for tuba and live electronics (2015)

First performance Concert IRCAM CURSUS 2015
Grande Salle, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France)
Jean-Baptise Renaux, tuba | Alessandro Ratoci, live electronics

In 19th-century rural Italy, an oral tradition of improvised poetry flourished, echoing the grandeur of written verse. Often following the ottava rima of chivalric epics, these poetic performances reimagined literary tales, including dreamlike visions like a grandson visited by his late grandfather—a playful nod to Dante.

This piece draws directly from rare recordings of the last folk poets who kept this tradition alive until recent decades. Their melodic and rhythmic traces become the foundation for instrumental writing and electronics, reshaping their spirit in a new context. It both honors and reinvents this lost art, bridging past and present, folk and modern, rural and urban.