Distorted Pieces of Something. Study on Light (when it rains)

This piece for soprano saxophone and viola is part of my research on luminance as one of the ‘semantic’ dimensions of timbre that accounts for the amount and intensity of light that is perceived in it.

Spending hours working next to a window while it was raining, I recognised in it a kind of filter and distortion effect. From this perspective, the piece is structured in five uninterrupted sections that explore the heavy falling rain, when there is also mist, that thick and untouchable presence that fills a space and prevents us from seeing the other side, turning everything into faint images, like pieces of something that has no form at all, almost vanished, but still there. There is also and exploration of the moment immediately after the rain stops, when everything is wet and many drops cover the windows through which everything is perceived diffused and blurred, covered by a halo of the past, but also when light is wide reflected and refracted at the same time, spreading its presence as distorted pieces of something that shine ambiguously.

If you’re interested in the score, you can buy it here!

Thanks to Wojciech Psiuk (soprano saxophone) and Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska (viola) for the amazing job at the Synthetis International Summer Course for Composers 2019.

You can watch the recording of the premiere here!