Tiziano Manca

Tiziano Manca at Transit

Nieuws 18 september 2017

Artist researcher Tiziano Manca is one of the composers of the Transit (Festival 2021) opening concert in Leuven (BE). The performance will be by the Antwerp based HERMESensemble.

20 October 2017, 20.30, STUK Leuven

More info


Tiziano Manca

Defining (2007-09) for ensemble

Change doesn't necessarily proceed from invention, enrichment, advances or the introduction of new material. Sometimes, new forms are the result of elimination, when the available material is perceived differently, redefined and remodelled. In the history of music, the transition from Bach to Mozart is a perfect example at a time when counterpoint, rich in superimpositions, was making way for melody and tonal harmony. In fact, the extraordinary abundance of musical forms in the 19th century can be attributed to this process of simplification and reduction. Likewise, contemporary music would increase in depth and intensity if it were to seek a new lightness without the fear of facing the void.

However, there is a step that must be taken before reaching the actual turning point. The desire for change is a desire to change oneself, to become different: it is a desire for the future. Consequently, defining a new style is only imaginable if we detach ourselves from the present moment to envisage the range of possibilities. It is a matter of trying to formulate what we want to keep from the past, what has yet to be invented and what we wish to leave behind. The creation of a new style can only occur at first light, our gaze shrouded in mist and lost in the void, when things are just beginning to take shape – within the framework of rigorous questioning – and when we attempt to grasp what led us to make a choice. It is the tension between theory and practice, knowledge and instinct, that will make this new music stand out, beyond the incessant questioning of its language. It is an approach that takes us further than the composition of a piece of music.

In Defining, the simple quest for fusion between the different instruments required essential means. The chamber music ensemble, which was very popular among 20th century composers, comes into its own here in the concentration of resources and the combination of different timbres. This piece of music is, so to speak, the starting point for tonal fusion, a one-dimensional type of music where the differences are barely perceptible. What we are endeavouring to approach doesn't reside in the circumstances of the differentiation but in the unity, merely providing a glimpse of the possible intervals."

(Translation by Dice Vertalingen)