Luciano Feliciani

Saxa Picta

Georges Bataille describes the Lascaux caves as the dawn of humanity. Painted caves like Lascaux, Altamira, and others represent humanity's first artistic expression. The piece Saxa Picta is inspired by them, with primitive rhythms and slow, ethereal moments, evoking wonder and awe.

Piece recommended for the 2021 INTERNATIONAL COMPOSITION COMPETITION for the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the Swiss Italian Wind Orchestra - OFSI 1991 - 2021. “Every beginning presupposes what precedes it, but a point separates day from night, and the light that reaches us from Lascaux is the dawn of the human species. ” With these words the great French philosopher Georges Bataille described the miracle of the discovery of the Lascaux cave. Together with Altamira, Niaux, Font-de-Gaume, Le Combarelles, Pech Merle, Chauvet and many others, these painted caves represent man's first artistic expression. Saxa Picta (which in Latin means painted rocks) is inspired by these extremely evocative artistic representations, whose mystery continues to enchant man and enchant him even today. The composition arises from a rhythmic pulsation of percussion which aims to depict primitivism, ancestrality; this rhythm guides the first movement and the restart of the piece, with impetuous vitality. A sort of percussive magma, underlined by the instrumental thematic fragments that overlap in counterpoint, building the thematic corpus of the composition. In the central part, the slow movement, characterized by an expressive and ethereal theme, rich in timbral effects and harmonic superimpositions, ideally describes the wonder and amazement one feels upon entering these spaces and witnessing a universal spectacle, outside of time. The return to the original idea finally leads to the grand and spectacular coda.