Antidotum Tarantulæ brings together the visceral energy of the tarantella with the strange history of tarantism: the belief that the bite of a tarantula could produce an uncontrollable compulsion to dance, and that dancing itself might serve as a cure.

Written for antiphonal double brass quintet, the piece treats this tradition not as folklore to be reproduced, but as material to be reimagined. The two ensembles answer, interrupt, and provoke one another, creating a ritualized exchange that becomes increasingly urgent and unstable.

The work extends ideas first explored in Book of Spells, particularly the use of sound as a vehicle for transformation. Here, the dance becomes both symptom and remedy: a physical response to poison and a means of drawing it out. The music moves between frenzy, resistance, release, and recurrence, suggesting a struggle that is never entirely resolved.

Antidotum Tarantulæ looks backward toward an older belief in music’s healing power while also speaking to the present. It reflects on the persistent human desire to find order, relief, and transformation through sound, especially in periods of unrest.

—SC