Benati, Chiara: Dediche

Dediche is a series of short miniature pieces for solo guitar written in 1991 by Chiara Benati, an authoritative exponent of what can be called the “School of Bologna”, and who has devoted many pages of her catalogue to the guitar (Chiara won a first prize in 1986 at the Competition for Guitar Composition organized by the historic magazine “Il Fronimo”).From the point of view of the guitar idiom, it is striking how the compositional research of Chiara Benati (who does not play the guitar) has penetrated deeply into the nature of the instrument. In my job of adding the fingering to the pieces, I started from the precise indications concerning the strings already provided by the Composer, who meticulously imagined the instrumental result created by the play of resonances and the consequent precise distribution of the parts on different strings (let us think of the tremolos superimposed on different strings in the second Dedica and the counterpoint in three parts each written on its own musical stave), with a skilful use of glissandos and other instrumental effects.From the musical point of view, a similar meticulousness in writing is evident, shown, for example, by indicating the temporal separation between the figures by means of their spatial distance indicated in the score.The result is an instrumentally and musically rigorous writing which also helps the performer by appealing to his ability to empathize, following the indications written in the score and in the key, with the expressive atmosphere of the work, and through that specific aspect of controlled performance flexibility and sound sensitivity necessary to render it properly.These delicate miniatures, suffused with mystery and melancholy, and so masterfully written for the guitar, are in my opinion an important addition to the contemporary repertoire of the instrument. (Piero Bonaguri)