Musica Ritrovata (2025)

Written for Ensemble Fractales.

I. loading music 1

II. night creatures

III. loading music 2

IV. city noir

V. loading music 3

VI. run like hell

VII. loading music 4

VIII. ignited eyes

IX. loading music 5

X. catacombs

How honest is the music we write? Is composing an act of embedding or building around the core of what we want to express? Do musical clichés stand in contrast to honest musical expression? These are some of the central questions Musica Ritrovata revolves around. Rather than providing answers, the piece reflects on the artistic process and addresses the persistent internal conflicts and doubts about what it means to write honest music.

These reflections are shown through the use of the narrative framing device of an imaginary machine or software (called Musica Ritrovata) that can take control of both a given ensemble and the composer’s brain, allowing musicians to connect directly to the composer’s - or another operator’s - mind. Rather than composing in real time, the composer can only choose between certain pre-established options; the rest is executed automatically by the program, without the possibility of active interference. This gives the piece a distinctly game-like and humorous character. At the same time, the idea of this passive operating principle becomes a way of reflecting on the tendency of our age to use technology in ways that shift responsibility away from ourselves.

The fact that the fictional software has cheekily been named in reference to Ligeti’s Musica Ricercata encapsulates all of this. Ligeti’s title can refer to a number of things, but most importantly in this case, it can simply mean music that has been (re-)searched, meaning, as I interpret it, music developed through an active search for new elements. Musica Ritrovata, in contrast, refers to music that has been found again; music that emerges from rediscovering material that already exists in our subconscious.