Skip to content
Siete qui: Home Festival Festival 2012 The seven stars (2012)
The seven stars (2012) PDF Print E-mail
A commission for music inspired by the Apocalypse is not to be taken lightly – especially as it will inevitably have to stand comparison with one of the absolute musical masterpieces of all time: Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time). This is enough of a challenge to paralyse any composer, so I decided immediately to avoid any attempt to emulate the great French master, except in one regard: the formal structure of my composition, which would be divided into seven movements, like Messiaen’s. The musical language would have nothing else in common.
The title comes from Revelation, Chapter 1, written by John. The apostle sees a man holding seven stars in his right hand, and I felt that this vision, with its light and energy, contrasted well with the “apocalyptic” feel of Messiaen’s quartet. I wanted my title to give a more positive impression. Except for the three fast movements – one works up a whirlwind! – the music is mainly meditative and calm. As I was lucky enough to be composing for a group of outstanding musicians, I wanted to highlight each one’s abilities, but without creating a show of narcissistic virtuosism which would just be superficial and needlessly spectacular.

Carlo Boccadoro

​