Institute of Music – Page 2 – Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Workshop Research-led Performance| Composer – Instrument – Performer | Violoncello Solo in the Second Half of the 20th Century

This workshop is part of the Research-led Performance series, one of the most popular and esteemed activities at the Institute for Music since its inaugural edition in 2016. Our guest lecturer for 2024 is Lucas Fels, cellist of the Arditti String Quartet and professor at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. A masterful musician, Fels combines his expertise with a keen interest in philological aspects and theoretical reflection. The workshop will focus on works for solo cello by Italian composers, with particular attention to the collections preserved at the Institute for Music. The following compositions will be studied:

• Luigi Dallapiccola, Ciaccona, Intermezzo e Adagio (1945);

• Renato de Grandis, Serenata seconda (1970);

• Giacomo Manzoni, Freedom (2001);

• Ernesto Rubin de Cervin, Omaggi (2002).

The workshop is aimed at young cellists with a strong ability to understand and interpret research and experimental music. The program includes both practical and theoretical sessions, as well as a final concert featuring performances by a select group of workshop participants. The practical sessions will be led by Lucas Fels, while the theoretical sessions, open to the public, will be given by musicologists Gianmario Borio (Director of the Institute of Music and Professor at the University of Pavia), Francisco Rocca (scientific collaborator at the Institute of Music) and Francesca Scigliuzzo (doctoral student at the University of Udine).

Call for applications for 8 cellists with scholarships

Download WorkshopVioloncelloBandoING_DEF (dec)

Application deadline: 25 October 2024

Study day | Actions and Reflections on Prometeo

With this event, the Institute for Music participates in the celebrations of the centenary of Luigi Nono’s birth and renews its collaboration with the Fondazione Archivio Luigi Nono. The two days are in direct concurrence with the performance of one of the composer’s greatest creations: Prometeo. Tragedia dell’ascolto.

The conference part is dedicated to recent musicological studies on this work. Esteban Buch, Pauline Driesen, Jörn Peter Hickel, Jonathan Impett, Matteo Nanni, and Veniero Rizzardi will discuss the following aspects: the myth of Prometheus in 20th century culture and music, the choice and setting to music of the texts, the planning of the acoustic space, the role of live electronics, the stages of the compositional process, and the philosophical foundations of the work. In the central session, Marco Angius, Roberto Fabbriciani, Giancarlo Schiaffini and Alvise Vidolin will examine performance issues: the placement of instrumental and vocal groups in the space of San Lorenzo the church, the management of live electronics equipment, the correct rendering of soloist and choir parts, the overall sound balance. Joseph Auner and Michela Garda will participate as discussants.

Books at san Giorgio

November sees the resumption of the encounters of Libri a San Giorgio, the cycle of presentations dedicated to the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s new publications, now at its eighteenth edition.

The first presentation, on 15 November, is devoted to Studi Vivaldiani, the annual journal of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini’s Italian Antonio Vivaldi Institute. The journal, published since 1980 and distributed worldwide, contains articles on the life and musical production of Antonio Vivaldi, as
well as on the musical, cultural, social and historical context in which the
‘Red Priest’ lived and worked.

The second event, on 25 January 2024, will feature the presentation of The Mediations of Music. Critical Approaches after Adorno. This book grew out of an event by the Accademia Musica le Chigiana on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Adorno’s death (2019). The authors discuss problematic
junctures in the philosopher’s thought and show its potential. In any chapters, the opposite mediation – immediacy – which often plays a key role in mediation processes, is brought into play.

In the last event, on 9 February 2024, Egisto Macchi: The Assassination of Trotsky: Sources of the Creative Process, Marco Cosci (ed.), published by Brepols, will be presented, tracing Egisto Macchi’s creative process for the soundtrack of The Assassination of Trotsky directed by Joseph Losey (1972). Through a careful reading of the sources preserved in the Egisto Macchi archive at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini Institute of Music, and at the Joseph Losey Collection and the British Film Institute (London), the book sheds light on the initial partnership between Losey and Macchi, which continued over the following years
for the film Mr. Klein (1976).

