Fortunately, the incantation worked.


What seemed destined to be frozen in a cocoon forever emptied of its own voice, that old instrument exhausted by the search for new sounds, this time emerged radically transformed. Inventing is a challenge. For years, I admit, I had nourished a desire: that the flute would change into its inseparable companion of yesteryear, that it would become both flute and drum; the drum of the heart. Yet I would not have been satisfied had I not pursued for my entire life a greater desire: to make magic out of the most banal things, the most unpleasant sounds, those that surround us in our everyday lives and which we hardly hear anymore. But this was not the only incantation.


Polyphony was no longer apparent on a monodic instrument, because at certain points very different emissions became emulsified, as it were, into one. And since each type of sound has its own reverberation time, the actual sound would superimpose itself on the tail of the previous one: a phenomenon further compounded by opposite dynamics.


Given the happy outcome, I had no choice but to thank the gods. I also felt indebted to Goffredo Petrassi, who had shown me affection and respect so often; I thought I would dedicate these words of gratitude to him. Referring to Beethoven, I was still battling an old disease.


After all, the torments of creative labour are a kind of common disease, especially if they are intransigent towards the soul.


The song is a geometric structure based on a few sounds left suspended by incantations.


Strophic, polyphonic, polyrhythmic, an accompanied melody can appear bloodless only to musical vampires. 

Salvatore Sciarrino