Graduale 1 & 2 (2007)
I wrote my first two Graduales in 2007, as Verwandlungsmusik between the different parts of the Missa Prolationum of Johannes Ockeghem — a perfect example of strict canon writing from the Franco-Flemish school of the Renaissance. The title Graduale refers to a missing Mass movement in Ockeghem's work – and to the minor-scale ( ‘Gradus’ meaning scale in Latin) on which both Graduales are built. They use the principle of change ringing: a maximum of combinations with a limited number of bells.
„The two new, small Graduales by Anthony Fiumara were striking: systematically permutating and succint of tone. The solmisation words (‚ut-re-mi-fa-sol’) reminded of Glass. And the little bells made the milder Graduale 2 a Pärt-like experience.”
— NRC Handelsblad, 24 September 2007
Graduale 3 & 4 (2009)
After hearing Graduale 1 & 2, Rotterdam Doelen programmer Neil Wallace asked for two new works in this series, which I finished in February. The four Graduales are going to be performed in the new Red Sound Festival, by VocaalLAB Nederland (who super-performed my 7 Interludes last year). In Graduale 3 the same scale is used in a process in which the three top voices gradually draw closer to each other. Graduale 4 is a kind of procession that recalls the 7 Interludes – related vocal works that I wrote a year before.
„VocaalLAB excelled In Graduales I-IV, serene sound poems [...] in which the tone repetitions reverberated against the heavenly arches of the Grote Kerk; meditative as in Tibetan cloister.”
— NRC Handelsblad, 29 June 2009