I CHING (English Version)
The Book of Changes in the musical version by Daniele Trucco
On October 31, 2020, I Ching, my new work, was released on the main digital platforms.
This is a two-track EP comprising a composition for string sextet and its electronic reworking for Mellotron, slow rhythm - one of my trademarks is to use fast rhythmic samples and slow them down so that they unnaturally dilate the their groove - and bass.
The I Ching, also known as the Book of Changes, is a text that emerges from the mythical antiquity of pre-imperial China and embodies a millenary wisdom, which has merged over time in both Confucianism and Taoism. It consists of 64 signs made up of six lines each; in turn the lines can be whole or broken and would represent an ancient oracular system for expressing yes and no. Between one sign and another there is always a difference, demonstrating that something has changed, a single line or all six: this is why each of the 64 hexagrams is unique but in a certain sense derived from another that is similar to it.
The compositional principle that governs the sextet's 15 minutes of music is naturally that of change: each hexagram has been transformed into a granite block of six sounds that can remain motionless for the entire duration of the bar or move a semitone, depending on their relationship with the hexagram from which they are generated.
The six sounds were not chosen at random but correspond to the first three overlapping harmonics (fundamental sound, sound at octave distance and sound at fifth distance) for both the lower and the upper trigram. The electronic version maintains the spirit of change unaltered, however, entrusting the parts of the strings to the Mellotron and supporting everything with a growing and obsessive rhythm.
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