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Light Side Available

“Light Side” is a tribute to the art of Lucio Fontana and his search for a “third” dimension

beyond the canvas. The long work done on the cuts leads to a different concept than the

bi-dimensionality of the canvas. It was Lucio Fontana himself who wrote: “I never wanted

to destroy, on the contrary, I wanted to create because light passes through it”. The idea

for this work for “La Soñada”, an eleven-string guitar made by the luthier Carlos

Gonzalez, starts from the idea of exploiting an initial sound input given by the rubbing of

the finger of the right hand on the eleventh string, creating a sound effect reminiscent of

the cutting of the canvas. This creates a resonant, suspended melody that accompanies

the whole piece, interspersed with the cuts made by the eleventh string when rubbing the

fingernail on it, as if one could see beyond the canvas and imagine new figures. The main

melody, always free and resonant, ends with a diminuendo finale that tends to become

weaker until it stops in suspension.

Paris, 9 Marzo 2022

Christian Lavernier

Oumuamua Available

Oumuamua is the first interstellar object sighted in our galaxy and its name, taken from the Hawaiian language, comes from the fact that the telescope that first observed it is located on these very islands. In the indigenous language, Oumuamua means ‘messenger from far away’. The asteroid, which has an elongated and unusual shape, was discovered in 2017 and has a hyperbolic trajectory, which is particularly anomalous compared to that of other objects observed in our solar system, so much so that it has captured the attention of various scholars who have formulated various hypotheses, ranging from natural formation to that of an interstellar artifact. However, we cannot know for sure where it came from and Oumuamua remains an enigma to scientists to this day. It approached the Earth at a minimum distance of 24 million kilometres and then moved away, accelerating at a speed of about 70,000 miles per hour. Oumuamua’s “lightning visit” will take about four years to return to interstellar space from whence it came. This work is dedicated to the duo formed by Thorwald Jørgensen and Josip Dragnić, who play theremin and guitar respectively. The theremin is an electronic instrument invented in 1919 by Soviet physicist Lev Sergeevič Termen. The characteristics of this particular instrument, which involves oscillators working in isofrequencies, producing beats and thus sound waves, prompted me to write this score. At the beginning we hear radio interference from the theremin’s glissati, then a slow advance brings in the guitar. Afterwards, everything is thrown into a sonic vortex that seems to approach and then dissolve into nothingness like the passage of Oumuamua. Paris, 9 Marzo 2022 Christian Lavernier 

Paris, 31 Marzo 2022 Christian Lavernier

Helgoland Available

Helgoland is an island in the North Sea where Werner Heisenberg conceived his theory of quantum physics, which still today brings with it enigmas and confirmations. The idea for this piece written for La Soñada came after reading a book by Carlo Rovelli entitled “Helgoland” and after many conversations with Antonella Fatai, a brotherly friend who has been involved in mathematics, physic and teaching all her life. The beginning of the piece is not accidental. From the beginning until bar twenty-four a retrograde mirror canon is developed. In this type of canon the following voice starts from the last note of the previous one and continues backwards, ending with the initial note from which it started. If you overlap bar one and bar twenty-four or bar twenty-three and bar two, and so on, you will observe how the contents are overlapped and one is reversed, hence retrograde. Subsequently there is a whirling “tempo moderato” that makes everything much more fluid, with deep and low sounds and then returns in a “dreamy and fluctuating” time to our retrograde mirror canon that this time is further inverted in its internal structure, the beginning becomes the end and the end becomes the beginning. I dedicate this work to the Conti Fatai family, to Paolo, Antonella, Maria, Elisa, Anna, Matteo, Lorenzo and Elena Sofia. A part of me is indissolubly linked to them by a brotherly friendship.

