Riccardo Perugini - "Valse Parabolique"

Riccardo Perugini - composer
Sequoia - piano and recording
Andrea Fumelli - sound design, mix and master

The matrix of this piece is to be found in the valses asymétriques: a type of French folk dance in five, eight or even eleven beats. These waltzes, unlike the canonical one in three quarters, include a continuous alternation of ternary and binary figures.
"Valse Parabolique" extremizes the rhythmic concept of alternating three and two: this piece is in fact imagined as a dance aboard a parabolic plane (particular flights that allow to simulate the complete absence of gravity).

The journey aboard a parabolic plane is divided into four phases:
1) Take-off: Earth gravity.
2) Ascent: strong acceleration, gravity increases considerably (hypergravity) and passengers are pressed against their seats.
3) Free fall: passengers experience total weightlessness and fluctuate (microgravity).
4) We accelerate again and return to Earth’s gravity.

"Valse parabolique" follows these four phases, which become the necessary excuse to decline and display the binary and ternary rhythmic elements of the valses asymétriques in many forms through variations, compressions, dilations, transfigurations and imbalances.

Valse parabolique - (for piano and artificial reverbs)

I. Sol
II. Mi
III. Fa

Riccardo Perugini - composer
Andrea Fumelli - recording, sound design mix and master
Sara Mazzarotto - violinist 
Francesco Vernero - violist
Claudio Pasceri - cellist

Madri - (for string trio)

Riccardo Perugini - "Vogue Fem"

Riccardo Perugini - composer
Sequoia - piano and recording
Andrea Fumelli - sound design, mix and master

Il Vogue, o voguing, è una danza house moderna e altamente stilizzata nata alla fine degli anni '80 nelle ballroom di Harlem. Ballato principalmente da persone afroamericane e latine gay e transgender, si ispira allo stile degli antichi geroglifici egizi e alle famose immagini di modell* sulle copertine di Vogue Magazine. Il Voguing è caratterizzato da una serie di pose plastiche sorprendenti, come se si stesse posando per un servizio fotografico. I movimenti di braccia e gambe sono angolari, lineari, rigidi e si muovono rapidamente da una posizione statica all'altra. Musicalmente parlando "Vogue Fem" è un'esplorazione ritmica estrema della sincope, fortemente ispirato alla musica house dei primi anni novanta e ai tipici riff di pianoforte che caratterizzano le canzoni dell'epoca.

Vogue Fem - (for electric piano)

Riccardo Perugini - "Studio natatorio"

Dimitri Betti - portative organ
Andrea Fumelli - recording, mix and master

Recorded at Centro Onda d'Urto in Arezzo. Instrument built by Francesco Gibellini in 2019 based on the paintings of Hans Memling (1436-1494).

Studio natatorio - (for portative organ) - Dimitri Betti

Riccardo Perugini - "La natura delle cose" five matryoshka songs for soprano and thirteen instruments
Dedicated to Laura Zecchini.

I. So perché la fenice
II. Qualunque cosa
III. Prima che una persona
IV. La superficie cova
V. Hummingbird egg

Laura Zecchini - soprano
Ymar Caguing - conductor
Emilio Gatti, Leonardo Ciapetti - recording
Andrea Fumelli - mix and master
Francesco Sottile - coordinator
 Chiara Giommetti - flute
Giulia D'Agata - alto flute
Raffaele Appolloni - clarinet in Bb
Carmen Greco - tenor saxophone
Matteo Brandini - alto saxophone
Luigi Gagliardi - Trumpet in Bb
Verena Menardi - Trumpet in C
Alessandro Scerbo - Trombone
Isaac Peruzzi - guitar
Federico Guido Ricci - violin
Laura Bemporad - viola
Riccardo Chiarini - cello
Lorenzo Buffa - double bass

