Premier prix du Concours de composition Premio Paradiso 2000

Horizon Carré is a piece entirely composed starting from the spatial disposition of the musicians. The best and more practical way of performing it is for an amplified ensemble; the audience is surrounded by the sounds coming from the performers. The instruments’ displacement is very particular: there are two non-homogeneous quartets, one internal to the audience and one external. The “twin” instruments (the two woodwinds, the two brass, the two strings, etc.) are placed on the same diagonal (one internal the other external), the winds are placed at the left and the “pizzicato” section at the right, a more classical quartet is behind and a more modern quartet is in front, a jazz quartet is all around and a more classical is inside and so on.

Every section of the piece is an exploration/explosion of one or more particular spatial relationships to such extent that it wouldn’t have any sense performing Horizon Carré in the traditional disposition. The consequences on the compositional techniques are very stimulating for me and I think I will go further exploring in the future. I experienced with a writing based on the spatial sound position, creating and managing different kinds of motions (linear, rotary, frontal, random motions), but it is only a beginning for me.