Giovanni Verrando

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  • catalogue
    • Multimedia works
      • Camera Music (2022 – in progress)
      • Instrumental freak show (2017-2020)
    • Orchestral works
      • Multiplicity (2013)
      • The Sinopia of Dulle Griet (2010-11)
      • Polyptych (2007)
      • Triptych (2005-06)
      • Agile (2004)
      • Sottile (1996-97)
    • Chamber works 2005 – today
      • Keekee Bouba (2015-17)
      • Krummholz (2013-14)
      • Travelling icon on rabbit-skin glue (2013)
      • Grammatica dell’inarmonico (2012)
      • Dulle Griet (2009-10)
      • Triptych#2 (2008)
      • Memorial art show (2005)
    • Chamber works 1989 – 2005
      • Quartetto n° 3 (2003)
      • Il ruvido dettaglio celebrato da Aby Warburg (2002)
      • Evanescente Orchestra Meccanica II (1999)
      • Quartetto n° 2 (1998-99)
      • 4 invenzioni sull’Offerta Musicale (1995)
      • Accanto alla quiete (1993)
      • Animismus (1992)
    • Solo
      • The Unicorn cycle
      • Seventh Born Unicorn (2019)
      • Sixth Born Unicorn (2018 – rev. 2025)
      • Fifth Born Unicorn (2016)
      • Fourth Born Unicorn, angular version (2016)
      • Fourth Born Unicorn, rounded version (2015)
      • Third Born Unicorn, remind me what we’re fighting for (2009)
      • Second Born Unicorn, remind me what we’re fighting for (2002)
      • First Born Unicorn, remind me what we’re fighting for (2001)
      • Discanto (2000)
      • 3 opere misurate (1994-95)
    • Choir
      • The 4 delights of Jeroen Anthoniszoon (2007)
    • Opera
      • Alex Brücke Langer (2002-03)
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  • senza famiglia – lutherie & composition
    • One work, one sound
    • Un’opera, un suono
    • Striving for an unheard sound
    • Tendere ad un suono inedito
    • Musica da camera con la nuova liuteria
    • Helsinki lectures – Why research into lutherie?
    • Le conferenze di Helsinki – Perché una ricerca sulla liuteria?
    • Instruments as apparatus
    • Gli strumenti come apparati
    • On new lutherie
    • Sulla nuova liuteria
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Helsinki lectures – Why research into lutherie?


DaxoTongues“New means change the method, new methods change the experience“.
Karlheinz Stockhausen

With the passage of time, the traditional acoustic sound paradigm has become impractical and inadequate. Like other composers, I gradually came to realise that this paradigm was becoming an impediment to my evolving imaginary, as well as an obstruction to various individual musical trajectories. I have therefore embarked on a personal (and inevitably limited) research project on instruments that might serve to give expression to my imaginary, the means that are best suited to developing what I want to say as a composer.

To be more precise, why undertake research into lutherie?

  1. To facilitate the natural development of my relationship with instruments
  2. To facilitate the natural development of my musical language
  3. To facilitate my approach to the inharmonic and its rebalancing with the harmonic realm
  4. To facilitate my approach to composition, which is closely bound up with the properties of sound
  5. In view of the urgent need to find appropriate means/instruments, through which I might give concrete form to my sound imaginary

Similarly, I believe passionately in the idea of a musical community centred on the individual, on individual responsibility, on the conscious and unique contribution of each one of us. It wasn’t possible for me to support this idea without moving beyond the traditional acoustic sound realm; this, I realise, is the primary reason for my turning towards new lutherie.

[This text is a brief summary of a public lecture given at the Music Centre in Helsinki, 29 October 2015].

© 2016, giovanni verrando
Translation: Laura Davey
italian version
senza famiglia – lutherie & composition

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  • senza famiglia – lutherie & composition
  • past news
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contact: SZ SUGAR, SUGARMUSIC S.P.A. - Galleria del Corso 4, 20122 Milano

email: szsugar@sugarmusic.com