lettura del labirinto
per cembalo solo (2024)
67 minutes | no.36
Italo Calvino’s fantastical novel Invisible Cities (1972) is a frame story in which the common thread is a tireless conversation between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
The second, more emphasized narrative is a set of prose poems, in which the young merchant describes his travels, regaling the Tartar emperor with an ornate series of bite-sized fables.
Many evenings have passed when eventually the Khan confronts the Venetian with the question why he does not include his home city.
Marco Polo responds by saying: ‘every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice.’
By dividing the chapters into eleven thematic groups of five each, the book portrays a total of fifty-five fictitious cities, ingeniously fabricating a vast labyrinth for the mind.
By way of homage to Calvino, lettura del labirinto aspires to create a parallel universe by fathoming the map of Venice, itself a staggering warren of alleys, bridges and little squares.
The work depicts a walk through all six neighbourhoods (‘sestieri’), starting at the eastern corner of Castello and ending near the western edge of Dorsoduro.
During this so-called Eulerian trail any feature on the map is visited only once, while crossing the same path twice is avoided.
Along the way we pause at fifty-five locations: 39 ‘campi’, Piazza San Marco, another 14 ‘campi’ and 1 ‘ultima fermata’.
Whereas some squares look deceivingly similar, as if triggering a game of spot the differences, others have distinct, sometimes even unique characteristics:
the leaning bell tower of San Pietro, the spiral staircase of the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, the striking symmetry of the Procuratie Vecchie and the Procuratie Nuove, the Ponte dei Pugni just off Campo San Barnaba, to name just a few.
And although these features are not fictional, their musical interpretation is imaginary:
a collection of miniatures, evoking a feeling of getting lost and forever being incarcerated in an urban maze.
[2] Cannaregio [13’15”]
[3] Santa Croce [06’40”]
[4] San Polo [07’30”]
[5] San Marco [12’10”]
[6] Dorsoduro [14’50”]
When performed in its entirety, lettura del labirinto lasts approx. 67 minutes.
It consists of six consecutive movements, each dedicated to a ‘sestiere’ (district or neighbourhood) in the city of Venice.
As an alternative of performing the entire work, one is permitted to play each of the six movements on its own.
photo: Venezia fuori dalla pandemia (2021) by Gianfranco Missiaja (reproduced with permission)
Scoring
harpsichord solo (2 manuals + 4' + lute)
composed with financial support from
Performing Arts Fund NL
Dedicated to the memory of
Louis Andriessen
