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