

Simone Piraino
'Abun
Short instrumentation: 3 2 2 2 - 4 3 3 1, timp, perc(3), str
Duration: 9'
Solos:
violin
male voice
Instrumentation details:
piccolo
1st flute
2nd flute
1st oboe
2nd oboe
1st clarinet in Bb
2nd clarinet in Bb
1st bassoon
2nd bassoon
1st horn
2nd horn
3rd horn
4th horn
1st trumpet
2nd trumpet
3rd trumpet
bass trombone
1st trombone
2nd trombone
tuba
timpani
percussion (3 players)
violin I (12 players)
violin II (10 players)
viola (8 players)
violoncello (6 players)
double bass (4 players)
'Abun
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Work introduction
Composed for the VIII International Festival of Palermo Classica, 'Abun, the prayer of the Our Father in Aramaic (the same language that Jesus Christ spoke), musically and humanly reflects my poetics.
Written for Male Voice, Violin and Large Orchestra, and particularly bounded to a non-rigid minimal style based on the repetition of the number 3 (symbol of the Trinity), the first part of 'Abun is entrusted simultaneously to one and the other soloist in an emotional crescendo in which the sections of the orchestra have separate inputs and the voice, in the range of a perfect fifth, from B to F# (5 is the number of letters that make up the name of "MARIA", the Madonna) , sings the first section of the prayer starting from the thematic incipit (B-C#-D/Si-Gno-Re) while the violin accompanies it by first exposing, as a reflection of the totality, the B minor scale and then a melodic line tending to acute (alto) which re-exposes the initial theme of the voice.
Arriving at its peak with the entry of all sections of the orchestra, you enter the new section in which the "Ricochet" of the solo violin emerges from a game of staggered accents between the figurations of the strings that reflect the main theme. It is the human drama of freedom, a consequence of the human grandeur dictated by the words "Thy will be done"; a game that ends in the positive hypothesis, an embrace of peace, of the third section: a similar structure but never the same (like the daily routine of life and its "unexpected") marked by the lows and in which, between the words of the second part of the "Our Father" - softly articulated by the male voice - Violas, Violins II, Violins I and Violin soloist enter the canon following an incipit given by a single note: "D", "Re" whose Italian name of the note more it is but the synonym of "Father" in the Bible.
The piece ends with the psalmodic repetition of the "Our Father" and a melodic and emphatic crescendo in which the whole orchestra participates which ends with the dramatic but peaceful scream of the note "D" high on the violin, or the third - again the number 3 - of the B minor chord.
What is necessary to perform this work?
Amplification for the Male Voice