Duration 10:00

Diverso il Tempo, for cello and piano, was composed for the Duo Berman Wieringa in 1991. It is based on a poem called ‘Impercettibile il tempo’ by the Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo. Diverso il tempo means: ‘time is different’, or ‘variable time’. In the poem, Quasimodo compares 2 ways of experiencing time: The first way shows time during the rotation of a mill-wheel, the second way shows how time dances on the skin of a reddening orange. The experience of time is always different, especially when listening to music. Diverso il Tempo is a way to find out how time is being experienced by composing 2 pulsating movements, with the same quarter note tempo of 112 beats per minute.  Both movements have a monochrome and almost static structure, and mostly in unison. But the experiment failed and the imperceptibility of time becomes obvious: Music is no science and musicians are no machines: The 2nd movement eventually turned out to last much longer than the first.Impercettibile il tempo

DIVERSO IL TEMPO

Nel giardino si fa rossa
l’arancia, impercettibile
il tempo danza
sulla sua scorza,
la ruota del mulino si stacca
all piena dell’acqua
ma continua il suo giro
e avvolge un minuto
al minuto passato
o futuro. Diverso il tempo
sul vortice del frutto;
indeclinabile sul corpo
che riflette la morte,
scivola contorto
chiude la presa
alla mente, scrive
una prova di vita.

Salvatore Quasimodo