A Cantata for Darya Dugina

A Cantata for Darya Dugina Excerpts from the dialogue between Angelo Inglese and Rainaldo Graziani on the genesis of the musical work.

A Cantata for Darya Dugina Excerpts from the dialogue between Angelo Inglese and Rainaldo Graziani on the genesis of the musical work.

RG: Angelo, how did you decide to structure your new musical creation?

Al: It is a scenic cantata in nine stations. I wanted to use the term “station” to give the cantata a sacred character, as if it were a liturgical journey. Each station represents an icon, where music is a vehicle for the liberation of the soul from passions, for detachment from the material world, and leads the listener to the crossroads of Dasha’s thoughts.

The cantata is divided into nine tracks: Prologue (Дого); II. Там, где нет иллюзий (Where there are no illusions); III. Взлетая выше (Living on the edge); IV. Призрак в неизвестность (Leap into the unknown); V. Быть светом (Being light); VI. Укро руками (I will cover you with my hands); VII. Во дворец удара (To the King’s palace); VIII. Дик вечности (The face of eternity); IX. Эпилог (Epilogue).

For the Prologue (I. Пролог) and the Epilogue (IX. Эпилог), which are placed symmetrically at the beginning and end of the cantata, to symbolically express and preserve Darya’s philosophical thought, I used part of the Znamennyi Chant of the Optina Hermitage – a chant for a weary soul (Знаменный распев Оптиной Пустыни – песнопения для уставшей души). The Optina Hermitage is a monastery located in Kozelsk (Козельск), a town not far from Moscow. Russian sacred music originated with the Znamennyi Chant, a liturgical chant that arose during the baptism of Rus’ in 988 AD. Its name is associated with the use of special notation signs called “znamia”. It is a melodic chant of poignant beauty.

RG: What kind of instrumentation did you envisage and, if there is a specific reason, what is it?

Al: I wanted to use chamber music instrumentation to create an intimate and, if you like, confidential atmosphere. Four instruments: flute, clarinet, cello and piano. The flute is Darya’s anima, the instrument she has played since childhood and which she loved deeply. The cello, with its warm and persuasive sound, represents, in my imagination, the father figure. The clarinet and piano, on the other hand, personify myself, evoking autobiographical memories: my transcendental embrace. Finally, the two voices, one female (mezzo-soprano) and one male (tenor), give life to a spiritual dialogue between daughter and father.

RG: Why did you accompany my proposal for interviews with theatrical prose in your work?

Al: I gladly accepted your proposal. In fact, the philosophical thoughts taken from Darya Dugina’s My Worldview, admirably adapted into poetic verse by Ines Pedretti and translated into Russian by Elena Tsarenko, create a very dense and intense central block. The narrator’s voice is set among the notes and gives the cantata an enchanting theatrical rhythm of great impact. The latter personifies Darya’s thoughts: her beliefs, her reflections, her confessions, her anxieties, her being a girl; the music: her soul. The texts of the narrator have been carefully chosen and edited by Annamaria Rossano, who has fully captured the spirit of my music.

RG: Could you introduce your music in words and give me some suggestions about what we are going to hear?

Al: It is never easy to talk about what Music tells us through sounds, if we just think that a single note, suspended in time, can tell us more than countless words; however, I will try to describe what happens in the two pieces that make up the cantata: the Prologue and the Epilogue. A solitary voice (mezzo-soprano offstage) can be heard in the distance, like an otherworldly lament, followed by the flute (the sound of our philosopher and the god Pan) in unison with the clarinet, before being enveloped by the painful dissonances of the cello. The three timbres intertwine in a melismatic “ascetic hymn”, a sort of funeral procession that rises triumphantly and accompanies the entrance of the three voices. In an incisive and obstinate rhythm, the Znamennyi Chant takes shape and launches itself upwards with growing devotion, impetus and passion. The piano appears impetuous, bronze and percussive, evoking the glare of the domes and the thundering bells of a majestic Orthodox Church.

Dasha’s theme is imperious and dominant: it consists of the six letters taken from her first and last names, which form a musical anagram: DA(r)YA D(u)G(in)A = D; A, D, G, A. This theme winds its way through the entire cantata, taking on various expressive hues to emphasise different moods.

RG: I mentioned the Multipolar vision to you. How do you represent it in your composition?

Al: In the powerful four-part piano accompaniment, I wanted to build a harmonic structure inspired by the concept of multipolarity, where a centre, specifically the D (from the letter D in Dasha), radiates in every direction (vertical and transverse), forming a cluster that expands into a three-dimensional dimension.

