Feim Ibrahimi (1935–1997)

Dialogo

Ibrahimi wrote his Dialogo for cello and piano in 1997, just before he died. The composer dedicated this piece of music to his daughter and her husband, in the event of their wedding, played by a pianist and a cellist. The piece is full of intense and expressive sounds and colours, sometimes avant-garde, almost combined with primitive and basic Balkan rhythms, like 5/8, 7/8,10/8 or 11/8. The author also uses semitones as a reminiscence of national instruments, not hiding his inspiration from B. Bartok, Z. Kodály, L. Janáček. The piece starts with meditative melodies and each of the two instruments (cello and piano) play their part as if they were having a dialogue. Later on, they continue together; from time to time, they communicate arguments and synergy with each other. In the end, notes are more optimistic, conveying a message of faith in life and in the people who live it.

Aleksandër Peçi (*1951)

 Cartesius Cantus 

Cartesius Cantus is a piano cycle of 24 compositions, divided into six parts. In each part there are four compositions inspired from a specific ‘Cantus’ as follows: Albanian Cantus, Gregorian Cantus, Cantus della Natura, Cantus del Mundo, Cantus Homáge and Albanian Polyphony. Peçi uses the Cartesian Coordinate System to achieve a rhythmic pulsation from three basic values (1/8, 1/16, 1/32), using them in different combinations. It was exactly in this cycle that for the first time he managed to combine mathematical methods with singing styles,  attempting to attain new sound expressions and a balance between rationality and emotions.

Cartesius Cantus No. 1

This piece has the subtitle Pluie lunaire (Moon Rain) and it represents rays of moonlight interrupted by the rain, a melody represented by colourful dissonant chords. The melody is characterised by a C sharp in Phrygian Mode, which is the axis of the modus in both directions, up from the right hand, and down to the left. Peçi uses the Seventh interval and its inversions, which he also calls it as “Oi-interval”, as a common Albanian element in his music. 

The use of this interval is not limited only in the building of the melody, but also in the chord structure. There is an interesting fusion of three elements in this composition: the melody, the harmony and the mathematical pulsation. 

Cartesius Cantus no. 12, 

This piece bearing the subtitle Cyclone structure, is dedicated to the subject of global warming, which is common in Peçi’s work. Based on this topic, he wrote his Plantears, using Polygravité CC2 for the first time as his compositional logo. The cyclone in the piece is represented by an ostinato, based in the lower piano register. In the cyclone, flying objects are personified, represented by dissonant chords. It is particularly interesting to observe the regularity of the rotating cyclone and the irregular pulsation of 'flying objects' (the dissonant chords). Peçi used a Carouselle structure - his own technique, meaning he created several layers (five in this piece), in which the melody or the flying object rotates. In the base, there is also a citation of the Albanian Mourning Song “Ditë e zezë” (Dark Day). The sounds in this song give the composition an even more dramatic feeling.

Espace Triste 

This melodyis based on an original Peçi’s motif used in the Canadian movie soundtrack Woman Without Wings in 2002. Later, in 2004, Peçi rewrote this part for two cellos, making it a dialogue, and dedicated it to Bledar Zajmi. The main motive and the music lines, which came later on, are rich in colors and ornamentations, as a typical inspiration from Northern Albania music. The sorrowful music communicates the feeling of hard life in the Albanian mountains.

Thomas Simaku (*1958)

Raggio Lunare

The music starts with a single note of middle C-sharp and opens up to form a chord of two major seconds a semitone apart. Through this process of multiplication, it gradually encompasses the whole chromaticism; i.e. the same tetrachord is presented in three different transpositions. To put it differently, the total chromaticism is made-up of just one specific structure, which retains its identity, despite its three different chromatic ‘locations’. Whilst these details are a small part of the pre-compositional work that deals with pitches and their role in the articulation of the macro-structure (some pitches here matter more than others), the main idea for the piece is an extra-musical one: an imaginary ‘object’ that gradually reveals its three-dimensional quality. 

Sonic resonances are thus essential to the imagery of music here, and the piano is the ideal instrument for it. The pitch/chord formations mentioned above could well be described as three specific ‘constellations’ operating in their own time and space, as well as in constant interaction with one another. During this interactive process, which occurs within a predominantly chromatic environment, a wide spectrum of harmonic colours, nuances and gestures are obtained, including some massive chordal structures. Metaphorically, but in no way programmatically, I have likened the main idea for this piece to that of a ray that stems from a sound-nucleus freely orbiting its ‘lunar-like’ sonic galaxy – hence the title Raggio Lunare. 

The world premiere was given on November 4th by Egli Prifti at Martinů hall at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

Ed e’ subito sera - Feim Ibrahimi in Memoriam

Written in 1997-1998, this piece was dedicated to the memory of Feim Ibrahimi — a close friend and colleague of the author — whose untimely death in August 1997 came as a shock to him. Taken from the volume ‘Acque e Terre’, Ed e’ subito sera is arguably the most famous poem by the Nobel Prize-winning Sicilian poet Salvatore Quasimodo. Although the relationship to the poem is not programmatic, this title seemed symbolically appropriate. Also, Feim’s last work was a Quasimodo setting, which he composed just before he died in Turin. 

The world première was given on the 25th July by members of  the Tirana Spectrum Ensemble, Astrit Selita (Cello) and Eglantina Grapshi (Piano) at Ryedale Festival in England. 

Salvatore Quasimodo — Ed e’ Subito Sera 

Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra 
trafitto da un raggio di sole 
ed e’ subito sera. 

Everyone stands alone at the heart of the world 
pierced by a ray of sunshine, 
and suddenly night falls.