Hands – 2024

Hands is the tenth unreleased work by Tony Carnevale, produced with Stefania Graziani

It is the result of a long human relationship that also extended to training, and represents the first artistic product of the new anora project (https://www.anora.it/anora-project/), based mainly on artistic collaboration as an exchange of experiences, stimuli, creativity and humanity. Hands is also the first record that Stefania Graziani releases with SOUNDTRACK Records.

The new disc consists of eleven instrumental pieces for piano and other instruments; it is music of free artistic expression, free from the conditioning of the market, but at the same time absolutely usable and communicative, especially from an emotional point of view. It is also difficult to ascribe it to a precise genre, but if one really had to define it, one could place it between contemporary classical music and modern symphonism, certainly also close to the sphere of soundtracks.

Concept:

The key thought of this work is concentrated in the word ‘collaboration’, which is not only a ‘doing together’ of an artistic and performing nature (composition and execution), but is also a collaboration based on a common vision, on an ideal: a shared way, therefore, of living and understanding music and artistic expression. The contents of these ideals are also expressed in the eight books written by Tony Carnevale and are supported by the ANORA Association of which Stefania Graziani and Tony Carnevale are founding members.

Stefania Graziani’s previous record, ‘La Musica Cambia’, had already been created and built on the association’s ideals based on Tony Carnevale’s particular vision of music and artistic training, developed over many years dedicated to the research and training of other artists.

Hands also tells of the compositional collaboration and artistic relationship between a man and a woman, which led to the creation of a work in which both, united and distinct, recognise themselves.

To signify that it is possible to overcome the many sad stories of women whose creativity was dulled or crushed by negative relationships with the men who were close to them.

The title of the album “Hands”, finally, it brings with it many readings: hands, as the hands we use to ‘make’, hands that follow the movement of thought to ‘concretely realise artistic forms’, hands that therefore express a fusion between mind and body, rejecting an abstract making or entrusted to artificial intelligence. But hands, a fundamental tool for the human being, can also do so much more. Hands reaffirms the need to valorise, perhaps even defend, an ‘artistic making’ that must necessarily pass through a musical craftsmanship, the knowing how to make things, not only to think them, but to know how to realise them in concrete, with one’s own hands, precisely. Hands that ‘know’, because developed on experience, on doing in order to learn how to do, in a world in which ‘saying’ seems to prevail more and more dangerously, in order to pretend to know how to ‘do’. Hands that have also ‘sweated’: both authors come from classical studies, having attended the Conservatory. Perhaps this too may have contributed to developing a certain type of musical thinking, certainly built on a passion for expression through sound, but also forged in the need to organise a method of study and work to achieve the desired results.

From a performative point of view, the work was realised by playing the sampled instruments one by one. It is a poetic attitude, which Carnevale fully realised – and not only – in his first album Risonanze and in the recentTu che mi puoi capire, he has already expressed in detail in Oltre le note – un approccio non razionale alla musica, defining it as an Integral Composition: it is therefore a compositional process that begins with the idea-image and ends with the final Master ( moreover, Electronic Composition teaches)also part of the process creative. From a conceptual point of view, it could be defined as Virtual poly-instrumentalism,(or Electronic), with reference to acoustic poly-instrumentalism (e.g. the Mike Oldfield of the well-knownto Tubular Bells). Artistically speaking, in a more general sense, it is the proposal of a process of composition similar to that of modelling mouldable materials (clay, etc.), in which the form is defined progressively and simultaneously with the composition (in this sense close to improvisation destined for later elaboration), leading to the production of a completed immaterial work.

The tracks that make up the album are:

1. 1. Nelle Tue Mani: centred on a thematic cell of the piano around which the orchestra moves with a tight rhythmic pattern and at the same time with broad themes interacting with each other; opening track of the CD, it also declares in its title the sense of a collaborative relationship: putting oneself in the hands of the other, entrusting oneself and trusting oneself, the sense of a relationship that does not risk disappointment.

Link YouTube Nelle Tue Mani (Official Audio): https://youtu.be/I5hGCiUZf8Q?si=ecanzYO0SixuYphV

1. 2. Uniti E Distinti: the piano supports a dialogue between two violins, and a human voice in the background evokes distant memories. In this case too, the title is linked to the sense of the concept: United and Distinct as are the two authors, each distinct from the other for their own musical style, their own identity, but both united by the same way of experiencing music and artistic expression, without which it would not have been possible to realise a project of this kind.