"So perché la fenice sarebbe evasa in un atomico saluto dal frigo turchese, facendo virare dal neon
bianco a questa aurora di grano la qualità del suo cuore irrimediabilmente cangiante.
Qualsiasi cosa il meteo dica finirà per andar bene in questo giorno interno
dove un’eventuale luce custodisce nelle rifrazioni il fine
prima che una persona sia visibile ci sono
gli ingredienti al completo nel suo occhio
di embrione sono: benedetto, la camicia
il colombo e un dinosauro.
La superficie cova
la sua sorte
nel mondo
neutro."
Poem by Leonardo De Santis

La natura delle cose is an educational piece designed for young students and ensembles approaching to contemporary music for the first time. In this piece, each player uses only the notes that they can produce without manipulating or intervening on their instruments: the open strings for the guitar and the strings, the harmonics in first position for the brass instruments and the single note that is produced without pressing any key for the woodwinds. The goal of this huge compositional and performative limitation is the research and expression of a gestural purity of sound and form and the recreation of an artificial innocence through a proto instrumentality of writing. The instruments are reduced to primitive, non-specialized objects, which keep their timbre, technical, figurative and melodic possibilities unexpressed. We can therefore say that the writing of the instruments is similar to a stem cell and that the entire piece is in an embryonic stage: music isn’t born yet.

Recorded at Auditorium Latini at Scuola di Musica di Fiesole.

La natura delle cose - (for soprano and thirteen instruments)

Riccardo Perugini - "Strum und drang"

Giovanni Martinelli - classical guitar
Andrea Fumelli - recording, mix and master
Riccardo Perugini - composer

Recorded at Centro Onda d'Urto in Arezzo.

StRum und drang -(for solo guitar)

Riccardo Perugini - "Courante alternatif"

Sequoia - piano and recording
Andrea Fumelli - mix and master
Riccardo Perugini - composer

The title and concept behind this piece originated from a play on words between the ancient French dance, the "courante," and the French term for alternating electric current namely "courant alternatif." The result of this bizarre juxtaposition led me to merge the rhythmic and textural elements typical of Renaissance dance with the concept of a continuous alternation between left and right hand, almost as if it were a sine wave that is involuntarely twitching with electricity.

Courante alternatif - (for solo piano)

I. Partimen
II. Viadeyra
III. Comiat
IV. Serena

Deniz Ayşe Birdal - singing cellist
Leonardo De Santis, Daniela Brunelli, Francesca Maria Maci - librettists
Andrea Fumelli - recording, mix and master
Riccardo Perugini - composer

Partimen 
(Ciò che rimane)

Colpiscimi ancora
percosso senti dentro
atomi e stringhe deformano
dalle viscere
il tuo intimo nero.
Pago l’esito clamore
e pieni inni rotondi
migrati
propagarsi
immani.
Avanzano nevralgiche galassie
rimangono sparsi questi ori.
Lasciato sfogare il rintocco
resta il maglio di noi
finiti vasti in un dove.

poem by Daniela Brunelli and Leonardo De Santis

Viadeyra
(al limone)

Vengo illuminato
alla mia madre aliena.
Dolce Altra città
forse cresce anche qui
ego verde, il limone.
Luce e acqua sono il succo del limone.
Io provengo al mondo
sono nato mandato
alla luce del giorno.
Madre in più tu raccogli
fra gli altri, me, il più acerbo
Sporge luce tra i rami.
Altra
vengo anche da qui.
Luce e acqua sono il succo del limone.
Puoi gremirti di me
sono un Altro
come scorza contieni
questo verde embrione.
Luce e acqua sono il succo del limone.

poem by Leonardo De Santis

Comiat
(libertà di Dicembre)

Ti assecondo voce stridula
con la lama cimelio di damasco.
Infine prostrato reciderò
dita come malerbe.
Veicolo cognitivo io
sommo fra i miei principi.
Brulichio di pillole
in alcolico avvicendarsi
stentata ascesi
per eccesso di vita
l'oro appena secreto.
Un giorno sul mio corpo esangue 
sarà invocata la legge del più forte.

