Il leggio suona (2024)

Il leggio suona (The Music Stand Plays) is a 2024 piece co-composed with Mattia Leone. The core concept behind its creation is the exploration of the timbral properties of the most omnipresent object on concert hall stages, utilizing it for once as a fully-fledged musical instrument rather than for its traditional purpose. The music stand thus takes center stage: positioned at the center of the hall, it is excited by a performer using various objects, including a bow, a brush, a rubber tube… The result is a continuous timbral exploration that redefines the boundaries between musical instrument and stage prop.

The variety of sounds that can emerge from a music stand is astonishing. In the initial phase of this project, dedicated to researching the object's timbral possibilities, various trials gradually led to the definition of actual instrumental techniques, allowing for the production of highly distinct and, above all, reproducible sounds. This approach resulted in the creation of a score designed to provide the performer with the most specific possible instructions regarding sound production and the intended musical outcome.

Supporting the music stand in what could be defined as its declamation is live electronics, handled by a second performer. Throughout the performance, musical fragments from the music stand are continuously recorded in real time and fed into a modular granulator, which breaks down and occasionally refines these "sound photographs" extracted from the stand.