[accordion][/accordion]

[accordion_entry title=”Programme Concert”]

Egisto Macchi (1928-1992)

Voci (1963) versione per 8 cantanti

Egisto Macchi

da Repliche di Bruna (1988) per soprano e pianoforte

n. 2 Colore d’ombra

Soprano Teresa Varelli

Pianoforte Cinzia D’Anella

Egisto Macchi

da A(lter)Ac(tion) (1966)

Cadenza per voce sola

Mezzosoprano Virginia Guidi

Egisto Macchi

da Il mestiere della Pace (1958) per baritono e pianoforte

n. 1 Il cimitero

Baritono Niccolò Panigutti

Pianoforte Cinzia D’Anella

Domenico Guaccero (1927-1984)

Esercizio per 8 voci (1980)

Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988)

Tre Canti Sacri per otto voci miste (1958)

I. Angelus Domini

II. Requiem aeternam

III. Gloria in excelsis Deo

[/accordion_entry]

[accordion][/accordion]

EVO Ensemble:

Teresa Varelli – soprano

Veronica Bartolomei – soprano

Cinzia D’Anella – mezzosoprano e pianoforte

Vittoria De Vincentiis – contralto

José Gabriel Falla Obando – tenore

Edoardo De Vincentiis – tenore

Alessandro Cavazzani – baritono

Niccolò Panigutti – baritono

Virginia Guidi – mezzosoprano, coordinamento e direzione

Study Day | Intersections of Music and the Visual Arts in Italy in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

The aim of this day, organised by the Institute of Music, is an initial exploration of the relationship between painters and composers in a period rich in innovation in terms of construction techniques and the communicative channels of the arts, for which the terms seriality, informal, kinetic art
and Fluxus have been used. The interdisciplinary imprint of the topic is reflected in the composition of the panel of speakers. Marcello Aitiani will outline how visual artists and musicians come together. Daniela Tortora (Santa Cecilia Conservatory, Rome) will offer an overview of the cultural
periodicals of the 1960s and ’70s, in particular Marcatré. Patrizio Peterlini’s (Fondazione Bonotto) paper will move from graphic scores to exploring the impact of Fluxus aesthetics on musicians and figurative artists in Italy.
Pietro Misuraca (University of Palermo) will discuss the highlights of the Settimane Internazionali di Nuova Musica in Palermo, in particular the two painting exhibitions at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna (REVORT 1 and REVORT 2) and the magazine Collage. Paolo Somigli (University of Bolzano)
will reconstruct the stages that led to the birth of Gruppo 70, focusing on the role of Giuseppe Chiari, Sylvano Bussotti and Pietro Grossi in the intersection of artistic forms in Florence in the 1960s. Paolo Bolpagni (Fondazione Ragghianti) will investigate the iconic component in the scores of Aldo Clementi and Francesco Pennisi and will present the pictorial activity of Giovanni Pizzo and Lucia Di Luciano, former founders and exponents first of Group 63 and then of Operativo R, who collaborated with Pietro Grossi. The day will end with a concert by the mdi ensemble at the Auditorium “Lo Squero”.

Meeting with the musician and concert, Giancarlo Schiaffini, artist of complex sound: before and after Prometheus

In the meeting organised by the Institute of Music, in conversation with Gianmario Borio, Giancarlo Schiaffini will retrace his career as a performer, improviser and composer. Since the mid-1960s, Schiaffini has been one of the protagonists of free improvised music: he took part in Mario Schiano’s
‘Gruppo Romano Free Jazz’; in 1970, he founded the Nuove Forme Sonore ensemble, which alternated interpretations of aleatory compositions and improvisation; later, he was part of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza and collaborated with the leading protagonists of European improvised music, including the Globe Unity Orchestra and the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. In the 1980s, Schiaffini played a key role in Luigi Nono’s compositions with live electronics, providing materials and performance techniques. The intertwining of the three (usually separate) roles of performer, improviser and composer makes Schiaffini a unique figure in the panorama of research and experimental music, and an indispensable reference for brass performance practices. At the end of the talk, Schiaffini will perform Sottile canto III by Edgar Alandia, Solo for tuba + Fontana Mix by John Cage, Luz by Domenico Guaccero and Post-Prae-Ludium per Donau by Luigi Nono.

Concert mdi ensemble

In concomitance with the Conference Occultural Transfers between North and South, organised by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities, there will be a concert of mdi ensemble curated by the Institute of Music. The concert focuses on three composers whose works have multiple references to the Conference’s themes, particularly the spiritual, mystical and esoteric aspects of cultural and religious exchanges between Northern and Southern Europe.

Giorgio Cini Foundation, 18:00 – 19:00

Program:

Introduction by Gianmario Borio, director of the Institute of Music, Giorgio Cini Foundation

Jean Sibelius,

Malinconia for cello and piano op. 20 (12’)

Kaija Saariaho,

Cendres for flauto, cello and piano (10’)

Franco Oppo,

Trio III per flute, violin and piano (13’)

Kaija Saariaho,

Light and matter for violin, cello and piano (18’)

mdi ensemble:
Sonia Formenti, flute
Corinna Canzian, violin
Giorgio Casati, cello
Luca Ieracitano, piano

For more information visit the page of the Conference Occultural Transfers between North and South (1-2 November 2023).

