LUIGI NONO La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura Marco Fusi Pierluigi Billone © Grazia Lissi Luigi Nono (1924 – 1990) La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura (1988/89) Madrigale per più “caminantes” con Gidon Kremer, violino solo, 8 nastri magnetici, da 8 a 10 leggii 1 Leggio I 09:26 2 Leggio II 12:23 3 Leggio III 10:11 4 Leggio IV 07:36 5 Leggio V 11:19 6 Leggio VI 10:13 TT 61:12 Marco Fusi, violin Pierluigi Billone, sound direction 3 Proximity, Distance our interpretative approach to Luigi Nono’s La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura The violin my eyes, Nono acknowledged these Playing La lontananza nostalgica sounds, giving them a right to exist, to utopica futura has been a goal of mine be perceived and celebrated in their for several years. Deeply fascinated fragile beauty. Through our training, vi- by the openness of this work and the olin players learn how important these astonishing range of possibilities con- small sounds are, accentuating, hid- tained within the performing materials, ing or playing with them, crafting and the violin manuscript feels charged developing our personal instrumental with an incredibly physical and tactile colour, through a combination of au- description of sonic states. Nono per- ral and tactile connections with the sistently demands an almost inaudible instrument. Every performance on a sound creation, echoing an unstable violin implies an active and highly re- inner voice, clearly indicating an in- fined motoric control of the instrument, strumental approach focused towards where the fingertips of both hands are the “interior identity” of the instru- in dialogue with the materiality of the ment, towards a personal exploration strings and bow. Violinists develop an of the microsounds that radiate only instinctual knowledge of our own in- for few centimetres from the strings. strument’s reactions to the slightest Violin players are privileged listeners modification in our touch, speed, pres- of their instruments, as we are grant- sure, and contact point. Though this ed the liminal sounds that are ancillary control is often conformed to a tradi- to the violin’s singing voices, the de- tional notion of a “good” violin sound bris of our instrumental phonation. In for the audience, I have personal- 4 ly always been intrigued by what is fragmented lines that Nono draws are of the minute instant alterations of in- non-perceivable by afar, by the silent assembled into an almost melodical tonation, colour and inharmonicity of whispers that are almost a secret be- profile, that can be sung by the per- each sound. In a meditative effort, I fo- tween the violin and its players. former. This leggio represents, in this cused specifically on theseminutiae, interpretation, the moment of perfect expressing the whole leggio as a man- When reading Nono’s interpretive indi- balance and equal dialogue between tra conveyed through whispered tones cations with obsessive insistence on the violin and the tapes. The presence and violin mutterings. Moving from leg- the inaudibility of violin sounds, I start- of the violin is always perceivable, in- gio III, the exploration of the following ed visualizing my journey through the teracting and echoing the tapes or leggii continues along this performa- piece as an exploration of this fragile moving away from them, towards mo- tive approach based on a tactile rela- and microscopic sonic world. The leg- ments intimate and introspective con- tionship with sound, allowing for an in- gio I functions as a sort of introduction, nection with its microscopic sounds. stinctual sonic reactivity to external where the violinist and the sound pro- It is through these moments of inter- stimuli, provided by the tape materials. jectionist establish their relationship nal listening that the apparent balance and identify the possibilities of their in- with the tape is slowly destroyed. Then Emerging from the static nucleus of teractions. The violin part of the leg- the interpretation shifts focus towards leggio III, the leggio IV moves in ex- gio I is rich in different materials and the exploration of the fragile and infini- treme instrumental gestures. The initial instrumental techniques, moving be- tesimal, that lies within the strings and shocking explosion of the first chords, tween extreme dynamic and agogic the bow of the violin. where the air of the bow stresses the levels. While presenting clearly recog- string almost to its breaking point; the nizable figures, such assfffff explo- Through this interpretive perspec- fast and ethereal harmonic clouds that sions and harmonic clouds which re- tive, the leggio III emerges as the fo- echo the earlier blasts, dispersing the appear predominantly later on, the few cal point of the whole piece, with its tension through a frantic and inces- appearances of ppppp tenuto long indication tutto ppppppppp / quasi inu- sant left-hand movement; the oscilla- notes slowly introduces the violinist dibile, highly