Lunedi’ dell’Angelo (2002), 18m00s

Roberta Vacca

The work is an interaction between voices for a reflection on the writings of one of the most important italian mistics, the Blessed Angela of Foligno. The piece is articulated within two parameters: the sounds of the voice and the space of the listeners. The division in “steps”(on the tape represented by latin sentences) is necessary to show the itinerary and represents how the urgent need of telling a story of ecstasy puts together the necessity of a puntual division to emphasize the progression. The narrative line develops throughout the piece as does the voyage of a pilgrim. It is the discussion of passage that is fondamental in the theories of cristian thought that have made “Exodos” the favorite book of the homo mysticus, because it represents the exit from oneself desert into divine intimicy and joy. The opposition of these two elements marks the furrow created in the meditating soul. The relationship between the elements generates a transitive being pulled towards space and beyond space, towards sound and beyound sound in all its polyhedrical sides. The result is a dreamy atmosphere that is sistematically interrupted by elements that are extraneous to the story that the soul is telling: a clear sign of the wish to remember an existing bodily presence. The construction in sections and the play on the words in the text (using also other european languages) are put into relationship with the narrative influences. The flow, rationally articulated but plastically shaded, is the expression of the labyrinth of the mind. The work on the text is a musical translation of yearning in constant change. The balance between life on earth and that other life is the dominating aspect of the whole work, felt in it’s dramatic contemporaneity.

I assembled some Blessed’s letters and other papers upon her life. From the simultaneous presence of voices (coming out from characters not phisically visible but discernible like human presences, with reflection and commentary function upon what is happening, divine presence, who prescribe his terms to the Blessed, and choral presence, who represent the Church official voice, and also for this reason used almost in latin) emerge one voice (Angela), just like the audience moves from the global vision of the story to the inner side of her mind. The tape is realized with one only human voice that represents the human commentary to Angel’s story, the divine voice and the chorus one, and another one (vocalist’ voice) that represent Angela’s alter-ego, with no electronic treatment. For realizing this, I used only DiGi Design Pro-Tools and many of its plugins, necessary to transform one human voice into a multitude and into different ones, until sounds like bells or everything else. The materials treatments and elaborations produce, more than an imaginary sonorous world where a real voice is moving, a contrapuntal texture on different levels who gives the work’s structure. Angela’s voice is disengaged from the rest, it is as real as possible, with no particular electronic treatment, and tells her story by her point of view. On the tape, more than the text written on the score and sometimes used with fragments, there are some prayers (Pater Noster, Ave Maria, De Profundis, Litanies) and other noises and vocal sounds. The best way to listen to this work is an a circular place, with the audience in the middle and four speakers around (is the place is not too large).

Notes on the Blessed Angela from Foligno (1248ca. - 1309)
She entered the Third Franciscan Order in her fortythird year after the death of her mother, her husband and her children. She dedicated her life to great penitence and to the imitation of Jesus Christ by the example of St. Francis of Assisi. Having reached the height of comunion with God through meditation of the misteries of Jesus and Holy Communion, and having overcome hard trials and terrible temptations, she died on the fourth of January 1309. Her body is venerated in the church of St. Francis in Foligno.

Performances

Rien à voir (12)
Sunday, September 15, 2002
Tolérance (concert pour Amnistie internationale)