written compulsively in it is not transformed into a form of fetish maniacal eye for detail, a painstaking study metaphor, that of flight, corresponding to July 2001 after the bloody conflicts linked ism or as an end unto itself.

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