Una Corda is the latest compositional project I am working on using the physical modelling synthesis programme GENESIS, developed by ACROE in Grenoble. The model creates a virtual vibrating string that obeys Newtonian laws of physics: the model’s configuration and the energy transmitted to the string determine its vibration and how it evolves over time.
The programme allows an unlimited number of audio outputs to be included in the model: the Una corda project envisages a multi-channel sound system distributed across a linear space; it is an open-ended project: the model is a complex system, which I am currently working on, which allows for variations to produce different sounds; in its evolving forms, the model will serve as a musical instrument for creating concert pieces, with or without acoustic instruments, as well as for musical and visual installations.
The title refers to a well-known piano term, ‘soft pedal’ or, more technically, ‘a single-string pedal’, but it describes the model: Una corda translates into One string. Indeed, the basis of the variations will be a modelled single string, played in different ways to produce music.
As has already been the case in many of my compositions created with GENESIS, the model will contain the instrumental gestures that ‘play’ it; thus, in an abstract sense, the model is, at the same time, both the score and the instrument that performs it.
Given that physical modelling in GENESIS is, in fact, dimensionless, one can envisage the simulation of a string tens of metres long. The Corderie (the rope-making workshops) at Venice Arsenal would be the perfect space for Una corda. I proposed Una corda for an installation/performance at Corderie for Biennale musica 2026.