This piece was derived from the final chorus of Quando stanno morendo, Diario Polacco, n. 2 (1982), in which the chorus intones 'When they are dying, the men sing". ¿Donde estás hermano? differs from this piece primarily because it does not make use of live electronics. The listening process is determined by the impalpability of the singing, floating in an extremely quiet sound world (ppppp), broken by suspended silences only to regenerate itself through sounds with changing dynamics and phonetic content. These are the voices of the dead, the same as those in Il canto sospeso (1955-56) and which continue to overcome death intself with their eternal message of freedom. The absence of live electronics does not change the meaning, it only makes the dimension of listening more intense, guiding it towards the mobility and roundness inherent in natural sound. It would seem that a new reductionary tendency is beginning in Nono's music with regards to electronics, which was leading him to listen to the infinite possibilities implicit in unadulterated sound.

Marinella Ramazzotti

[Estratto dalle note al CD Luigi Nono, Voices of Protest, Mode Records, 2000©]

- Juan María SOLARE, ¿Donde estás hermano?: Die ewige Utopie. Die politische Haltung Nonos nach dem Streichquartett und seine Auseinandersetzung mit Latinamerika, in Klang und Wahrnehmung, Schott, Mainz 2001, pp. 215-248