Link YouTube Uniti E Distinti (Official Audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOAmL7nb2Ao&list=PLPuPie73mNJW0zmshHLtJpI1x5_GgJHOE&index=3

1. 3. Mare Calmo Sotto A Un Temporale: thunder breaks the silence, and under an insistent rain the piano moves in shadowy tones, underlined by a timpani and the rhythmic phrases of a flute and cello. Gradually the atmosphere opens up towards a dynamic crescendo where other instruments are added, almost as if to express a return to the ‘serene’. ‘Mare calmo’ is an internal image, always exposed to the “storms” of the interhuman relationship.
   4. Lo Scorrere Dell’Acqua: A repeated sound, like a falling drop, always with the same force and in the same tempo, sounds of human voices create an almost dreamlike atmosphere. The piano is still the root from which an interweaving of thematic phrases of the violin, cello, oboe, flute, duduk, in continuous dialogue with each other, branch off.
   5. Incontri Possibili: a breakthrough track in the middle of the album; the sound of the harpsichord surprises the listener and takes one back in time. Incontri possibili is a ‘homage’ to the style of Johann Sebastian Bach and the myth of Ian Anderson. The track also carries with it another possible reading: the intention to transcend musical genres and free music from definitions and watertight compartments: artistic expression is, and must remain, free from all rigidity of thought, so that certain encounters, indeed, can be possible.

Link YouTube Incontri Possibili (Official Audio): https://youtu.be/fFt-iY4BkJg

1. 6. Il Tempo Del Cuore: The beating of the heart marks the tempo of this piece with its intimate and calm atmosphere, entrusted to the sound of a harp. The piano appears in the background and then comes to the fore in the central part of the piece where it completely envelops the sound of the harp. The time of the heart, the ability to love: this is what counts and what gives meaning to life.
   7. Nelle Tue Mani (reprise): The song is a reprise of the opening track: the same thematic cell of the piano, which here evolves, modulates, intensifies rhythmically in a crescendo where violin, cello and wind instruments bring out, singing, a new theme. The track represents a bridge to the second part of the album.
   8. Il Vento Sognato: An empty and silent concert hall, a light wind comes in through a half-open window and, blowing, begins to animate the wind instruments: a timid flute starts to move, chased by its own fear, then takes courage, but as soon as it declares itself, a ‘ramshackle’ orchestra starts up, giving life to an awkward symphony. This almost drunken movement, which a snare drum attempts to straighten out, culminates in an intense crescendo and an accelerando that gradually dismantles until it collapses. The wind, having orchestrated a magical and imperfect music, leaves. And the dream with it.
   9. Nel Castello Di Carta: The sound of a celesta brings us back to dreamlike atmospheres, the sound of the wind, which comes from the previous track, takes us to another landscape… a paper castle that at night comes alive with love stories between dreamlike fantasy characters. At a certain point, the piano breaks the enchantment, more and more insistently running upwards until it reaches the apex of the keyboard, then cascading down towards the deepest part. Calm returns, the sound of the celesta carried away by the voice of the wind, fading away.
   10. Viaggio Senza Dove: The sound of the piano creates a separation from the almost playful atmosphere that precedes it: the scenery is intimate and calm, over the piano’s voice a cello enters, responding and phrasing until a pause. The second part of the piece immediately begins tightly: piano and cello intensify their movement, while ethnic percussion increases the tension. In the finale, surprisingly and in a strong emotional crescendo, a choir intervenes.

Link YouTube Viaggio Senza Dove (Official Audio): https://youtu.be/4y4IAMFHQMU?si=psC4Wlz11-MsqFDY

1. 11. Passo A Due: It is a tribute by Tony Carnevale to Stefania Graziani, a piece for two pianos that aims to tell the particular story that binds the two composers: a first phase in which he stimulates her creative process, a second phase in which she takes the initiative and he follows her by supporting her. Then we arrive at the ‘doing together’: the parts of the two pianos intertwine and there are no longer ‘roles’, a relationship that is necessary for them to be able to separate, at the moment when she can continue her artistic journey alone.

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