Gesture

Tarantella for Tambourines | J.A. Hails

Tarantella for Tambourines is a piece composed in and inspired by my visit to Italy in the summer of 2021. I often experiment with dance, gesture, visualized atmospheres and moods, which set the tone of this piece. The Tarantella dance is a folk dance with origins dating back to the 15th century and it came about as a way to rationalizing the frenzied psychological condition of tarantism, allegedly caused by tarantula bites. This piece follows the story of a tarantula in four parts: The spider, the bite, the dance, and the message. The piece explores the tambourine in many ways, creating textures and timbre shifts in the surrounding movements, and the internal movements characterize the theatre of the tarantella dance itself. The bite is depicted by the frenzied shake rolls and frantic choregoraphy, while the following section is a more traditional approach to the steps of the tarantella and the playing styles of the southern Italian tamburo and tamburello. The 6/8 meter firmly cements the traditions of the music style while allowing room for varied compositional processes based on 6 and 8.