Esa Pietilä

Fata morgana

The title of Esa Pietilä's solo harpsichord work Fata morgana (2019) refers to a special weather condition, which creates illusory effect of mirage-like fairy castle-like monuments in the horizon of the sea. The piece brings forth the frightening bass sonority on double manual, full size harpsichord and the brightness on the treble and makes a dialogue out of them. "I got fascinated by the sonority, character and power of the low register sound on the instrument, especially when used in non-traditional way and found some kind of especially delightful and outlandish cluster-mud and airy glimmering things which seem to play together", the composer describes. The challenges of the piece lie in rhythmical ideas, which are surprisingly multi-faceted and in the short, improvised section.