Via Della Terra

Composing music also involves being able to imagine the sound of something that has no sound of its own. "Via della Terra" is a soundtrack without a film, a story without a narrator; "Via della Terra" is a street in a town, but not just any street, because if a street could tell its story, "Via della Terra" would not know where to start or where and indeed if it should finish. Like all "Vie della Terra", this street in this piece is full of sounds, none of which, however, have ever belonged to it for more than a fleeting moment, just long enough to be reflected here and there and then up and away from the earth, to be lost in the air. The steps of Mozart as a child as he whistled a piece of music, never again to be remembered or written; the philosophical thoughts, or mere everyday cares, uttered to a friend by Rosmini (whispered? or declaimed?)

the excited or humorous comments of people who saw Depero's futuristic works for the first time; the voices of marketstall owners, rendered louder and more acute by the noisy crowd of women sorting through the stalls of rustling and colourful silk (so many desires; silent pauses between one item of gossip and the next); the absolute and devastating roar of cannons that violated every corner of the town, injuring bodies and mutilating the memories of its inhabitants... followed by a seeming eternity, as the citizens held their breath, waiting...

"Via della Terra" is the old imperial road along which the town of Rovereto was built and has developed. "Via della Terra" is music for an imaginary, impossible and simultaneous representation of all its stories. The composer has always lived in this town, which he dearly loves, and on innumerable occasions he has imagined the voices, smells, people and the lives that have been such a part of it.

With his composition, "Via della Terra", Marco Somadossi won second prize (no first prize was awarded) at the XXI Corciano International Competition for original band music in the grade 4 category.