COMPOSITIONS

Duo/Trio/ small ensemble

• Pur ti miro (2023) commissioned by the COMMUTE FESTIVAL, Tallin for AZIONE IMPROVVISA ensemble

  From Monteverdi – Pur ti miro, from L’Incoronazione di Poppea (1643): a recomposition by Anna Dobrucka – Pur ti miro (2023) for soprano, accordion, electric guitar, theorbo and live electronics.

  This was a project for the residency in Eesti Muusika-ja Teatriakadeemia during the Commute festival in April 2023, with the italian ensemble Azione Improvvisa. The extremely unusual formation of the ensemble is focused on the exploration of new sound identities in the context of contemporary music, linking different approaches and experiences in a synergetic combination of musical instruments from different eras. The first part of the piece, not presented here, was written by another composer, Josef Zachariassen.

  Anna Dobrucka: “Since the original “Pur ti miro” is a dialogue between two lovers, I came up with the idea of a dialogue of breaths, sighs and whispers between accordion and soprano – as an echo and a pre-linguistic anticipation of the dialogue between the lovers in Busenello’s text, the intonated sounds gradually emerge, according to an interpretation of love characterised by tenderness and delicacy. As if those words were so difficult to pronounce that their direct and rather unmediated diction made them risk cracking and becoming silent. After analysing and breaking down the “settenari” of the literary text in Italian from Pur ti miro, I translated it into English, extracting some phrases and isolated words.

  Although the recomposition of Pur ti miro was not a personal choice (having been assigned to me by the festival’s artistic direction), I found it incredibly inspiring to work on a piece that allowed me both to investigate the timeless subject of love from an all-new angle, where the great harmonic, instrumental and expressive freedom that I had at my disposal was counterbalanced by the continuous reference to the original, considered precisely as a text to be recomposed, which therefore never ceases to be present and to continue speaking to us.”

• Celadon (2023) for flute and cello: MANUEL ZURRIA, FRANCESCO DILLON

  

  A piece that explores communication between the two players:

  Duration of notes ad libitum, synchrony not always required, quiet breathing.
  All haromonics realised very expressively.
  Attacks marked with the vertical dotted line are to be played together.

  Celadon ( 青瓷) is a type of pottery, typical of China that uses a glaze
  (a transparent vitreous coating) green or translucent blue-grey.

• Le pietre di Venezia (2022) for two organs and fixed media

  

  

  

  

      

  Premiere – Palazzo Pisani, Venezia 9 June 2022

  Alvise Mason – first organ, Costanza Pasquotti – second organ, Sviatoslav Avilov – registri

  Le pietre di Venezia

  1.       Aurora a Punta della Dogana
  2.       Masegni
  3.       Il tempo
  4.       Nel centro di San Marco

  The inspiration for the piece for two organs occurred to me when I discovered and delved into the history of St Mark’s Basilica, which among its many primacies also has that of having been the place where the idea of stereophonic music was born. The architecture of the Basilica allowed Venetian composers as early as 1500 to try out stereophonic sound by dividing the choirs and placing the singers in different spaces of the church. The piece for two organs was written strictly for the organs of the Concert Hall of Palazzo Pisani in Venice. The left organ makes no use of the pedalboard and has only one keyboard.

  The piece explores the journey of sound through space. It is inspired by the footsteps that every day get lost among stone labyrinths, deserted campi and campielli; by the reflections of water on walls and under bridges, by the sound of water at night; by a Venice as few have ever seen it – empty.

  In the first two parts of the piece, similar harmonies travel between the two instruments. The third part makes use of registers that, slowly extracted, produce the glissando effect. The third part is recorded live and then played back from eight loudspeakers around the audience. The sound is then mixed with pre-recorded ambient sounds from St. Mark’s Square and short recordings from the Capella Marciana of St. Mark’s Basilica. The sound will travel from one loudspeaker to another giving the impression of being in the centre of the moving sound.

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   Il brano per due organi è stato scritto rigorosamente per gli organi della Sala Concerti di Palazzo Pisani a Venezia. L’organo sinistro non fa uso della pedaliera ed ha una sola tastiera.

  Nelle prime due parti del brano armonie simili viaggiano tra i due strumenti. La terza parte si avvale dei registri che, estratti lentamente, producono l’effetto glissando. La terza parte viene registrata dal vivo e poi riprodotta da 8 altoparlanti intorno al pubblico. Il suono viene poi mescolato con suoni ambientali preregistrati provenienti dalla Piazza San Marco e le registrazioni brevi della Capella Marciana della Basilica di San Marco. Il suono viaggerà da un altoparlante all’altro dando l’impressione di essere al centro del suono in movimento.

• The mind is its own place (2022) for bass voice and ensemble,

  The premiere will take place at the Italian Festival Camino Contro Corrente XIVth edition Le brutture in March 2023

  Composition for bass voice and an ensemble of 5 instruments based on the extract from the Paradise Lost by John Milton

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  Composizione per voce di basso ed ensemble di 5 strumenti basata sul testo del Paradiso Perduto di John Milton

  “Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,

  […] this the seat

  That we must change for Heav’n, this mournful gloom

  For that celestial light? Be it so, since he Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid

  What shall be right: farthest from him is best

  Whom reason hath equall’d, force hath made supreme

  Above his equals.

  Farewell happy Fields Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrors, hail Infernal

  world, and thou profoundest Hell

  Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings

  A mind not to be chang’d by Place or Time.

  The mind is its own place, and in itself

  Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.”

• Bogurodzica (2022) for mixed choir, organ, violin and bass flute

  The composition is based on the text of the first anthem of Poland. 

• In Fuga (2020) for piano 4 hands

  Commisioned and performed by Duo Jost Costa at the Italian Festival Camino Contro Corrente XII (theme: Insecurity, Immigration) on January 16, 2021.

  In Fuga (On the run) has nothing to do with the musical form of Fuga though at first it may resemble one due to the repetition of the theme in different voices. In fuga tells the story of a blind race of people overwhelmed by their own destiny.  A tragic journey in which insurmountable obstacles follow one another like walls erected to keep strangers out. The escape ends with the resigned realization that the barriers are not only the material ones and there is therefore a little hope of getting around them.

• Prahran (2019) for koto duet

  Performed by Brandon Lee and Anna Dobrucka at the Tempo Rubato

  Melbourne, Australia 28.01.2020