Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2 - Alexandre Casaccia

Op. 2 – SHADES OF LIGHT, THEME-LESS VARIATIONS (2025) — ca. 6′30″

Commissioned for the contemporary brass recording project Sartoria per Ottoni—co-production of the Brescia and Darfo sites of the “Luca Marenzio” Conservatory, Italy

Brass sextet · ca. 6′30″ · Four movements

Op. 2a: 1 piccolo trumpet (in B♭), 3 trumpets (in B♭), 1 tenor trombone, 1 bass trombone

Op. 2b: 1 piccolo trumpet (in B♭), 2 trumpets (in B♭), 1 horn (in F), 1 tenor trombone, 1 bass tuba

View score and parts (Op. 2a) · View score and parts (Op. 2b) · Listen (Op. 2a) · Discuss a performance

Programme note:

Shades of Light is a brass sextet born of alpine stillness and symbolic resonance. Premiered at the heart of the Italian Alps by the Luca Marenzio Brass, the piece was commissioned for the Sartoria per Ottoni contemporary brass recording project, overseen by composer/conductor Federico Biscione in conjunction with trumpeter Angelo Cavallo and trombonist Alessio Brontesi.

With Shades of Light, Casaccia sought to compose theme-less variations—the original working title of the piece. Using a simple, repeated four-note motive, the sextet marked the composer’s first attempt at prioritising the framing of the idea over its conventional development—a technique he would later refer to as deformation. While the motive itself could be analysed as a theme, in the germinal Grundgestalt sense, there is little evolution of its features, no clear development, and no beginning or end to such a process, other than the confines of the piece itself. Instead, the composer presents a continuum of varying states—testing the boundaries of permanence and change—the only organizing principles being the endless repetition of the motive and the gradual intensification of tempo and dynamics.

The work’s oxymoronic title emerged during the composer’s stay in Capo di Ponte, a town renowned for its Iron Age petroglyphs—particularly the enigmatic Camunian rose. On the morning of the piece’s first rehearsal, as sunlight crept over the summit of Mount Concarena, scholar Paola Farina’s interpretation of the Camunian rose—as a symbol of light, life, and good fortune—struck the composer as deeply resonant with his four-note motive, with its ascending shape, symmetric geometry, and tonal ambiguities. Hence the title, Shades of Light—a name that evokes not only light itself, but also the veiled, fleeting mysteries within it, mirroring the nature of the four-note motive and its theme-less variations.

About the Location (25 Oct 2025 live recording) — Salone da Cemmo

The live recording of Shades of Light took place in the Salone da Cemmo in Brescia, a magnificent fifteenth-century hall adorned with frescoes by Giovanni Pietro da Cemmo and his workshop (ca. 1490). Once the library of the Augustinian convent of San Barnaba, the hall envelops listeners in a dialogue between art, light, and sound – a fitting counterpart to Shades of Light, whose musical textures echo the chiaroscuro of da Cemmo’s painted surfaces.

About the Performers

The performance was entrusted to the Luca Marenzio Brass under the direction of composer and conductor Federico Biscione, a leading figure in contemporary Italian music whose works have been commissioned and performed across Europe. The ensemble—founded by soloists Angelo Cavallo (trumpet) and Alessio Brontesi (trombone)—brings together some of Italy’s foremost orchestral brass musicians and their finest students from the “L. Marenzio” Conservatory, embodying both the tradition and renewal of the Italian brass school.

Composition: Como, 14 Jan–17 Feb 2024 (v. 1, s. 1); Aug 2024 (v. 1, s. 2) and 16 Aug–17 Sep 2025 (v. 2); final authorial text completed 17 Sep 2025

Form/structure: 4-movement cycle — I. Introduzione, misterioso e nobile; II. Più vivo; III. Deciso; IV. Giocoso, a modo di danza

Performing-medium series: BRASS SEXTET No. 1

Instrumentation:

– Op. 2a: 1 PICCOLO TRUMPET (in B♭), 3 TRUMPETS (in B♭), 1 TENOR TROMBONE, 1 BASS TROMBONE
– Op. 2b: 1 PICCOLO TRUMPET (in B♭), 2 TRUMPETS (in B♭), 1 HORN (in F), 1 TENOR TROMBONE, 1 BASS TUBA

Note. Op. 2a and Op. 2b are alternative instrumentations with minor notational adaptations for practical performance; both reflect the same textual state.

