Pierre. Dell' Azzuro Silenzio. Inquietum. for Voices Winds and Live Electronics (1985)

AMG Review of Pierre. Dell' Azzuro Silenzio. Inquietum. for Voices Winds and Live Electronics (1985)

"Blue" Gene Tyranny
All Music Guide

A Pierre. Dell' Azzuro Silenzio, Inquietum (To Pierre. Blue Silence, Inquietum) is for bass flute, bass clarinet and live electronics which produce a swarm of harmonic resonances like the sound of many choral groups.

The sounds of the piece are very gentle: breath tones deep in reverberation, non-corporeal harmonics, deep and enveloping bass sine waves, lovely transparent chordally tuned electronic resonances, clarinet bleeps and overblowings like whale and dolphin songs underwater. The texture is surprisingly like the music of several American West Coast composers; a completely new poetic direction for Nono and very compelling. "Quando Stanno Morendo, Diario Polacco 2 (When they are dying, 2nd Polish Diary)" is for four female voices, flute, cello and live electronics. It was intended for the Warsaw Music Festival of that year, but when the time came, the festival was disbanded, friends were hiding in exile, were in prison or resisting the Russian invasion.

In the first section, the text is sung slowly and plaintively on widely pitched intervals on very long tones and is acapella or supported very sparingly with the acoustic and electronic sounds; we hear only very occasional whistling sounds far off in the distance that move from side to side. Electronic psalter and metalliclike sounds with churning amplified low cello strings begin the second section, and additional breath sounds of the amplified flute are like trains, or horses, or approaching maniacal machinery.

The gentle breath and harmonic sounds return, followed by solo voices accompanied by low electronic ringing sounds. And then the final chorus sings with the plaintive but restrained agony of the beginning: "When they are dying, horses feel relief, when they are dying, shrubs become sad, when they are dying, suns cease to shine, when they are dying, men sing..." (Velemir Chlebnikov). Silence.