Paris, 31 Marzo 2022 Christian Lavernier

 

 

Cover image – On the strings at home, by Lorenzo Raspanti

 

Six guitar studies available

There are many guitar studies on which generations of guitarists, including myself, have been trained and which still today remain milestones in the technical musical development of this instrument. However, I felt the need to give shape to my own proposal to elaborate and investigate some specific technical aspects concerning “Accents, Left Hand Jumps, Ligatures, Chords, Harmonics and Tremolo”. In the “Studio I” dedicated to accents, each aspect of the right hand is highlighted by passing the respective accents on each finger in rotation: index, middle, ring and thumb. In this way, a conscious and homogeneous control over movement and force is developed. In the “Studio II” dedicated to the jumps of the left hand, I have prepared a series of obligatory jumps that force the dialogue between “eye” and “joints” in a coordinated and joint manner. The eye will arrive, at an advanced stage of study, always before the left hand on the notes indicated. Studio III” is dedicated to ligatures, the cross and delight of every self-respecting guitarist. The various formulas proposed aim to develop a strengthening of those weaker joints, such as the middle ring finger, forcing unusual gestures that can often appear in various scores of both past and contemporary music. In “Studio IV” we work on timbre and sound balance in the tuning phase. The guitar is an instrument that produces sound in a unique way and the chords and their balance, the “sound filling”, depends on the right hand and its degree of sensitivity and control over the strings. The harmonics proposed in “Studio V” are instead a well known guitar technique and widely used in various eras, here proposed with the use of “artificial” harmonics mixed with natural harmonics and with a fingering “in imitation of the harp” using the thumb, index and ring fingers in a fluid way, reconstructing the chord and its movement. Finally, “Studio VI” on the tremolo, another technique peculiar to the guitar. The fingerings proposed, some of which, such as the middle and ring fingers on decidedly unusual rebates, form a balance and education of the joints even on unusual movements that many times are not fully controlled and can create an unbalance within the tremolo itself. In my studies I have tried to work out compositional formulas that will allow the student (or whoever is in an in-depth study of music) to understand possible technical weaknesses and overcome them without forgetting that technique remains an individual matter.

Travel New Album Available

There are places and stories, which join us through music, and evolve and change in the gaily-coloured tesserae of this recording mosaic. In 1805 Napoleon Coste (1805-1883) was born in Amodans, a little french village near Switzerland. Napoleon did not become a soldier as his father had hoped and the music was his only weapon. So many images and the breath of the lovely french spot live in Les soirées d’Auteuil Op.23 which include two “movimenti” – Serenade and Scherzo – from the collection Souvenirs. Only one year’s difference between this composer and Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856). In the 1840 Mertz was in Vienna and the influence of his wife, a talented pianist, became clear; the Fantasie Hongroise, marked by some structural features of piano music, was composed in this period. Our journey continues in Spain. During a concert by Antonio Jiménez Manjon, a blind guitarist, the guitarist Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) feels a deep calling for music which carries him to explore popular expressions of this art. The anonymous theme of “Follia” charmes him so strongly that he decides to complete the work of Sor with the Variazioni Op.15. Other places and other stories. Enrique Granados (1867-1916) write the famous Oriental for piano, part of the 12 Danzas españolas composed in 1890. The music world is and has always been a mix of talents and abilities which interlace. So, an already famous Segovia, conscious of his talent, pushed an hesitant Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) to write for guitar. In 1936, in three days only, the Tarantella Op.87a, here in its original version, was ready. In 1961 the composer refined his sensibility in El sueño de la razón produce monstruos, one of the 24 Caprichos inspired by Goya’s pictures. Now, our journey takes us to Brazil with Sergio Assad (1952-) with the magic and ‘saudade’ of Farewell, before going to Florence where the sicilian guitarist Nuccio D’Angelo (1955-) composed Due Canzoni Lidie. He exploits the archaic mode called Lydus through which time is transformed from ancient into modern. In the same year was born the french composer Roland Dyens (1955-2016), from Algeria, and Alfonso Montes (1955-), from Venezuela. The Dyens’ style tells about his disease and he expresses its evolution by three times : “before” the disease in India, “during” the disease in Largo and then the “new life” in Fuoco. Montes describes with intense melancholy the sense of separation in Preludio de Adios. Finally back to Italy, in a little town near Imperia, Pieve di Teco, Luchino Belmonti (1931-2002) spreads everywhere his innovative ideas. His theory of the integral scale was used even in 1997 in his only work for guitar Vagando here performed for the first time in the world. Our journey ends with a simple idea: the music cannot exist if it is always the same.

