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... sofferte onde serene ...

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... sofferte onde serene ...
by Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono in 1979
CatalogueALN 42
Composed1976
PublishedCasa Ricordi
Duration14 minutes
ScoringPiano and magnetic tape
Premiere
DateApril 17, 1977
LocationSala Verdi, Milan Conservatory, Milan
PerformersLuigi Nono, sound supervisor
Maurizio Pollini, live and taped piano
Marino Zuccheri, sound technician

... sofferte onde serene ... or ..... sofferte onde serene ...[a] (Italian: "serene waves suffered"[1] or "endured"),[2] ALN 42, is a composition for piano and tape by Italian composer Luigi Nono. Borne of Nono's friendship and artistic collaboration with Maurizio Pollini, it was the first of Nono's works in what became his late style.

Composition

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Nono wrote ... sofferte one serene ... for his friend Maurizio Pollini after their 1971–1972 collaboration in Como una ola de fuerza y luz. Nono used the sounds of his native Venice, notably its bell towers, which he heard from across the Venetian Lagoon at home on Giudecca. He finished it there in 1976, dedicating it to Pollini and Pollini's wife Marilisa.[3] Nono's music was affected by the "harsh wind of death", with recent losses including Bruno Maderna, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Nono's parents, and Marilisa's miscarriage.[4][5]

Nono extended the piano's sonority, emphasizing its pedal resonances via tape.[3] Pollini and sound technician Marino Zuccheri recorded this part at the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano.[1]

Pollini (live and taped piano), Zuccheri (sound technician), and Nono (sound supervisor) gave the premiere at the Milan Conservatory's Sala Verdi on 17 April 1977.

After Al gran sole carico d'amore (1972 and 1975), which was inspired by women's revolutionary struggle, ... sofferte onde serene ... marked a final introspective shift within Nono's overtly leftist œuvre. In the premiere's program note, Nono quoted Kafka on the "equilibrium of the profound interior". Nono's music became slower and quieter, with pitches often occupying a high register or tessitura. He became more concerned with spatiality, especially "floating sounds", and moved toward the use of fragments and silences in subsequent works. Heinz-Klaus Metzger observed these changes as an "intensification of [Nono's] identity."[3]

Casa Ricordi published the score (1977, 1992). Pianist and musicologist Paulo de Assis prepared a prototype critical edition at the Orpheus Institute [nl] (2009, unpublished).[6]

Structure

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... sofferte onde serene ... is a fourteen-minute movement in 155 bars. Tempo markings are very strict and tempo variations based on performance are rare. The original tape recorded by Nono, still used in concert performances, has a thirteen-minute-and-thirty-nine-second duration. Nono used as many as eight reference numbers in the score to keep the piano and the tape synchronized:

  1. 00:54 – Begin after three seconds
  2. 01:56 – Begin after three seconds
  3. 02:57 – Begin immediately
  4. 05:11 – Begin immediately
  5. 06:49 – Begin immediately
  6. 09:16 – Begin immediately
  7. 11:49 – Begin immediately
  8. 13:14 – Begin after two seconds

... sofferte onde serene ... calls for on-stage piano, a mixer and a sound engineer meant to be placed off-stage, and four loudspeakers: two on the piano and two on the bottom-left and bottom-right corner of the stage. The piece starts with the piano at a tempo of quarter note = ca. 60. Nono marks further tempo changes in almost every bar.[7] He composed the live and taped piano parts to blend in uniform textures, distinct from his previous violent and contrasting style.[1]

Recordings

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The following is a list of notable performances of this composition:

Piano Sound technician Label Year of recording
Maurizio Pollini Marino Zuccheri Deutsche Grammophon 1979[8]
Aldo Orvieto Alvise Vidolin ARTIS Records 1993[9]
Markus Hinterhäuser André Richard Col Legno 1994[9]
Iris Gerber Edition Bianchi-neri 1997[9]
Sven Thomas Kiebler André Richard 2e2 1997[9]
Kenneth Karlsson Albedo Music 2000[9]
Stefan Litwin [de] Telos Music 2001[9]
Pascale Berthelot CNSMD 2003[9]
Paulo de Assis Orpheus Institute CD Series 2018[10]
Jan Michiels [nl; fr] Kairos 2018[11]

Notes

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  1. ^ Nono's manuscript title is ..... sofferte onde serene .... The Archivio Luigi Nono refers to the work thus.

