A Dream Within A Dream for double choir

The Sonata for violoncello is the first solo cello work I have written, and it was commissioned by the CellosMagics International Cello Festival in Valencia, Spain in 2022. The idea of the piece stemmed from some basic inspirations, namely, on the one hand, the Spanish Baroque and
on the other the traditional music of Andalusia. The Sonata is divided into four movements. The first movement is a recurring idea in my works, which I like to call the "groping in the darkness": the entire movement springs from the alternation of two notes (C and D-flat), which represent the vital core of the typical Andalusian Phrygian cadence, and ends with an expressive cadential clarification.
The contrasting second movement is dominated by a recurring thematic element, the chant heard at the beginning, which is nothing but an interpretation of the typical "Cante Jondo" from the Spanish folk tradition. In some passages the cello arpeggiates pizzicato chords,
evoking the "remates" of the flamenco guitar. In the third movement, almost a Sarabande, the breath on the third pulse gives the theme
a serene airiness, which is strongly opposed to the impetus of the Finale. The fourth movement brings together the thematic elements of the first and second movements, developing them seamlessly in a virtuosic flow, and bringing out the most fiery and passionate aspect of the Sonata.

III.

The Lament for Violin and Piano, dedicated to the memory of Polish composer K. Penderecki, is a short piece commissioned by the Deutscher Musikrat in 2022, the result of a synthesis of some of the Maestro's compositional ideas to which I am particularly attached, and which accompanied me during my training as a composer.

The use of the pizzicato of the violin in conjunction with the echo of the piano, like a rocking, is reminiscent of the pizzicato chords of some of the experimental pieces of early Penderecki - Polymorphia, De Natura Sonoris -, while the melody that follows, articulated on continuous semitone movements, elicits that almost romantic expressiveness that is typical of the Penderecki of the 1970s-80s, that of the Polish Requiem.

Before the close, which reprises the initial pizzicato gesture, the piano lifts a prayer upward, with chord-sighs intensified by the ambient action of the forte pedal.

Luca Sutto - Lamento Penderecki In Memoriam

V. Fuga

IV. Sarabanda

III. Corrente

II. Dialogo

I. Overture

I Won't Pay (From The Suite "Il Diciottesimo Punto")

I composed "Stay Close" using a theme that I had written at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Despite having been using a "sigh" motif in my other works, including my recent Sonata for Violoncello (third movement) and Suite for Euphonium (fourth piece), this is new: in fact, for this piece I have decided to depart from a predetermined musical structure, and instead composed something that evolves from the first to the second part without any repetition, without any need for consistency.

The first part, which I have candidly called an "interrupted fugue," continually disrupts the natural counterpoint of the parts with blocks of silence. The core gesture of the fugue becomes the germinal cell of the second part, a Finale in choral form, that summarizes my probably impossible attempt to reconquer tonality in my music. 

The second part especially is full of personal struggles, emotiveness, and maybe nostalgia. The title, "Stay Close," harks back to an old note in my sketchbook from three years ago - and its meaning remains a secret.

Stay Close

Composition • Piano • #lucasuttomusic
C minor gang! ♟️

Luca Sutto

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