poem by Daniela Brunelli

Serena

Scappo da lui ogni sera
io pensiero puro
trappola mortale di ricordi.
Ho i timpani lacerati
“non urlare”
chi è
chi è
chi è
Rinneghi te stesso
trabocchi fiumi di mercurio
che ammorbano il sangue.
Scappo da te ogni sera
io pensiero puro
di me stessa eletta carnefice
grumo di carne livida
“non gridare”
dov’è
dov’è
dov’è
Rinneghi te stesso
sotto mani di pietra.
Sei morto con me
immaginario intreccio d’incompatibili visioni.
Ti uccidi pensiero puro
ora taci.

poem by Francesca Maria Maci

Recorded during the 5th ECHI festival Arezzo (studio recording).

Troubadouritz - (for singing cello)

Astigma - (for two violas)

A Chantar - (for voice and electronics)

Motherless Child - (for voice and electronics)

Riccardo Perugini - composer, countertenor

Salastina Resident Artists
Meredith Crawford - viola
Johanna Borenstein - bass flute
Maia Jasper White - violin
Kevin Kumar - violin

Leonardo De Santis - librettist

Adan Alonso - recording
Andrea Fumelli (Attila Sound) - sound design, mix and master

Recorded at Pasadena Conservatory of Music in occasion of the 2023 "Sounds Promising" program.

To my father.

La ragione di un prato

Eri tutto per me.
Eri il motivo per cui esistevo.
Eri l’immagine della mia vita
e guardarla mi nutriva.
Oggi la musica buona di un documentario
dichiarava umani i pesci chirurgo,
le api del legno, il nostro giardino
e i miei occhi hanno visto che non c’eri.
Avevo cercato di fermarti, di convincerti
che eri logico e utile,
che ti amavo perché eri importante,
come se non fossi fuori dalle mie parole.
Adesso lo so, io non posso conoscerti.
Ho parlato da solo finora,
come se tu fossi qui ad ascoltarmi,
e la mia vita fosse la ragione di un prato,
ma io non sono mai stato l’erba mancante,
ho solo accettato il profumo del taglio.
Ora che darti del tu fallisce
la mia importanza si vergogna,
sono debole, inadeguato
e piangere il tuo viso sarebbe mentire,
ma io volevo bene a certe tue pareidolìe.
Peccato avere perso questo tempo
in un rapporto utile con te,
anche se tu non sei tu.
L’erba non è serena quando si nutre.
Vorrei averti amato inutilmente.

poem by Leonardo De Santis

La ragione di un prato - (for vocoded countertenor and quartet)

Vita, nascita e morte di un arpeggio.

Giacomo Gabusi - organ
Riccardo Perugini - composer, electronics, mix and master

Dedicato a Andrea Fumelli.

Sequenza - (for organ and synthesizer)

"Fiore di plastica"

Riccardo Perugini - composer
Leonardo De Santis - librettist
Katharine Dain - soprano
Amatis Piano Trio:
Lea Hausmann - violin
Samuel Shepherd - cello
Mengjie Han - piano

"La norma ci stringe 
in un tiepido rogo.
Da noi fiori di plastica, 
smaglianti ermafroditi 
neonati e paladini, 
scapperete 
se ci sciogliamo un poco 
e scopriamo rosso 
il nostro nuovo frutto. 
Bracconieri in fuga da noi, 
la minaccia di un futuro radioso." 

poem by Leonardo De Santis

"Fiore di plastica" is a hymn against the discrimination of transgender people in today's society. The whole structure winds over a passacaglia bass (G#,F#, E, D, C, Bb) on which the harmonies move and blend in a continuous process of transformation: the dark tones that characterize the beginning of the piece progressively become brighter and assume evermore transparency and light. The passacaglia is therefore a symbol of transition and, at the same time, of the chains due to social standards. The ending of the piece, which swings around a very clear D major, is free from the passacaglia The structure breaks, opening a glimmer of hope."
 
