I have long admired the music of Fausto Romitelli. His epic video opera, “Index of Metals” (2003) pointed toward new worlds of expressive possibilities for young composers like me writing experimental music for instruments and electronics at the start of the 21st century. The piece features a soprano and three enormous panels of colorful video abstractions behind an amplified ensemble of musicians. It opens with a striking sample taken from Pink Floyd’s “Shine on You, Crazy Diamond” (1975). As if dropping the needle on a record, a sparkling G minor chord played by strings ramps up, holds, and then cuts. On each iteration, an orb of light appears on the video screens and then vanishes.
Blending elements of French spectralism, psychedelic rock, science fiction, and noise, Romitelli’s music is a potent mix of things amplified by its contradictions. It’s carefully crafted, yet somehow rough around the edges; it’s full of subtle timbral colors and combinations, yet often overlaid with teeth-gritting guitar distortion. Romitelli’s music, with its embrace of diverse styles and genres, pointed toward exciting new territory for the 21st century “classical” composer—an alternative to the cold and distant modernism of the post-war European avant-garde. Rather than positioning himself as an artist somehow separate from popular culture, Romitelli embraced gestures found more often in rock concerts and discotheques than in classical concert halls. But his life was cut short. A year after writing “Index of Metals,” Romitelli died of blood cancer, at the age of 41.
I wanted to know more about Romitelli, where his creative vision came from, the sort of person he was, how he arrived at the music he composed. After all, people are products of their environments—their time and place, the books they read, the movies they watch, their families, friends, and lovers. And so I set out to interview some of those people who were closest to Romitelli in hopes of getting a glimpse into the world that made him the artist that I so admire.
The following are excerpts from interviews I conducted on the phone and over email with Romitelli’s friends and fellow composers Riccardo Nova, Giovanni Verrando, Atli Ingólfsson, and Massimiliano Viel, and his partner of eight years, Luisa Vinci.
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