Thomas Simaku

La Leggiadra Luna

Thomas Simaku's La Leggiadra Luna arranged for choir a capella. The music begins with a song-like expression introduced at a slow pace, as if emerging from the remoteness of time itself. It is clearly based on the musical utterance of the 'white modality', but these modal segments are constantly surrounded by chromatic inflections throughout the work. Each section of the choir pursues its own path, but during a compositional process of 'zooming in and out', as it were, their individual qualities are highlighted. It is as if the initial sound object - which to begin with was far away- is brought nearer to us, in time and space. A variety of shortsegments, predominantly modal, but stemming from different chromatic 'locations', are often superimposed. The task of filtering out this 'amourphous' texture and giving its constituent elements - be they melodic or harmonic, or a combination of both - a renewed identity, becomes an essential compositional aim, through which the process of crystallization occurs. The main strategy of the piece is thus exploring the interrelationship between these two sound-worlds (modal and chromatic) and their temporal qualities (ancient and modern), musical or otherwise.