Rehearsing "Il pedone dell'aria" in April 2006

This is the rehearsal of the second movement of Luciano Chessa's Il pedone dell'aria (RAI Trade) at the Auditorium Lingotto in Turin in April 2006, performed by the Orchestra of the 2006 Suzuki World Convention (Edoardo Narbona, conductor), and featuring the Piccoli Cantori di Torino (Carlo Pavese, conductor--not pictured). The concert is produced by IPEC (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour). Clip shot by Maria Alessandra Chessa. Please note that this clip only includes the second movement of a much larger three-movement piece. This children-choir Mahler-esque song is framed by two movements of rather abstract and eerie orchestral music. This song is meant to come as a surprise: an exotic manufact from a far-away space.
Naturally, if you only listen to this second movement, the said structural feature is lost and you are left with a cute (although also delicately unsettling) song.
Here's what the author says:
Il pedone dell'aria (1996/2006) is a song by the same title preceded and followed by Cirri and Cirri II, two choir-less orchestral movements. The title is derived from Eugene Ionesco's Le pieton de l'air. Although I have known of it since my teenage years, I read this theatre play only after composing the text, finding in it--surprisingly--many unforeseeable connections. The song is a simple utopian take on the incorporeality and the impossibility of Perfection and Goodness within the human sphere.

Il pedone dell'aria

Ha mente chiara, libero è nell'animo
il pedone dell'aria.
Ha freschi pensieri, cuore leggero,
fronte aperta, limpidi pareri.
Trasparente, chiaramente,
cittadino volante mai non mente
dai retti diritti, dai civici doveri,
vola alto, carezza i cirri chiari.

Attraversa con calma, aspetta il tuo momento,
sfiora coi calcagni i lembi dei nembi.
Attraversa con calma, aspetta il tuo momento,
applica con scrupolo il codice dell'aria.
Solerte, zelante, diligente, rispettoso,
evita nuvole in passaggio d'alta quota.

Perchè la Bontà non è mai concreta?
La Bontà non può essere concreta.
Perchè la Bontà non è mai concreta?
La Bontà, può mai essere concreta?




The pedestrian of the air

He has a clear mind, he is free in the soul,
he is the pedestrian of the air.
He has fresh thoughts, light heart,
open mind, unclouded views.
Transparent, clearly,
a flying citizen never tells lies -
by honest rights, by civic duties
he flies high caressing white cirri clouds.

Cross with calm, wait your time,
caress with the heels the edge of the clouds.
Cross with calm, wait your turn,
apply with scruple the air highway code.
Careful, zealous, diligent, respectful,
avoid clouds passing at high altitude.

-Why is Goodness never concrete?
-Goodness can never be concrete.
-Why is Goodness never concrete?
-Goodness, can it ever be concrete?

Cirri was originally notated in a graphic score format (I had an exhibit of this type of scores in Italy a few years ago). This notation originally allowed a level of indeterminacy in the performance, and the score was unpublishable by default.

some thoughts about it

Cirri is about the experience of fragility/failure. Fragility of a musical structure, but also of a performance. Because fragility is quintessentially human, and moving, and therefore dramatic.
You don't need to experience it for a long time. Feeling the risk is probably enough. Once you felt it, the piece can move back to a firmer land.

Fragility of a page, the reading of it only relying on the angle of the light.