LEO BROUWER “HABANERA TRUNCA” for LA SOÑADA

Today is released the new edition of the work “Habanera trunca” by Leo Brouwer, in 11 strings version, dedicated to Christian Lavernier, expressly studied for La Soñada and its expressive features.

After a close meeting with Christian Lavernier in 2017 in Paris, at the beginning of the project with the 11-string guitar “La Soñada” designed and made by luthier Carlos Gonzalez, Leo Brouwer rethinks the 2012 piece “Habanera trunca” for this new instrument. The Cuban master now takes into consideration the expressive possibilities of the 11 strings and the personality of Christian Lavernier. To the latter, this new version is expressly dedicated.

“It is an unexpected gift, an honor to have so much interest from a great master such as Leo Brouwer. Four years ago he saw something in this instrument that I was just beginning to know. Now he gives it a voice.” – C. Lavernier

Habanera Trunca Danzas Rituales y Festivas Vol. 1 
para guitarra (2012) de Leo Brouwer
Versión para guitarra de 11 cuerdas (2021) dedicada a Christian Lavernier

Video licenciado por Leo Brouwer

© 2021 Ediciones Espiral Eterna. https://www.eeebrouwer.com

ARIA – NEW ALBUM

In 2019, while I was walking through the streets of Paris, my eyes saw a small book on the ground. It was “Oscariana” by Oscar Wilde. I looked in vain for its owner: the book was brand new, just bought with the receipt still inside. I couldn’t find anyone who claimed it, so I decided to take it home with me. A few days later, I started to write the first track of this record, “Oscariana”, with the idea of layering different layers of sound. I have always dreamed of playing with my own self, but for one reason or another, I have never found the way to make it possible. This could have been the right opportunity. La Soñada could follow me on this journey, in fact I think it traced the path even before I played the first note. I decided to overdub three tracks one on top of the other, three Soñadas, three lines, three me. This work has required about two years of study and the construction of individual scores, as if they were three different instruments and three instrumentalists who meet in Paris on any given day and decide to make music together. I explored further the possibilities of this wonderful eleven-stringed instrument, its colours, working on the live sound, its character. I have known (or maybe, re-known) those three completely different musicians, with their fears and their own ways of seeing the music. It’s a work that gathers the personal listenings and sonorities of many years of life, from Classical music to Contemporary music, passing through Jazz.I tried to bring together these three musicians who have hated and loved each other, and who in the end decided to make music together, without having any expectation other than finding a sound and personal image that could truly represent them. It has been an exciting journey, sometimes frightening, like all journeys, and like all journeys it has come to an end. “Aria” like that we breathe, “Aria” like the breath of a wind that I did not know and that has been my daily companion during these two years of research.

