La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura: Madrigale per più "caminantes" con Gidon Kremer (Italian: The nostalgic utopian future distance: Madrigal for several "travellers" with Gidon Kremer) is an experimental work by Italian avant-garde composer Luigi Nono scored for a solo violinist and eight magnetic tapes.
La lontananza is the result of Nono's collaboration with renowned violinist Gidon Kremer, who had premiered a number of contemporary and avant-garde compositions at the time.
The recordings mainly consisted of improvisations on the part of Kremer, where Nono studied his playing and processed and manipulated the sounds to create a final tape on June 25 of that same year.
[1] The resulting sheet music was full of precise expression markings and difficult-to-read passages that made it a challenge for the piece to be practiced at all, even with the help of a few colleagues such as Hans Peter Haller, Rudolf Strauss or Alvise Vidolin.
[2] The dedicatee interpreted the title as follows: "the past reflected in the present (nostalgica) brings about a creative utopia (utopica), the desire for what is known becomes a vehicle for what will be possible (futura) through the medium of distance (lontananza)".
Notes are often badly drawn, with ledger lines going into unused staves, stems appearing on the wrong side, pitches indicated as text in brackets, etc.
A similar set-up would be needed for Nono's next and last composition, "Hay que caminar" soñando, where the violinists also have to walk around the stage to arrive at their stands.
Some variation of the following note usually appears on recordings: "Production and electronic realization of the 8-track magnetic tape under the direction of Luigi Nono and Hans Peter Haller in the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation Südwestrundfunk Freiburg.
Even though Nono claims that the tapes have not been manipulated in any way in the score, André Richard, director of the Heinrich Strobel Experimental Studio said that the material was "transformed electronically, using Harmonizer (frequency shifter), reverberation, filters, delays, Halaphon".
With the use of electronic processes, multiple layers of sounds are generated, facilitated by harmonizers, while simultaneously manipulating the tapes by slowing them down and speeding them up.
This fragment consists of a slow melody on the IV string, played with the wood of the bow, with accents and sforzato intersparsed, joining dialogues and sounds such as exclamations, coughing and laughs, as well as ambient noises, such as the studio door opening and closing.
This "assembled pseudo-working session" is specifically designed to resemble a live recording studio, upon which Nono later made repetitions with modifications.