As part of the commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I, the Orchestre National de Belgique and the music department of the Palais des Beaux-Arts have commissioned Matteo Franceschini to write A memoria d’eco. The world premiere will be performed on 5 December 2014 in Brussels under the direction of Dima Slobodeniouk.

In his presentation of the work, the composer (after offering some thoughts on the role of music in the period of the war) explains the compositional idea underlying "his homage" to the Great War:

"There are many written testimonies that allow us to recount the First World War, but, by contrast, very few – indeed, hardly any – ‘sound documents’ have come down to us…

Music was often used to escape from the violence of the front or, for those who were not at the war, from everyday life. And so there was military, funeral, and patriotic music certainly, but also popular songs, café music and satirical songs about life. All of these served the purpose of enabling people to momentarily forget about the difficulties they were enduring - it was a matter of necessity.

In A memoria d’eco, I wanted to evoke the sudden passage from everyday life - from the universe of the common man - to a ‘dark’ world dramatically permeated by sounds. Among the countless costs of war is silence. Nonetheless, even at a distance from the front, a ‘new music’ - an obsessive and suffocated chorale - lives in people’s hearts. Silence takes on a utopian role - it becomes a sort of vision - an image and a voice of hope for the future.”


A memoria d’eco (2014)
For large orchestra
Commission: Orchestre National de Belgique – As part of  the project devoted to the 100th  anniversary of the WW1 organized by the Orchestre National de Belgique and the Département Musique du Palais des Beaux-Arts
WP: Bruxelles, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 5 dicembre 2014 - Orchestre National de Belgique, Dima Slobodeniouk, cond.
picc.3.3.2.cor.i cl in mib. bcl. bn. dbn / 4.4.3ttbn.1btbn.1/ timp. perc (2) harp / strings (preferable 16-14-12-10-8 db. with 5 strings)
Duration: 10’


Work list: Matteo Franceschini