References

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  1. ^ a b c Döpke, Doris (1979). Liner Notes in DG 423 248-2. West Germany: Deutsche Grammophon.
  2. ^ "Blue" Gene Tyranny. ..... sofferte onde serene ..., for piano & tape at AllMusic
  3. ^ a b c Williams 2013, 32.
  4. ^ Barton, John (November 2022). "Possibilities of the Interval: Heidegger and the Reimagining of the Interval in Luigi Nono's A Carlo Scarpa". Journal of the Royal Musical Association. 147 (2): 313–336. doi:10.1017/rma.2022.17. Retrieved June 1, 2024.
  5. ^ Richard, André (February 25, 2014). Music by Luigi Nono. Translated by Joel Durand. p. 4. Retrieved June 1, 2024 – via University of Washington.
  6. ^ Assis, Paulo de (22 September 2014). "Con Luigi Nono: Unfolding Waves". Journal for Artistic Research (6). Retrieved 13 January 2019.
  7. ^ Nono, Luigi (1977). ..... sofferte onde serene... per pianoforte e nastro magnetico. Milan: Ricordi. Archived from the original on 2019-01-14. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  8. ^ "Luigi Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz; Sofferte onde serene; Contrappunto dialettico alla mente – Claudio Abbado | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g "..... sofferte onde serene ..." Luigi Nono. Retrieved 14 January 2019.
  10. ^ "..... sofferte onde serene ..." Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Luigi Nono: Como una ola de fuerza y luz". orpheusinstituut.be. Retrieved 27 March 2024.

Further reading

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  • Carvalho, Mário Vieira de. 1999. "Towards Dialectic Listening: Quotation and Montage in the Work of Luigi Nono". Contemporary Music Review 18, no. 2:37–85.
  • Caselli, Massimo. 1992. "... sofferte onde serene ... de Luigi Nono". Revista Música 3, no. 1:17.
  • Harris, John Mark. 2003. "Performing Luigi Nono's ... sofferte onde serene ...". DMA diss. La Jolla: University of California, San Diego.
  • Linden, Werner. 1989. Luigi Nonos Weg zum Streichquartett: Vergleichende Analysen zu Seinen Kompositionen Liebeslied, ... sofferte onde serene ..., Fragmente, Stille, An Diotima. Kassel: Bärenreiter. ISBN 3-7618-0940-9.
  • Miller, Darren. 2014. "The Collaborative Role of the Technician in ... onde sofferte serene ...". Revista Vortex 2, no. 1:37–47.
  • Riede, Berndt. 1986. Luigi Nonos Kompositionen mit Tonband: Ästhetik des musikalischen Materials, Werkanalysen, Werkverzeichnis. Berliner Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten 28. Munich: E. Katzbichler.
  • Rizzardi, Veniero. 1999. "Notation, Oral Practice and Performance Practice in the Works with Tape and Live Electronics by Luigi Nono". Contemporary Music Review 18, no. 1:47–56.
  • Spangemacher, Friedrich. 1983. Luigi Nono, die elektronische Musik: historischer Kontext, Entwicklung, Kompositionstechnik. Forschungsbeiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 29. Regensburg: G. Bosse.
  • William, Alastair. 2013. Music in Germany since 1968. Music Since 1900 Series, gen. ed. Arnold Whittall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-35443-4 (ebk). ISBN 978-0-521-87759-6 (hbk).
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