RG: Interesting! You’ve intrigued me... And how do you end the Prologue/Epilogue?

Al: The finale is an embrace between father and daughter: two themes meet and intertwine as if in an intense exchange of glances. Dasha’s theme and what I like to call the “theme of blessing” merge into a mystical caress, and a thunderous “mantra quinarío” pierces the darkness and, hypnotically, gradually fades away...

RG: Tell me about the voices…

Al: The two lyrical voices (mezzo-soprano and tenor) entwine in a spiritual journey, traversing intimate and introspective moments, lyrical and luminous.

The music underscores and envelops the poetic verse with sonic suggestions, anticipating its tone or pursuing its meaning... For example, in the fifth station, Быть светом (Be Light), a series of ascending and descending scales evoke the motions of Man in search of his own spiritual growth; an evolution that produces a closeness to Evil the higher one climbs towards the Highest, towards the Absolute. It is at this point that it is easy to encounter Evil, which is already sufficiently present in the plot, revealing its scope the closer one gets to pure Good. An example of this are the moments of apparition, which are more likely to torment monks and saints than “petty criminals”.

As in the sixth station, Укрою руками (I will cover you with my hands), in which a lulling 5/4 rhythm, a sort of five-beat lullaby, evokes the fingers of a mother’s hand caressing her child. Dasha’s mother, also a philosopher, now caresses her grown-up daughter with words, with Logos, describing her intellectual character, her generous, tender and delicate soul, but strong in will and spirit. Quoting the words of Darya herself, who liked to describe herself as “positioned on the intellectual frontier”, transforming herself first and foremost into HERSELF, and fighting the “enemy of mankind” who wages eternal war against the mind and light. Dasha, caressed by her mother, is “a rising star of Russian thought” against those who control discourse, establish metalanguage and dominate everything.

Everything converges in the eighth station, Дик вечности (The Face of Eternity), a piece in which all the elements come together in a sweet song and rise to an otherworldly dimension... Here the music becomes rarefied and suspended; sublime fragments of the Znamennyi Chant echo: it is the death of Dasha, like Hypatia brutally murdered by fanatics, haters of free thought. Now she is Light, possessing a flame that radiates in all its eternal sweetness, “descended into the world along the ray of the Logos and ascended to heaven on the same ray...”.

The Call of the philosophers is not only a blessing for themselves and for humanity, but above all a burden to be carried forever, which has led over the centuries to loneliness, madness and martyrdom. The philosopher is born crucified. He knows that his life will always be an inner search and that there can be no peace. Along the ray of the Logos, he/she ascends and enters the King’s palace. The Call, true thought, he/she feels within himself/herself like a sudden light. Dasha had The Call and this destiny. Dasha was a “guardian philosopher”. Aware of human limitations, she asked not to look at her person and her noble path, but at what she points to.

RG: Angelo, how did you feel when composing such music, and what prompted you to do so?

Al: I am a father, and being one makes me understand how boundless, elusive, and untranslatable into human words filial love can be, how deep the connection with one’s child is. Trying to find the right words to define such a miraculous wonder is very difficult for me, because I am aware of how tortuous the path is that leads to the definition of something that is incredibly simple and at the same time immensely extraordinary.

The sad event that befell the Dugin family on 20 August 2022, with the tragic death of Darya Dugina, touched the deepest chords of my sensitivity. As a father, I can imagine and understand how heartbreaking the premature loss of a child is, and how impossible it is to see everything that has been lovingly built for them, for their own good, for their future, suddenly collapse; to see them grow and flourish, emit light, and then see them extinguished forever...

These are the feelings that accompanied the creation of this “Cantata for Darya”: feelings of deep sadness, nostalgic sweetness, but also of helplessness and indignation towards cruelty, lies and hypocrisy, the latter being rampant in the contemporary world. However, I am convinced that Dasha is now everywhere, wedged in the critical thinking of those who feel the call of “awakening”, in those who seek Goodness, Truth and Beauty. Dasha is thought and radiates from the notes, in the notes, between the notes of my music. I hope so...

I have dedicated this musical creation of mine to the memory of Darya Dugina and her parents, in the hope that it will give them comfort, strength, sweetness and hope...

World Premiere of the Scenic Cantata entitled Daria Dugina, created by Italian composer A. Inglese and performed by Italian musicians and singers E. Tsarenko, F. Armiliato, A. Rossano, G. Musillo, L. Di Ionna and M. Inglese.

Tanslation by Costantino Ceoldo