Coniugazioni

At once relaxation tape, language course and conceptual text-sound composition « Coniugazioni » ( Italian for « Conjugations » ) is an immersive harmonic-grammatical meditation made of swirling garlands of verbs and enveloping just intonation harmonic flows ( on synthesizer and monochord ) in which harmonies are generatively deducted from verb conjugations. « Coniugazioni » invites the listener into a synesthetic experience which is hypnotic and challenging at once bridging between parallel and incongruous categories of objects such as verbs and chords.
The conjugation of the verb occurring in most natural languages and the modulation of a musical tonality generate similar energy fields capable of orienting music or speech to a particular direction.
A same phrase conjugated to the first person/singular present rather than to the third person/plural future, carries a different energetic charge and points the needle of its grammatical compass in different directions.
Likewise, a differently harmonized musical motif changes color and direction as a consequence of the changement of the surrounding constellation of intervals. In this respect, grammar and harmony, despite being two incommensurable systems, work in a similar way.
« Conjugations » is an instrument that links and recombines sixty among the most common Italian verbs in all their twenty conjugations (in total there are approximately 8200 lemmas, which have been recorded one by one) and on the other hand associates, to each of these conjugations, a new harmonic context generated from a chosen set of intervals in just intonation. The combinatorial possibilities of this linguistic/musical tool are virtually infinite. The result are «grammatical mantras» activating listening and perception on two parallel levels: that of grammatical direction and that of harmonic color, which requires prolonged listening to be able to perceive all gradual and parallel variations in both areas.