Kaija Saariaho - Dolce Tormento for solo piccolo

With a duration of 5 to 6 minutes, Dolce Tormento is relatively short, but, as the title
suggests, full of „sweet torment“ in the character of the music. The text is from a sonnet of
Petrarch, reprinted below in the original as well as in various translations.

But there are also „sweet torments“ for the player! Kaija chose the piccolo for this piece
because we had not yet explored combining voice with this instrument. Both the high range
and limited resonance of the piccolo, as well as the nature of the Italian language posed new
challenges in developing a musical polyphony.

Of all her flute works this is the most freely noted, and interpretation is a further challenge,
especially for flutists not familiar with Kaija Saariaho's musical language. I, of course, am
steeped in it, and since she was writing for me, writing rather quickly besides, the score is
more or less in „shorthand“, which she knew I'd be able to understand.

The usual Saariaho vocabulary is present: air sounds, controlled vibrato, glissandi, trills,
multiphonics, use of the voice and layers and transitions of all these. But there are no bar
lines, no tempo markings beyond rit

Traditional notation is used for the rhythmic values ​​of the pitches, but the way the notes are spread out
on the staff plus the way the phrases of the text are inserted without indication of duration
suggests more a „spacetime“ notation/interpretation than in her other scores.

Two further hints toward interpretation appear in the printed score under “Performance
Notes”: “One characteristic of this piece is an unstable playing between octaves, with the
desired sound vacillating freely between the octaves with frangile expression.”
“The text should always be recited between whispering and sotto voce, in such a way that the
given pitch resonates either as air or tone.” -- KS

Camilla Hoitenga

If it is not love, what then is that which I feel?
But if it is love, by God, what and what kind of love?
If good, whence is the harsh, mortal effect?
​​If evil, whence is every torment so sweet?

If I burn at my will, whence is the weeping and lamentation?
If against my will, what avails the lamentation?
O living death, o delightful evil,
how can you have so much power over me, if I do not consent?

And if I agree, I am very wrong to complain.
Amidst such contrary winds
I find myself in a frail boat on the high seas, without a governor,

so light of knowing, so full of error
that I myself do not know what I want,
and I tremble at midsummer, the winter burning.

Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)