freelance composer/conductor Caneva Sara

”Eclipse” – visual cues and soundscape orchestration

The core of my compositional thoughts is the sound quality, declined in many branches of the listening perception, also in relation to the gestures that produce sound and to the environment. "Eclipse" is an opera project for singing soloists, choir, one percussionist and electronics. The opera's plot deals with an old man seeing his first total solar eclipse, and the impact of this phenomenon on his repressed painful memories. Essential musical components in the opera are a Nordic sea soundscape and a sea soundscape from the north-east of Italy described in the novel “Eclissi” by E. Sinigaglia. The soundscapes lead the narrative from a subjective point of view; the choir will take the place of instruments and will serve not as a words speaker, but as a tool for soundscape orchestration. My residency will go through 2 phases: in the first month, I will make recordings of the local soundscape, analyze the recordings; in the second month, I will compose a preliminary excerpt of the final work. While this, I will also deepen the concept of auditive perception in full darkness, since darkness is a meaningful theme in "Eclipse". During the residency, I would like to test "blind concerts", i.e. performance situations in which both audience and players act in complete darkness. The absence of visual cues influences the acoustic perception: on this topic, I will lead a study and sketch scores to find effective potential and practical applications in dramatic and musical contexts.