This event is financed by the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the University of Oslo (UiO:Norden and NordForsk through ReNEW), and by the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP) of the University of Amsterdam.

Study Day Professor Bad Trip Fausto Romitelli’s triptych, amid compositional technique and aesthetic reflections

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the birth of Fausto Romitelli, who died prematurely in 2004, the Biennale Musica and the Institute of Music are dedicating a study day to the composer’s poetics, which will end with the complete performance of Professor Bad Trip. Issues concerning the
conception of the triptych and the sources of the compositional process, instrumental synthesis and spectral morphology, para-texts and the evocation of a ‘mental cinematography’ and the issues of performance will be addressed.

Participants: Alessandro Arbo, Oliver Korte, Luigi Manfrin, Nicholas Moroz and Jean-Luc Plouvier.

Egisto Macchi: The Assassination of Trotsky Sources of the Creative Process

Egisto Macchi: The Assassination of Trotsky
Sources of the Creative Process

Series: The Composer’s Workshop, vol. 2
by Marco Cosci
Brepols Publishers, Turnau

This volume traces Egisto Macchi’s creative process for the soundtrack of The Assassination of Trotsky directed by Joseph Losey (1972). Through a close reading of the sources preserved at the Egisto Macchi Collection at the Institute of Music, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, (Venice) and at the
Joseph Losey Collection at the British Film Institute (London), the book sheds light on the early collaboration between Losey and Macchi, which continued over the following years for the film Mr. Klein (1976). Why did Losey choose this apparently unknown composer? How did an avant-garde
composer approach the film industry? What kind of audio-visual experience did Macchi and Losey explore through this film? To answer these questions, the volume deals with various aspects of the creative process, combining letters, notes, drafts, sketches and the final orchestral scores.
The introductory essay presents Egisto Macchi within the context of the Roman avant-garde and the cinematic environments of the ’60s and early ’70s. The volume is complemented by a wide selection of sources reproduced as facsimiles.

Archival Notes No. 7

An open-access, peer-reviewed journal, curated by the Institute for Music of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. With an interdisciplinary approach, Archival Notes. Source Studies in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Music is dedicated to the research of musical sources from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Articles

Luk Vaes, «Aus dem Nachlaß»: Sedimentation in Mauricio Kagel’s «Tactil» and «Unter Strom»
Marco Cosci, Altering «A(lter)A(ction)»? Egisto Macchi Then and Now
Filipa Magalhães, Constança Capdeville’s Personal Archive: Difficulties in Describing and Documenting Performative Practices
Luisa Santacesaria e Valentina Bertolani, «Suite “colori”» by Mario Bertoncini: From Performance to Archival Research
Marco Fusi, Fingers to Sounds, Sounds to Fingers: Creative Interaction with Giacinto Scelsi’s Archival Materials as Means to Devise Performance Practices of His Music
Landon Morrison, On the Horizon of Digital Technics in Kaija Saariaho’s «IO» and «Nymphéa»

Perspectives

Marco Angius, ‘E la mente annullata naufraga nel vento’: A New Appraisal of Giacomo Manzoni’s «Parole da Beckett» from the Perspective of a Conductor

Documents and Reports

Gianmario Borio, «Research-led Performance»: Report on an Ongoing Project
Luisa Santacesaria e Giulia Sarno, Ctrl+s | Conversations on the survival of electronic music

The seventh issue of Archival Notes is available for download and consultation on the OJS platform of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini.

Study Day: The Instrumental Ensemble with Voice in the Twentieth Century: Pierrot Lunaire and Ten Poems by Emily Dickinson

Arnold Schoenberg and the reception of his thought in the second half of the twentieth century is the focus of this second appointment of the Research-Led Performance cycle.

The origins, diffusion and differentiation of solo voice ensembles and instrumental ensembles with voice were the subject of a lecture that Gianmario Borio gave at an event in collaboration with the 2021 Music Biennale, significantly entitled Choruses. Drammaturgie vocali.

During this study day, organised by the Institute for Music, in collaboration with the Beaumont Consort and the “Benedetto Marcello” Conservatory in Venice, musicians and musicologists will compare Schoenberg’s pioneering composition to Giacomo Manzoni’s work on texts by Emily Dickinson.

Afterwards, the two works will be played in a performance by the Beaumont Consort with the participation of students from the Venetian Conservatory and singer Cristina Baggio.