Ogni pensiero vola

The Orca sculpture at Bomarzo

Ogni pensiero vola was my first composition for electronic sound made using a computer. It was inspired by my visit to the Pier Francesco Orsini's monstrous sculpture garden in Bomarzo, Italy.

My first ideas for Ogni pensiero vola occurred during a visit to the "Park of the Monsters", a sculpture garden near Viterbo, Italy, which was created in the sixteenth century by Pier Francesco Orsini, Duke of Bomarzo. The title and text of the piece come from an inscription on one of the sculptures, a giant monter's head with a gaping mouth, which is called "L'Orco". The inscription (roughly translated as "every thought flies") seemed resonant in a mysterious inexplicable way, and the work may be considered as a musical manifestation of this resonance.

Compositionally, Ogni pensiero vola deals with the evolution of speech-like sounds. At the beginning, the sounds used are purely synthetic, but are designed to create a voice-like effect. Gradually, the words of the title begin to emerge: first in whispers and single syllables, and finally as chorus-like "song." Many of the sounds of the opening recur, but now influenced by the speech so that they articulate the text. As the piece draws to a close, the words become more and more intelligible, until finally they are whispered by the voice, unprocessed except for reverberation.

Ogni pensiero vola was composed in the winter and spring of 1984-1985 at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music.

Frances posing with Orca on a recent trip to Bomarzo

On Wergo: Computer Music Currents, Vol. 7.