As already suggested by the title, this composition is a compositional study and, at the same time, a work based on the idea of the Nineteenth-century piano studio. The work has a strongly theatrical character and was written for the sensitive pianist French Pascale Berthelot who the piece itself is dedicated to. The work is divided into seven formal areas
- Exordium
- Narratio I
- Narratio II
- Conclusio I
- Argumentatio I
- Argumentatio II
- Peroratio
Each of these areas is strongly characterized by a very marked and detailed musical writing at the same time. Thus, from the wide and kept note writing of the Exordium, we move on to the more tuned one of Narration I.
Then follows the lyrical and dreamy writing entrusted to the formal area of Narration II, in which the sharpest register of the instrument contributes to make the sonorities of this area even more heavenly and enchanted. A drastic change of writing and climate follows. A change of plot, action and mood, at the same time. To adhere to this sort of
coup de theatre, the musical writing used by the composer is totally contrasted with the previous one. It becomes percussive on the cord and in the profoundly deep register of the instrument. The player holds two tympanum clubs and turns into a kind of percussionist and a shaman, at the same time.
Argumentatio I takes up a seemingly more traditional script, in which the performer is required to return to playing in the ordinary way, that is on the keyboard. Thus, an alternating chord writing contrasts with a dynamic one, always at the limit of the audible ability. Then follows the area of Argumentatius II in which a kind of two-voice invention with a lyrical and fantastic character flows into the seventh and last area, the one of Peroratium. In this area there is the varied revival of the musical writing characterizing the area of The Conclusio I, which gradually leads the listener towards the conclusion of the composition. In this last area we meet a new and particular performance technique, the one of rubbed ropes. Thus, with the help of two guitar slides, the performer turns into a sort of snake charmer. This is strongly amplified by the musical writing involving the use of a constant tremble and expressive micro
glissandi that contribute to transfigure even more the timbre of the piano, making it a mixture between the sound of a
glass harmonica and that of an Indian
sitar.
