Lucio Franco Amanti

ReSolUtIo op. 74

When Cuarteto Casals approached me with the idea of illuminating Beethoven's quartets anew, you can imagine the many thoughts and feelings that where going through my mind: what a joy, what a great honor... What an intriguing head-scratcher! How can you possibly shine a new light on something that is already perfect? Weeks, months went by in search of a common ground between the Master and myself until I finally found it in the realization that a word lays 'hidden ' in the St. John's hymn that gave musical notes their original name: 'Re, Sol, Ut, Io' (D, G, C, B in English music notation) Perfect! 'Resolutio ' in Latin means both the resolution of a problem and the re-solution: a re-blend of many elements that will eventually coagulate to make something new. There was finally the melodic and a rhythmical canvas for my piece. On this canvas I wrote the story of a funny little contest, played on a sunny Mediterranean square, between street musicians and Cuarteto Casals just minutes before they are about to go on stage to perform Beethoven's 'Harp Quartet '. After all the characters, each in his own way, had the chance to tell their story, a gentle rain starts to fall, dissolving (Re-solving) again the music sheet to eventually leave us with just a white piece of paper for somebody else to continue the Work. (Lucio Franco Amanti)