it took so much violence to become this soft

About

Premier performance: April 20th 2023
Jas Wolfert, voice
Conservatoriumzaal, Spring Festival 2023

it took so much violence to become this soft is a series of pieces based on my research on ideasthesia, a neurocognitive phenomenon that indicates all those associations between concepts and perceptions typical of human brain’s pattern of thinking and processing reality. It is related to synesthesia but instead of linking two different senses, it regards the connection between concepts and sensations – somewhat like the ancient question of reason and heart, intellect and emotions, as well as Dionysus and Apollo, Florestan and Eusebius. The performer is meant to work on already-known pieces by varying some elements of them, in order to look for new horizon of meanings.

In the first performance by Jas Wolfert, this theoretical basis is reflected in the composition on multiple levels, like the chosen instrumentation and in the sound part itself. In fact, the composition consists of a pre-existing melody, Billy Budd’s Aria in Benjamin Britten’s opera – a piece chosen based on the performer’s repertoire – , and short fragmentations and/or variations, to which I applied a different text in a different language than the performer’s native one. The aim is to transpose the emotional bearing of the work -known and familiar- to an unfamiliar and very different text, of which no translation or interpretation indications are provided to the performer. The overall outcome thus integrates the new semantic bearing and the old emotional one, in order to create a whole new experience. 

The choice of Billy Budd is particularly lucky in relation to the entire goal of this performance, which deals with new interpretations of manhood that are still particularly relevant today. This is reflected in a dimension of relationship with the body guided by exploration and questioning. To the ideasthesia concept, infact, I added the research in a recent interest I earned regarding interactive devices. Thus, the whole piece ends up as a sound based performance in which the singer is called to interact with an automatic digital sound production system activated by body contact, creating a dialogue between physical and sound features. One could also consider the piece as a duet of body and voice, going precisely to emphasize the idea-aesthetic cognitive phenomenon.

for single player and device

5’00” – 10’00”