Over the past year in Rome, I have composed three new, distinct works that engage with queerness and the palimpsestic nature of city life here. The work being featured tonight, san clemente syndrome, was commissioned by the Belgium-based ensemble Extended Music Collective.

The title references the Basilica di San Clemente, a 14th century church that has beautifully excavated layers below the surface from the 4th century and the 1st century CE. The basilica is located on the same street as, and just two minutes walking from, two of the most prominent gay bars in Rome. Thinking broadly about its queer affect, the church appears in Andre Aciman’s queer-classic Call my by your name, wherein the palimsestic history of the church represents Elio’s understanding of desire. On the same night that they visit the basilica, Elio and Oliver make love for the first time. Elio later remarks how every new relationship in his life is in some way built on this foundational memory with Oliver, just like “the church is built on the ruins of subsequent restorations … just layers and secret passageways and interlocking chambers.”

My work for cello, harp, electronics, and DMX lights is inspired by about a half dozen visits I made to the church and its neighborhood over several months, sometimes in the company of architects, lighting designers, and musicians. I was struck first by the shadowy grates in the lower two layers where one can see all the way through to the top level. Furthermore, the lighting curation highlights the distinct building materials and affects of each layer. Inspired by these reflections, I programmed a lighting element that sculpts the shadows of the cellist and harpist as they play, developing another contrapuntal and theatrical layer to the piece. In addition to at times emphasizing the play of contrasting musical materials, the visual language creates a sense of musical time that I believe accords with Elio and many queer people’s experience—time as a mixed and imperfect present, one that is informed by trauma but also shards of hope in our past, and looks towards the future that is not yet here.

Another project I developed here during my time in Rome, Scenes from the Post-Diaspora, is also a multimedia work, for video installation and ensemble, that thinks about queerness and diaspora as novel perspectives on futurity. Made in collaboration with cinematographers from the US, Taiwan, and Italy, the last movement features scenes filmed in cruising areas around Rome. It will be premiered at the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi on 29 June at 21:00 on a portrait concert devoted to my work, performed by Cologne-based Ensemble Garage and guest artists.

san clemente syndrome will also be performed in Rome on a program with more of my works on 22 June at the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Sala Casella at 20:00.

Bio

Baldwin Giang is an internationally renowned composer, pianist, interdisciplinary creator and educator whose music engages the energies of the audience and artist community and creates concert experiences that are opportunities for wonder and collective judgment. He is the Samuel Barber Rome Prize Fellow in Musical Composition at the American Academy in Rome for 2023/2024.