The piece Canti Firmi was developed during the workshop with the Guildhall New Music Ensemble conducted by James Weeks from the 7th to the 11th of July 2014. It was a transcription of Gesualdo’s madrigal “Gioite voi col canto’ from his fifth book of madrigals (1613). Last day included a public performance of several works workshopped at Silk Street Music Hall at 5pm.

Programme notes
Canti firmi was born out of Gesualdo’s madrigal ‘Gioite voi col canto’ (fifth book, I). I started by segmenting the madrigal in seven parts of different lengths. Each segment was then filtered in various ways to obtain 7 different canti firmi. These served as the basis for composing.
The procedure of elaborating a cantus firmus is probably as old as polyphonic music itself and it never actually defined a style. Similarly, my ‘transcription’ of Gesualdo’s madrigal is very far from the original. I think this (old) composing process made me feel a sort of primitive compositional impetus that was very inspiring.