WHAT MY MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT

June 30, 2023  by Stefano Palleni

I may say the original idea was there from the beginning. It was somehow lost along the way due to a few major causes, such as the late conservatory studies and professional activity, that dried up the music rather than nourishing it, then it all came back round trip. There was a moment when I thought it would have never returned, that the desire and the passion were forever gone. 

Coming to art, I am a firm believer that everyone should try to be themselves rather than imitate others. This includes you having to go through the unique experience of individual search, which has little to do with instrumental technique or some idiomatic tradition. In the end you must find yourself by means of the music and other artists work is an element of inspiration but not the final goal. 

My personal aesthetic is founded on three basic concepts. The first is a very lyrical approach to melody. I try to find simple meaningful melodies that have an impact on the listener and stimulate his visual imagination. 

Secondly, rhythm and the beat are somewhat elastic elements to me, just like breathing. I want to make room for ideas to stretch out and create an inner space to relax. Since in nature everything owns a kind of asymmetrical perfection, I prefer to use a cyclical fluctuant structure. 

Third, poetics and storytelling are the most important factors and technique should be a complement to those. I wish my music is a vector for a spiritual aspiration rather than just entertainment, it sounds more like that to me. So I try to convey this value in what I do at any time. 

Regarding the material and the exercises for the practice, the simplest proved to be the best. For the soprano saxophone I found out that the  trumpet and voice warm ups are great to develop your tone, technique and most importantly to calm yourself down, which is capital for playing naturally and enjoy the music and finally getting rid of the feeling you are struggling with something all the time. If you are at ease with the basic ideas you want to play then the more advanced technical stuff will follow naturally. 

If I look back I think I spent a lot of unnecessary time practicing saxophone books and patterns, time that I would have better spent on more musical material, like playing tunes. In the end what you have to play is a repertoire so what's the point in spendind more time on the drills than the real thing? 

I encourage you to practice exercises written for other instruments than your own. Add a few transcriptions of your favorite music, transcribe yourself whatever piece of music suits you until you grasp the underlying idea. In doing so you'll craft your personal sound since you are trying to adapt ideas that were crafted for a different instrument than yours. Don't rely too much on imitation of other players, you don't want to eventually play like a pale copy of them. It's most important you find and refine your true self, if there's any. 

I have written personal warmup exercises, especially for soprano saxophone, that I've use myself and I will publish here some other day for you. A great book to learn how to play saxophone in the low register and mastering the difficult keys is Anthony Plog's Vol.1 warmup exercises for trumpet. 

The ultimate goal is the making of your repertoire composed of original compositions, tailored around your musical style and unique voice. Today I have became proficient in sorting out the efficient study material I need at that moment, which is beneficial for specific and general objectives, this saves a lot of time and frustration. 

Only you can know your ends and it's up to you to discover them. It takes time, patience and dedication. Sometimes what you really need to progress becomes clear with your evolution process. Ultimately it's a matter of self education. 

In my teens the casual listening of European early music, meaning medieval codices and gregorian chant, had a deep impact on me and came out as one of my most influential factors. I consider them as the foundation of inspiration. At that time, despite my young age, I instinctively recognized it as my natural constituent. Of course the list of influences is not limited to those fews ingredients, being almost countless, and differs for all of us. 

At the present moment I feel some degree of personal achievement I've chased for many years. I feel confident about what I do and I can convey ideas into my compositions and deliver them with energy. Nowadays things flow effortlessly most of the time and I’m capable of keeping up a high level of concentration. When I am in that state of mind, surrounding things tend to disappear. I have enough clarity about what I am doing and if some problem arises I know what to practice in order to fix it. Being in control of the moment is quite an exhilarating sensation, you fell like you  could bend time. Sometimes two ideas to choose from run in parallel, not much different than what happens in speech. 

My recent compositions are made of elementary melodic atoms and solid harmonic anchors around which I build the improvisation and the secrions from which I stray away and return to. These building blocks are embedded with a deep resonating archetypal significance with a function similar to medieval tropes in early music. They are almost hypnotic and I could spin them forever without losing momentum.  I call these melodic / harmonic centers TONAL ENGRAMS. 

This concept emerges distinctively in my new cinpisitions that form three different collections. CONTEMPORARY RAGA is a repertoire inspired by Indian classical music, SCORRERE INSIEME is a repertoire of tunes related to specific place and moments, and ECSTATIC SONGS, which is composed of pieces belonging or refer to some spiritual tradition. 

A suite composed of several parts that I am still working on and I wrote during my recent stay in Asia helped me to define the direction I want to go and my artistic identity. I feel these works are worthy and most representative of my musical values and poetics. Some of them are played from the soul and I am very satisfied with the result. 

Since the distribution and organization of the music industry has radically changed, I will occasionally publish short videos to document the evolution of the material and expose the use I make of it. This digital technology allows me to express old ideas of natural music, similar to that of Claude Debussy. This can be achieved with a series of simple video clips realized without much sophisticated or expensive tools, so as to give the experience of being there in the real monent when things happen. 

Ultimately its’ all about creativity, expression and the growth of your unique language to communicate your experience to other human beings. This language of your own must be organized in a coherent structure of sonic symbols which is called form and it's meant to contain your poetic message. Above all, always remember that in order to succeed in this endeavor you have to be intense and you must enjoy your musical journey.