Tropos is an open piano ensemble formed around Luca Chiantore and David Ortolà. It proposes re-writings of great works from the classical repertoire through a dynamic interaction between contemporary composition and classical performance. We do so following a very precise concept, letting the work initiate a dialogue with new musical material, different languages and alternative performing processes.
Version, cover, transcription, arrangement, paraphrase, variant, re-composition, remix, dub… so many different words – and many more! – to talk about the uncountable things you can do from the starting point of a pre-existing piece of music… If the repertoire of the past has reached us is precisely because of its adaptability to ever-changing aesthetics, instruments, contexts and performing processes for which it was not conceived originally.
The name of Tropos wants to highlight this long history that precedes us. In medieval music, a trope(from Greek τρόπος: “turn”, “direction”) was an addition to an existing work in the form of a commentary. This idea of a running commentary able to generate multiple levels of reading is the key of our project: a different way of conceiving, performing and listening to the classical repertoire.