Contemporary Future con l’introduzione del M° Ennio Morricone – New CD

Il futuro può essere contemporaneo a patto che nel presente si ci spogli del più confortante conformismo, per diventare, in primo luogo, contemporanei di noi stessi.
In questo modo è nata l’idea di Contemporary Future.
Oggi che finalmente il disco é uscito ufficialmente, permettetemi di ringraziare alcune persone:
grazie al Maestro Ennio Morricone per aver speso le sue parole nell’introduzione di questo disco e per i consigli che mi ha voluto regalare, li porterò con me nel mio cuore. Grazie al Maestro Azio Corghi per avermi dedicato “Redobles y Consonancias”, per aver creduto in me in un momento dove la Soñada non aveva nulla (nemmeno le corde…) e per aver curato la seconda introduzione di questo disco. Senza il suo stimolo nulla di tutto questo avrebbe mai preso forma. Questo disco é un omaggio alla sua scuola.
Grazie al Maestro Andrea Talmelli per aver scritto “Dreams” e per aver creduto, fin da subito, in questo progetto. Grazie per aver curato le note all’ascolto, senza di lui oggi Contemporary Future non avrebbe questa veste. Grazie al Maestro Corrado Rojac per la sua “Coniugazioni del Sublime V” e per aver lavorato su uno strumento a lui (ed anche a me) sconosciuto. Grazie al Maestro Nicola Campogrande per aver ripensato per me e per la Soñada i “12 Preludi a getto di inchiostro”, indagando sonorità nascoste e intime, che mai avrei immaginato possibili. Grazie al Papà della Soñada, il Maestro liutaio Carlos Gonzalez , immenso genio del legno che ama talmente intensamente quello che fa, che il legno diventa suo amico e nelle sue mani si trasforma per cantare. Senza di lui nulla di tutto questo sarebbe mai stato possibile, e men che meno immaginabile. Senza la sua “visione” la Soñada non sarebbe mai esistita.
Grazie al Maestro cordaio Mimmo Peruffo, per aver creato le corde della Soñada. Quando siamo partiti, dopo aver creato lo strumento abbiamo dovuto creare le “sue corde”, che non esistevano in commercio. É stata una ricerca emozionante, fatta di test e prove infinite, dove l’idea del suono che avevamo in mente era dentro materiali a me (non a Mimmo) totalmente sconosciuti. Infine, grazie a Francesca Nebiolo per aver creduto sempre in questo progetto, sopportando molte volte il mio totale smarrimento nel cercare di indagare uno strumento che non conoscevo e che molto spesso mi sembrava un labirinto inespugnabile.
Grazie a tutti quelli che ci hanno creduto, alla mia casa discografica EMA e a chi é ancora capace di sognare un futuro contemporaneo. Oggi la Soñada é una realtà. C.L

Roma Giornate Europee del Patrimonio

Christian Lavernier – LA SOÑADA al Museo Nazionale Romano

Aula Ottagonale delle Terme di Diocleziano

info: incinqueopenartmonti@gmail.com

 

Music Program

Christian Lavernier (1979) Bach and back

Azio Corghi (1937) Redobles y Consonancias

Francesco Iannitti (1961) Prelude

Flores Chaviano (1946) Soñada en Gijon

Christian Lavernier (1979) Gilgameš

Andrea Talmelli (1950) Dreams

Christian Lavernier (1979)

Reminiscenze Cromatiche

I – Light Side (Omaggio a Lucio Fontana)

II – (Omaggio a Alberto Burri)

III – ( Omaggio a Umberto Boccioni)

IV (Omaggio a Giorgio De Chirico)

V – (Omaggio a Amedeo Modigliani)

VI – (Omaggio a Giacomo Balla)

New Album

Sono passati tre anni da quando la Soñada ha preso vita. Tre anni fa non esisteva nulla, solo l’intuizione geniale del suo costruttore Carlos González e successivamente le corde di Mimmo Peruffo (già, perché non c’erano nemmeno le corde). Tre anni di “salite”, di emozioni enormi, di paure, cercando di studiare e apprendere uno strumento “nuovo”, esplorando 11 corde e cercando di costruire una letteratura per questo strumento. Molti sono i compositori che mi  hanno seguito in questo viaggio e piano piano li ringrazierò tutti, (perché le novità sono solo all’inizio). L’incontro con Nicola Campogrande é avvenuto poco più di un anno fa, durante un mio concerto a Roma. Non lo ringrazierò mai abbastanza per aver ripensato i 12 Preludi a Getto  D’inchiostro per la Soñada, e per aver creduto in questo “folle progetto”. In un anno abbiamo lavorato giorno dopo giorno centimetro dopo centimetro, fino ad ottenere il testo dei 12 Preludi per la Soñada che sarebbero  poi stati pubblicati da Universal Music – Ricordi. Da lì é  partito il lavoro d’incisione durato mesi, un lavoro meraviglioso fatto di scambi di opinioni, di continue limature, di ore infinite di registrazione buttate nel cestino, per poi ricominciare da capo a inseguire un sogno. Ci ho messo tutta l’energia artistica che potevo raccogliere in questo cammino, fino all’ultima nota e spero possiate ascoltare una storia, “non solo un disco”. È tempo di lasciarlo andare. Ora  lo consegno a voi.

C.L