Premiere:

– Op. 2a, 24 Oct 2025, “L. Marenzio” Conservatory auditorium, Darfo Boario Terme; Luca Marenzio Brass; Marcello Manfredi Bassi (piccolo trumpet), Angelo Cavallo (trumpet I), Simone Carolfi (trumpet II), Giuseppe Mercieri (trumpet III), Giacomo Domenighini (tenor trombone), Alessio Brontesi (bass trombone); cond. Federico Biscione. Sartoria 3.0 – Spazio Marenzio 2024–25. [Institution] [Programme] [Poster] [Operabase – production entry]

Textual history:

– v. 1, s. 1 (Feb 2024): digital autograph, workshop version; score and parts; five movements; instrumentation: 1 piccolo trumpet (in A), 3 trumpets (in C), 1 euphonium, 1 tenor trombone; score and parts in concert pitch; piccolo trumpet at sounding octave; working title Theme-less variations; catalogued as Op. 8 prior to the renumbering adopted from 24 Mar 2025; uploaded to IMSLP (03 Mar 2024).

Note. Although conceived for the forces available at its workshop performances, this instrumentation functions as the morphological archetype from which both subsequent variants (Op. 2a-b) derive. The euphonium part anticipates the bass-tuba line of variant b, while the three-trumpet texture persists in variant a. Workshop performances corresponding to this textual state: 02 Mar 2024, “L. Marenzio” Conservatory Auditorium, Darfo Boario Terme; Darfo Conservatory brass ensemble, cond. Leonardo Perico; 09 Mar 2024, Bazzini Hall, “L. Marenzio” Conservatory, Brescia; Darfo Conservatory brass ensemble, cond. Federico Biscione. Sartoria Musicale per Ottoni 2.0 – Spazio Marenzio 2023–24. [Institution] [Poster]

– v. 1, s. 2 (Aug 2024): revised digital autograph; score only, in concert pitch; counterpoint, layout, and engraving adjustments; retitled Shades of Light, theme-less variations for brass sextet; catalogued as Op. 8 prior to the renumbering adopted from 24 Mar 2025; uploaded to IMSLP (Aug 2024).

Note. The IMSLP record shows 14 Aug 2025 following file deletion and administrator-assisted reupload; the file represents the Aug 2024 witness.

– v. 2 (Sep 2025): fully revised digital autograph; score and parts; five movements reduced to four (movements I and II merged); instrumentation and voicing substantially rewritten; final variants Op. 2a-b established; score and parts in transposed notation where applicable; piccolo trumpet at sounding octave; final authorial text.

Publications:

– Casaccia, Alexandre. Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2a. Score and parts. Self-published edition, 23 Oct 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17423851; also available on IMSLP (internal ref. number IAC 11) → Reflects v. 2

– Casaccia, Alexandre. Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2b. Score and parts. Self-published edition, 23 Oct 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17425240; also available on IMSLP (internal ref. number IAC 11) → Reflects v. 2

Recordings:

– Casaccia, Alexandre. Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2a. Studio recording, 15 Oct 2025, Brescia; Luca Marenzio Brass; cond. Federico Biscione → Reflects v. 2

– Casaccia, Alexandre. Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2a. Live recording, 25 Oct 2025, Salone da Cemmo, Brescia; Luca Marenzio Brass; cond. Federico Biscione. Self-published, 04 Nov 2025. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17524088; also uploaded to YouTube (28 Oct 2025) → Reflects v. 2

Discographic publications:

– Casaccia, Alexandre. Shades of Light, theme-less variations, Op. 2a. Track 1 on Sartoria per Ottoni; Luca Marenzio Brass; cond. Federico Biscione. Studio recording, 15 Oct 2025, Brescia. [Label tbc], cat. no. [tbc], forthcoming [2027] – 6′30″ → Reflects v. 2

Curated databases:

– BDCI (database of Italian composers), CIDIM: Shades of Light, variazioni senza tema

Score preview (Op. 2a):