Composer Massimo Lauricella's "Sirene"

The Italian composer won first prize at Austria's Styrian Tone Arts String Duo & Trio Composition Competition with this violin duo "Sirene"(Mermaids).

"'Sirene' is a piece in a single movement that bases its expressiveness on the aspects that, in the Homeric poem, describe the Mermaids: their seductive singing and the fleeting and elusive aspect of these mythological creatures," Massimo told The Violin Channel.

"The piece is composed of three parts in which a single theme is proposed with two different characters. In the first part, the theme presents itself together with a rapid swirl created through arpeggios that shorten and lengthen, overlapping the two violins.

"In the second part, the two violins play using only the tremolo technique. The theme is presented as the upper part of the tremolos that harmonize it, but without giving up the aspect of restlessness and uncertainty. This central part is abruptly interrupted by a resume of the first part that will lead to the conclusion, disappearing in a very sharp and luminous register.

"The piece was born without a specific purpose: as often happens (at least in my compositional activity) a new idea arises spontaneously and the work "Sirene" came to my mind at a particularly sweet moment in my life. In fact, this is a decidedly different piece from what I could define my “personal poetics” which, usually, does not move around tonality and consonance.

"But music cannot be predicted, just as our feelings cannot be predicted: after all, a composer is based precisely on them.
The Graz competition was another opportunity to make this work known and, luckily for me, it was appreciated.

"Since the piece is dedicated to the sweetest aspect of Sirens, to their seductive singing, to their being of vibrant beauty, I hope that the listeners can bring with them a feeling of pleasant mental excitement and, at the same time, the evocation of an ancestral and imaginary beauty."