Luca Mosca: Complete Works for Solo Guitar and Four Guitars

In the early 1990s, Alfonso Baschiera proposed the publication of a guitar anthology written by contemporary composers, aimed at students in the lower courses of conservatories, to the Suvini Zerboni Editions in Milan. The editorial director, quite interested, decided to contact several composers who frequently collaborated with the publishing house, including Ennio Morricone, Alessandro Solbiati, Bruno Bettinelli, Riccardo Malipiero, and others, among them Luca Mosca.

At first, Mosca was very skeptical, as he considered the guitar a “difficult” instrument for most composers. In his view, the “small album sheet” could only come from the hands of a guitarist-composer. This belief stemmed from his only composition for guitar, “Tre Canzoni Veneziane”, which, to his disappointment, had not yet been given a satisfactory performance.
However, Baschiera, confident in the examples of collaboration between many famous performers and composers who were not guitarists, worked for a few months on this composition. With small modifications, they turned out to be very ‘guitaristic,’ almost as if they had not been originally conceived on a piano. At their next meeting in Venice, Luca Mosca could not believe how fluid and functional those pages sounded on the instrument.

A few weeks later, Mosca willingly composed the “Ninna nanna” for the anthology “La chitarra oggi”.
This marked the beginning of an enduring collaboration and a deep friendship that continues to this day. Thanks to the trust he had gained, Baschiera brought Mosca an old guitar, asking him to think of some ideas for a series of “studies” conceived, not by working on the piano, but directly and experimentally on the guitar. He believed that, in the hands of a curious and creative musician, the instrument could spark new and original ideas, distinct from those of a performer who moves according to a technically predetermined approach.

In 2000, Luca Mosca composed eleven short pieces, drawing inspiration from both specific technical aspects and purely theoretical ideas. This led to studies such as No. 10 (“Con piatti e tamburi”), where a percussive gesture creates the very form of the piece, or No. 4 (“Sonorità opposte”), in which a dissonance is coloured by the various possible timbres, or even No. 11 (“The Bells”), in which the resonance of open strings generates the disorienting effect of bells ringing in celebration. In contrast, in studies 1, 7, and 9, the inspiration comes from theoretical factors detached from instrumental effects: “Quinte giuste”, “Seconde minori, settime maggiori, none minori” ed “Arpeggi asimmetrici”.

During the composition of the Studies, the bond between Baschiera and Mosca grew stronger, and they met frequently. Baschiera recalls: “We would look together at some of the most beautiful pages in the history of music, from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas to Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, and then to Berg’s Wozzeck; from Bach’s harpsichord works to Scarlatti’s sonatas, from Chopin to Debussy, up to Webern. In this wandering, I have always admired in Luca Mosca a cultured and refined personality that manages to combine an extraordinary analytical ability with a meticulous knowledge of every historical aspect.”

Inspired by these meetings, and at the invitation of the “F. Moreno-Torroba” guitar quartet, Mosca composed the “Suite of Dances” from the English virginalists, for four guitars in 1997. This is an arrangement of some of the most popular themes of the Elizabethan period, with “La Volta” standing out in a whirlwind of repetitions that culminate in a finale where the four instruments weave polyphonically in a blend of remarkable instrumental virtuosity.

In 2000, Mosca revisited a previous composition for piano, “24 Capricci”, adapting it for four guitars under the title “Musica Leggera”. In this work, the composer creates miniatures full of surprises, demonstrating a quest for new musical languages.

“Luca Mosca, despite having nurtured the illusion of recreating a more communicative music compared to the avant-gardes (in the 24 Caprices), gradually distances himself from the group of neoromantic composers, realizing that their path is not actually his, that this is not the right perspective for him. In this way, he discovers his true nature. He understands that the short form is where he has given his best and, most importantly, identifies all the moments in which his rhythmic and harmonic language has expressed itself in the most personal way. He decides, first and foremost, to delve deeper into the aspect of microform within the macroform.” (Elisa Marzorati, tesi di Laurea).

The commitment required from the performers is significant (both in terms of rhythm and purely technical aspects), but the sounds that create these small images are entirely original. As we know, when a composer becomes unique and recognizable, it means they have left an important mark. Similar to what happened with the “Canzoni Veneziane”, “Musica Leggera” remained unperformed for a few years. Finally, in 2023, Marco Nicolè, a colleague of Luca Mosca’s at the Conservatorio di Musica “Benedetto Marcello” in Venice, decided to revisit the score. With the help of his former students, he began a major musical revision, both technically and instrumentally, as well as a redistribution of the voices between the instruments. The result is, once again, undeniably beautiful, engaging, and original.

Over the years, the guitar has become close to the composer’s heart, and he has incorporated it into various compositions:
“Tre Canzonette” for soprano and 4 guitars;
“Canto XVIII dell’Inferno” for reciting voice, guitar, harp, electronic keyboard, piano;
“Note del guanciale” for flute, viola, guitar, vibraphone, piano;
“Variazioni” op. 73 for flute and guitar;
“Fantasia” for guitar and strings;
“Settimo Trio” for flute, guitar, and vibraphone;
“Il gioco del vento e della Luna” musical work; guitar included in the ensemble.
For this first discographic release, we have chosen to focus exclusively on Mosca’s compositions for solo guitar and guitar quartet. This decision ensures cohesion and unity in the project, even though the total duration (40 minutes) falls short of the standard length of a CD. This work is our way of expressing gratitude to Luca Mosca for his invaluable contribution to the world of guitar music.

Notes by the performers
A. Baschiera, M. Costa, L. Giacomello,
G. U. Mazzone, M. Nicolè