for 4 voices
[S, Ms, Bar, B]
2012 | duration: 7′
Published by BabelSCORES | ISMN : 979-0-2325-5215-6

Notes
Commissioned by VOCAALLAB
Premiered at Gaudeamus Muziekweek 2012, Utrecht

Audio

Recorded live 04.09.2012 in Nicolai Kerk | VOCAALLAB
Emilie De Voght soprano, Michaela Riener mezzosoprano, Arnout Lems baritone, Ludovic Provost bass

Note
I wrote “Non sta si svolge e gira” for VocaalLab in 2012. I made a collage of texts from works that Giordano Bruno, Italian philosopher and poet, wrote in London in 1584-85: “De l’infinito, universo e mondi”; “De gli eroici furori”; “De la causa, principio et uno”. Here, the main themes are the infinity of the universe and the human condition in a space that has not a predetermined center.
My work focuses on the opposition between the individuality of the voice and a space where voices merge and become nothing other than sound. In the beginning three singers are hidden, so that only their voices are present while the mezzosoprano walks alone on the stage towards the audience, a lonely silent woman surrounded by voices.
Slowly the other singers reach her in the center of the stage, and only then she begins to sing with the others.

Texts
by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600)
From: De l’infinito, universo e mondi; De gli eroici furori; De la causa, principio et uno (1584-85)

Tutto, per infinito spacio discorrendo, cangia il volto.

Non sta, si svolge e gira
Quanto nel ciel e sott’il ciel si mira.

Ogni cosa discorre, or alto or basso,
E forse tutto va al medesmo passo
Ed al medesmo punto.

Non è occhio ch’approssimar si possa
e ch’abbia accesso a tanto altissima luce e sì profondissimo abisso.

A un tempo tremo, agghiaccio, ardo e sfavillo,
Son muto, e colmo il ciel di strida ardenti:
E vivo e muoio, e fo riso e lamenti.

English translation

Everything, flowing through infinite space, changes its face.

What we see in and under the sky
doesn’t remain still, it unwinds and turns

Everything flows, now high, now low,
and perhaps everything goes at the same pace
and to the same point.

There is no eye which can approach,
and which has access to such a bright light and such a deep abyss.

All at once I tremble, freeze, burn, and blaze,
I am mute and I fill the sky with burning screams:
and I live and die, I laugh and moan.

Performances
04.09.2012 VOCAALLAB, Gaudeamusmuziekweek, Nicolaïkerk, Utrecht

As part of the music of True Colors: a dance opera co-created by Backbone, Alida Dors, Sibersee:
22.01.2017 / 28.05.2017 |27 shows in NL and DE: http://www.silbersee.com/en/productie/true-colors/
28.06.2017 / 24.08.2017 | 25 shows in Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam at De Parade:
http://www.deparade.nl/voorstellingen/backbone-alida-dors/

12.12.2020 Silbersee, Dag in de Branding, Palaiskerk, Den Haag