ECCOMI

Description

for mezzo-soprano, children’s choir, piano and narrator

by Elena Cattini

This musical work places the listener in front of the scene of the Annunciation. The text is taken from the Gospel of Luke. The ensemble is made up of a mezzo-soprano (Maria), a mostly two-part children’s choir (the angel Gabriele), a narrator and a piano.

Mary’s interventions have an intimate and delicate character and are not limited to the few sentences contained in the biblical text. With some vocalizations he expresses grace or disturbance, comments to himself on the Angel’s announcement, with sweetness and amazement, and joins the choir of children’s voices in enthusiasm for the glorious future of the Son of the Most High. In his singing he never abandons humility, as is evident in his last words of acceptance of the angelic message, pronounced in response and in a medium-low register.

Musically, the composition is based on some very simple figures that undergo slight transformations or recontextualizations during the work. The concept of eternity (“and will reign forever”) takes on particular prominence in the center of the piece, rendered by the piano with the superimposition of circular drawings which lead to a culminating point which is soon dampened in the amazed and restless comment of the Virgin. The scalar systems of reference intend to maintain a climate of mystery, without preventing the power of the message of the annunciation from reaching the listener in all its intensity and emotional strength.