suggestive of an intimate tion of the bow between two strings, in to the exploration of the microscopic and introverted approach. Uncon- the attempt to catch all the minuscule sound world that becomes fundamen- cerned with the external perceivabil- in-between states of a double-stop. All tal in the development of the piece. ity of my sound, I explored the tac- these gestures juxtapose and break tile possibilities of this leggio, turning down the attempts of the leggio to re- The leggio II maintains this variety of in- my listening inwards, following sonic turn to a cantabile state, which is on- strumental techniques and approach- leads offered by the microscopic mod- ly hinted at for few bars. The continu- es while including the first introduc- ifications of finger pressure, speed of al alternation of different instrumental tion of a new element of cantabile. The the bow, in an extensive investigation techniques required by this leggio is 5 highly disorienting, especially consid- ternative paths which the performers ous leggii, are now gradually left to the ering that it follows the most static and and the listeners can choose to fol- discretion of the violinist. With a pow- monochrome moment of the whole low. Instead of continually attempting erful gesture of trust towards his fu- piece. At this point of the performance, to find a direction to carry the listen- ture performers, Nono barely sketch- the sensation of uncertainty is im- ers to me, I folded back on the pres- es the last pages leaving wide margins mense, and the multiplicity of possible entness of my playing, slowly recon- to the player for continual explora- directions, the many “future possibi- necting with the state of mind that was tion on all the possibilities; every in- li” is deeply felt on a musical, interpre- set in leggio III. The extremely long strument, every hair, every string and tative and instrumental level. By the notes ranging from ppppppp to ppp player. Leaving the stage during his end of leggio IV all the possibilities are that constitute the main substance of very last note, the violinist’s path is not open, and the slow walk towards the the leggio V instinctually redirect the over. We carry offstage with us the joy next station is loaded with uncertainty, interpretation towards the performer/ of imagination, research, and perform- hesitation and curiosity. instrument intimacy established earli- ing, constantly touching the strings, er. The various bowing techniques em- searching new sounds to whisper to The leggio V initially attempts to calm ployed here offer a wider range of ex- the audience and to ourselves, always this insecurity, by returning the player ploration which seamlessly connects exploring. to the most ritual and primal instrumen- with the last leggio VI. tal gesture, the breath. Few crescen- The tapes do – diminuendo figures, archetypi- Slowly dissolving the violin into the Friend and long-time collabora- cal of the inhale-exhale circle that we background, melting the live sound tor, composer Pierluigi Billone took learn to associate with our bow, rec- with the recorded materials, inces- charge of the sound projection of the onciliates my disoriented mind with my santly playing at the edge of inaudi- eight audio tapes that dialogue with body, by focusing on an instrumental bility, the dynamic of the whole leg- the violin part. Our approaches moved sound “molto pregno di canto”, only gio VI is ppppp. Other than a few rare from almost opposite starting points. to disrupt this again shortly after, with loud events, distant memories of pre- While my reading of the violin materi- the introduction of dramatic sfffff, sul vious energies disperse and this leg- al initiated from a tactile proximity to ponticello. While witnessing the initial gio brings the performer’s focus, once the sound source, allowing my fingers attempt to a cantabile being perforat- more, inwards. Its main fabric is made and digital sensations morph into the ed once more, by these drops of ac- of long notes, tenuto sounds that un- sonic result, Billone started, with an id sounds, I realized how Nono’s work predictably change state, weaving and eagle-eye view, mapping out the son- is not aiming to recover from the frag- threading, and continually oscillating ic territory of the tapes, analysing the mentation of leggio IV. Instead, the ma- and pulsating, “mai statico, come cer- contents of each tape to the most ny possible futures that were hinted candosi”. All the instrumental possibil- minute details. Through a months-long can live together as possibilities, as al- ities, explored extensively in the previ- process, Billone produced a series of 6 analyses of each tape, listing the con- What is not clearly stated in these ending points. “The materials are open tents, the process of construction and notes is that the eight tapes appear to for possible insertions, constructions elaboration of Nono’s final materials, be in fact conceived as four set of ste- and different mixings.