Works
(2012-2024)
My compositions are born out of a personal spiritual urgency: the need to survive obscurity, to generate a movement of ascent from darkness to light, from hopelessness to rebirth.
I often dream about wandering through inner cemeteries in search of something hidden, forgotten and unspeakable. Perhaps the secret key to the very meaning of reality, lost in the contradictions and the weariness of living.
My works reflect this crossing of the inner desert, of the inner labyrinth, in the last hour of the night.
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Le mie composizioni nascono da una personale urgenza spirituale: il bisogno di sopravvivere all’oscurità, di generare un movimento di risalita dalle tenebre alla luce, dalla desolazione alla rinascita.
Sogno spesso di attraversare cimiteri interiori in cerca di qualcosa di nascosto, dimenticato e innominabile. Forse la chiave segreta per il senso stesso della realtà, perduta nelle contraddizioni e nella stanchezza del vivere.
I miei lavori esprimono questo attraversamento del deserto e del labirinto interiore, nell’ultima ora della notte.
NOTTURNO (Nocturne) Op. 14, for solo piano (2024-in progress)
RICERCARE (Canone Secondo) Op. 13, for two pianos (2020-in progress)
PATER NOSTER Op. 12, motet for SATB choir (2024) SCORE VIDEO
Some notes on PATER NOSTER by listeners:
"A magnificent chorale that invokes divine protection and a wish of peace of all of mankind" Mrs. Antonia Vignera (Italy)
"Completely in line with the best spiritual works of choral music" Mr. Vanja Dražinić (Croatia)
TRE PRELUDI (Three Preludes) Op. 11, for solo piano (2022-2023, rev. 2024)
TRE INNI (Three Hymns) Op. 10, for solo piano (2022-2023, rev. 2024): I. In tenebris - II. Ianua Coeli - III. Inno per la rinascita del mondo SCORE VIDEO
Some notes on TRE INNI by listeners:
"Ethereal, profoundly suggestive, and deeply human in the essence of its constructive musical elements [...] The mind of the listener engages in a voyage through his own imagination, investigating worlds within himself he would never suppose to exist." Mr. Vanja Dražinić (Croatia)
"Enchanting composition consisting of three Hymns that lead the listener through a spiritual journey from darkness to light... Today as necessary as ever" Mrs. Antonia Vignera (Italy)
MUSICA LONTANA Op. 9, for solo piano (2020-2021, rev. 2024). In six movements: Corale - Aria - Corale II - Aria II - Ricercare - Passacaglia
CINQUE NOTTURNI (Five Nocturnes) Op. 8, for solo piano (2012-2020)
MUSICA PER PIANOFORTE E CINQUE STRUMENTI A FIATO (Music for Piano and Five Wind Instruments) Op. 7 (2017-2018, rev. 2024). In three movements: Corale - Intermezzo - Elegia. Originally commissioned by the Meadows Wind Ensemble SCORE VIDEO
A note on MUSICA PER PIANFORTE E CINQUE STRUMENTI A FIATO by Mr. Vanja Dražinić (Croatia): "This is a pregnant composition, resulting from a well balanced interaction between pianistic figurations and the colors of wind instruments. It is modern and classical at the same time, offering a varied range of impressions, suggesting at times drops of water, dark wind sonorities and, in the end, continuous and stubborn beats of chime-like piano chords. We might say it resembles life itself, forcing the listener to pay attention to The Sound - the cosmic elemental foundation of all expression, particularly in the part where the piano utters long chords in half notes, leading us to rethink the very meaning of existence and to consider our own unimportance in the universal cycle of events."
"Immediately your tremendous sensitivity as a composer emerges in an exquisite way through a refined technique that I greatly admire. The succession of notes that takes us throughout the Intermezzo in perfect combination highlights the solemnity of the movement as an anticipation of the grandeur Finale." Mr. Milton Gajardo (USA)
DUE ELEGIE (Two Elegies) Op. 6, for clarinet and piano (2017-2018)
CANONE INFINITO Op. 5, for one piano, six-hands or three pianos, six hands (2017, rev. 2023). Composed for and premiered during the Odyssée Artistic Residency at Abbaye de Saint-Riquier - Centre Culturel de Rencontre (France). LIVE VIDEO / SCORE VIDEO
A note on CANONE INFINITO by Mr. Vanja Dražinić (Croatia): "The perception of this work it tied to a polyphonic linear constructive imperative, built on the intention of avoiding any logical melody expected in the classical sense of melody-making. At the same time, the entire structure gets increasingly denser by rhythmic means such as syncopated figures and diminution of note values. It is interesting to observe the impact of such musical development on someone's mind while listening (and following the score at the same time). While it is hard enough to guess the contents of someone's mind, a rather well-educated listener might put it this way: it is a wandering between eternal destiny and current lack of meaning, which becomes more and more dramatic as time passes, ultimately highlighting the fact that the human being is incapable of finding the way out from such a conflict within himself. It resembles the total crisis of our time and reminds us that music can still be the medium by which we can communicate such messages without much need for additional words."
"A perfect feast for both the intellect and the senses. Most singular: the presence of silence throughout the piece. Like music built through, composed by silence." Mrs. Roxana Prieto (Argentina)
QUARTETTO PER ARCHI (String Quartet) Op. 4 (2013-2014). SCORE VIDEO / VIDEO
TRIO PER ARCHI (String Trio) Op. 3, for violin, viola, and cello (2013) SCORE VIDEO
A note on TRIO PER ARCHI by Mr. Paul Doron (Germany): "This is music in its purest, most poetic, most intense form. It is life itself, so painful because for me it reveals the lost, unexpressed life, my own life, which I find again in this music. Each sound, in its harmonic and textural context, expresses a new world added to the previous one created by the previous sound. This music conveys the absolute truth of to be or not to be. For me, Thomas Schwan is the composer who dares to reach the level of the purest musical expression, free from convention." [...] "This is the most tragic music ever heard, from Bach to Bartók, and embodies all great Western music."
"A narration in sound that astonishes for the torment it evokes [...] A brief composition expressing the suffering of mankind" Mrs. Antonia Vignera (Italy)
TRE MOVIMENTI (Three Movements) Op. 2, for solo piano (2012)
TRIO Op. 1, for piano, violin, and cello (2012-2015)