Recorded and broadcasted by NPO RADIO 4 on 02/12/2018, Live performance Het Concertgebouw (Amsterdam).

Fiore di Plastica - Live - (for soprano, violin, cello and prepared piano)

Temblor: excerpt from the chamber opera Five Wild Songs
Commissioned by Echi festival

Ensemble Stamina:
Riccardo Perugini - composer
Leonardo De Santis - libettist
Selene Zuppardo - jazz mezzosoprano
Natalie Picone - flute
Niccolò Venturi - clarinet
Santiago Fernandez - synthesizer
Andrea Fumelli - sound design/live electronics/recordings, mix and master

Five Wild Songs is a poetic, musical and theatrical experience that tells five stories, stories of "social misfits",  of outcasts, of constrained people: of humans. The voice, through acting, singing and improvising, leads the listener into the inner world of each character, attempting to give the listener a varied perspective, as intimate as respectful, of the idea of freedom.
 
The protagonists of the stories narrated in Five Wild Songs are the emblems of completely different forms of freedom. The songs are sorted according to an imaginary path through the seven stages of grief identified by the Swiss psychiatrist Elisabet Kubler Ross,  which act as a leitmotif, as a subliminal emotional guide for the public.

"Finalmente sono mia
nata appena
in piedi ferma tremo
se non scelgo
verde uragano.
Finalmente rido
accanto al cielo vivo."

poem by Leonardo De Santis

Recorded in March 2019 at Centro Onda d'Urto (Arezzo).
A special thanks to Andrea Fumelli and to the Centro Onda d'Urto.

V. Temblor (excerpt from the chamber opera "Five WIld Songs")

LIBERA: excerpt from the chamber opera Five Wild Songs
Commissioned by Echi festival

Ensemble Stamina:
Riccardo Perugini - composer
Leonardo De Santis - libettist
Selene Zuppardo - jazz mezzosoprano
Natalie Picone - flute
Niccolò Venturi - clarinet
Santiago Fernandez - synthesizer
Andrea Fumelli - sound design/live electronics/recordings, mix and master

Five Wild Songs is a poetic, musical and theatrical experience that tells five stories, stories of "social misfits",  of outcasts, of constrained people: of humans. The voice, through acting, singing and improvising, leads the listener into the inner world of each character, attempting to give the listener a varied perspective, as intimate as respectful, of the idea of freedom.
 
The protagonists of the stories narrated in Five Wild Songs are the emblems of completely different forms of freedom. The songs are sorted according to an imaginary path through the seven stages of grief identified by the Swiss psychiatrist Elisabet Kubler Ross,  which act as a leitmotif, as a subliminal emotional guide for the public.

 5. In L-I-B-E-R-A and Temblor the singer herself becomes the protagonist of the story and speaks of the reputation and condition of women in today's society, of how anger, rebellion and disdain seem to take on a pink shade if felt by a woman and so seem to have a different value and significance.  "Today I get rid of my name in exchange for respect. And if I will no longer be anything not being a woman, and if I will no longer be anyone without my name, I will have never been anything, I will have never been me. And I want to be me"

"Prepara il futuro per cena. 
Digiuna, sporcati magari 
senza la barba fatta. 
Scappa da questa tavola 
bambina: non darti un nome.
Ma chiamati, Spera! 
non sei nata gemella di un solo dovere. 
Prima scegli cosa sei. 
Partecipa estranea. 
Non fare parte, 
non fare la tua parte. 
Decidi 
se «donna» è una parola 
decidi di te, 
disponi calabrone tra operaie api: 
insorgi, riabbi, 
ciò che non è più tuo."

poem by Leonardo De Santis

Recorded in March 2019 at Centro Onda d'Urto (Arezzo).
A special thanks to Andrea Fumelli and Centro Onda d'Urto.

L - I - B - E - R - A (interlude from the chamber opera "Five Wild Songs")

"Ciò che rimane" commissioned by DUOroboros with the collaboration of Fondazione Luigi Tronci (museum of percussion instruments).

