David Del Tredici (16 marzo 1937 - 2023): Tattoo per orchestra (1986). New York Philharmonic Orchestra, dir. Leonard Bernstein.

1. Moderato maestoso
2. Omaggio a Niccolò Paganini [10:00] (sul Capriccio n. 24)

« The orchestra is, after all, a kind of musical monster, with its more than 100 independently moving parts, each of which, like tentacles, can be given its own life; or all can be harnessed together to do a composer’s bidding.
« In Tattoo, I wanted to have it both ways: the finely wrought contrapuntal detail wed to an inexorable momentum. (Or, more picturesquely, the victim about to be crushed in the maw of the beast observes perfectly, for a millisecond, a single physical detail.)
« Tattoo: 1. a signal on a drum or bugle summoning soldiers to their quarters at night. 2. any continuous drumming, rapping, etc.
« Almost randomly, tiny shards of percussion, isolated pizzicati and, finally, tubas punctuate the silence, then coalesce into the basso ostinato that will dominate the twenty-minute course of Tattoo. A somber, majestic theme is heard in horns signaling the forward march. With brass and percussion to the fore, sonic peaks steadily rise. A brief, more playful episode interrupts, but the music, ostinato-driven, presses on, now toward a blazing, grandiose climax. Thereafter, the whole conflagration dissipates, leaving mysterious, smoldering musical embers – harp and celesta arpeggios, muted brass, woodwind and percussion tremolos. At length, from these shifting ashes, the opening phrase of Paganini’s twenty-fourth Caprice (called Omaggio a Niccolò Paganini in my score) drifts up. This new thematic fragment is first heard superimposed above a quiet recapitulation of the opening, but then breaks free and in complete form proclaims itself, fortissimo. Only the basso ostinato still clings, giving the music a macabre aspect.
« The theme, once stated, is fair game for contrapuntal and rhythmic distortion. There are surprising, jarring harmonic shifts and much canonic casing. A siren, even, enters the fray. When the omnipresent ostinato itself begins to disintegrate, the end seems near. Paganini, however, makes one last dramatic appearance, but his theme breaks apart, its swirling fragments, moving faster and faster. Enough! A low wind rises and blows all the music away » (David Del Tredici).

Nei Paesi di lingua inglese il tattoo è un segnale militare con il quale si impone ai soldati di rientrare nei rispettivi quartieri per la notte. Originariamente si scriveva tap-toe: il termine risale all’epoca della guerra dei trent’anni (1618-48) e all’espressione in lingua neerlandese doe den tap toe (letteralmente: chiudere il rubinetto); eseguito da tamburini e/o trombettieri, il tap-toe segnalava ai locandieri e ai soldati che il tempo concesso per bere era terminato.