Anima I for piano solo by Olivia Belli (2023).
Programme Notes
The piece has an elegiac, calm and suspended character, almost an ancient melody, sung by a bard accompanied by the sound of his own zither.
It was composed following a moment of intense recollection and meditation. Moments in which I seek answers to how to defend ourselves from a world that pushes us more and more towards materialistic values and beliefs, where there is no more space for the sacred and the spiritual, where appearing is more important than being. I love to retire into places that tell of another way of conceiving life and its beyond, such as the Church of San Michele Arcangelo - whose foundations date back to the 1300s - situated in Cerreto, an ancient and tiny medieval village that is now practically uninhabited.
A place of a poignant essentiality where, in 1960, the frescoed ceiling with images depicting the dark sky studded with silvery stars collapsed without warning as if to open a passage to the beyond.
Duration: 3 minutes