Riccardo Perugini - composer
DUOroboros: Dagmar Bathmann - cello and voice/Omar Cecchi - percussions
Leonardo De Santis, Daniela Brunelli - librettists

Complete instrumentation: singing cello, vibraphone, 3 burmabells (Bb, C, Db), 2 balinese gongs (G, D), bell plate (A), 3 japanese bells* (E), gong, tam-tam*, tampang.

*instruments commissioned by Giacomo Puccini to UFIP for his Madama Butterfly.

"Colpiscimi ancora. 
Percosso senti dentro 
atomi e stringhe deformano 
dalle viscere
il tuo intimo nero.  
Pago l’esito clamore  
e pieni inni rotondi  
migrati  
propagarsi  
immani.  
Avanzano nevralgiche galassie  
rimangono sparsi questi ori. 
Lasciato sfogare il rintocco,  
resta il maglio di noi  
finiti vasti in un dove."

poem by Leonardo De Santis and Daniela Brunelli

Recorded in November 2019 by Andrea Fumelli at Fondazione Luigi Tronci (Pistoia), mix and master by Andrea Fumelli.

[all the instruments used for this performance are produced in Pistoia by UFIP and are on exhibit in Fondazione Luigi Tronci's museum.]

Fondazione Luigi Tronci: http://www.fondazioneluigitronci.org/
DUOroboros: https://duoroboros.org/

Ciò che rimane - (for singing cello and metallophones)

Riccardo Perugini (1996) is a Tuscan composer known for his provocative blend of experimental, pop, and early music. Perugini's compositional journey began under the guidance of Mauro Montalbetti and Andrea Portera and has been furthered by world-renowned composers including Unsuk Chin, Mauro Lanza, Detlev Glanert, Peter Eötvös, Marcos Balter, Luca Francesconi, and Francesco Filidei. Perugini's music has been commissioned and performed in numerous institutions and festivals, such as the Biennale d'arte di Venezia, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the 81st Composers Conference (Boscawen), the Cantiere Internazionale d'arte di Montepulciano, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington), the 2 Agosto Competition (Bologna), the Fondazione Teatro Grande di Brescia, the Zhejiang Yichuang International Music Center, the Royal Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the TorinoDanza Festival in collaboration with the Teatro Stabile di Torino, the Teatro Elfo Puccini and the MilanOltre Festival, the Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin), the Summer Sounds Festival (Porvoo) and the Hangzhou Contemporary Music Festival. 
 
In 2023 the Gioventù Musicale d'Italia, together with the Ensemble Forma Libera, AERCO and Tactus Records commissioned his second opera "Il pellegrino del nulla" and in 2024 he was selected as a Fromm Foundation Composer Fellow at the 80th Composers Conference.
 
He has been awarded by Kevin Puts, Salvatore Sciarrino, Magnus Lindberg, Kalevi Aho, Giovanni Sollima, Fabio Vacchi, Christopher Theofanidis, and Michael Torke. Perugini's music has been performed by some of the leading contemporary classical music orchestras,  ensembles and soloists, including the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (conducted by Alessandro Cadario), the Orchestra della Toscana, the Avanti! Kamariorkesteri, the Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Collective Lovemusic, the Shanghai New Music Ensemble, the Conference Ensemble (conducted by Vimbayi Kaziboni) the Amatis Piano Trio, the Salastina Music Society, the Akademiska Damkören Lyran, the Divertimento Ensemble, the Sunrise Quartet, Kari Kriikku, Roberto Fabbriciani, Alexander Baillie and soloists from Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Talea, Quartetto Prometeo, American Modern Ensemble and Ensemble Linea.
​
His music has been broadcasted on Rai3, Rai5, NPO Radio 4, Yleisradio Oy and is published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni – SugarMusic, EMA Vinci Records, Da_sh Music, and Tactus Records. He has been artistic director of the ECHI Festival from 2020 to 2023.

Riccardo Perugini - compositore

Popular tracks