Gianmaria Testa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gianmaria Testa at the TFF Rudolstadt 2013

Gianmaria Testa (born October 17, 1958 in Cavallermaggiore , Province of Cuneo , † March 30, 2016 in Alba , Piedmont ) was an Italian Cantautore .

Life

Testa was the son of a farming family in which all family members sang. He was self-taught in music and after learning to play the guitar he began to compose. Even after starting his musical career, he worked as a railroad worker until 2007, most recently as station master of the Cuneo train station .

Gianmaria Testa's gentle and melancholic style moves between that of a classic Cantautore, jazz and folk . His poetic language is short and precise and, according to his own statement, is characterized by the expressiveness of Giuseppe Ungaretti's poems and Alberto Giacometti's sculptures . The themes of his songs are often about loneliness, distance, lost and rediscovered love.

Testa performed not only in his home country Italy, but especially in France , but also in the USA and Japan. In Germany he was best known for his album Il valzer di un giorno .

In May 2015, he announced that he had an inoperable cancer tumor. The following year he died at the age of 57 as a result of his illness. He left behind his wife Paola Farinetti, a former cultural councilor in Alba and music producer, and a son.

Discography

  • 1995 - Montgolfières (Harmonia Mundi- Le Chant du Monde )
  • 1996 - Extra Muros (Warner)
  • 1999 - Lampo (Warner)
  • 2000 - Il valzer di un giorno , with five poems performed by Testa by Pier Mario Giovannone (Harmonia Mundi / IRD)
  • 2003 - Altre latitudini (Harmonia Mundi / IRD)
  • 2006 - Da questa parte del mare (Harmonia Mundi / IRD)
  • 2009 - Solo dal vivo (Live-Album, Produzioni Fuorivia / EGEA / Harmonia Mundi)
  • 2011 - Vitamia (Harmonia Mundi-Le Chant du Monde)
  • 2013 - Men at Work (Live-Album, Produzioni Fuorivia / EGEA / Harmonia Mundi)
  • 2019 - Prezioso

Movie

  • Bella Italia. Songs and landscapes. Gianmaria Testa and Piedmont. Documentary, Germany, 2005, 28:20 min., Script and direction: Petra Reinfelder, production: Bayerischer Rundfunk , series: Bella Italia: songs and landscapes - L'Italia dei cantautori.

Web links

Commons : Gianmaria Testa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ International Time in Jazz Festival XX edition: “… e venti!” Berchidda (prov.Olbia-Tempio), 10> 16 agosto 2007 . ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Associazione culturale Time in Jazz, accessed March 31, 2016.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.timeinjazz.it
  2. ↑ Success is the laughing audience . Obituary by Thorsten Bednarz. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , March 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ Jan Wiele: Waltz of the day. Italian songwriter Gianmaria Testa has died . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 31, 2016, p. 11.
  4. ↑ Article of May 11, 2015 in the Gazzetta d'Alba
  5. ↑ Andreas Kunz / STEREO 4/2019 p. 140: Review
  6. ↑ Bella Italia: Songs and Landscapes - L'Italia dei cantautori: Gianmaria Testa and Piedmont - Gianmaria Testa e il Piemonte . Table of contents on the portal "SODIS - Database of the German States and Austria for Media in Education" at the Institute for Film and Image in Science and Education , accessed on March 31, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Testa, Gianmaria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 17th October 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Cavallermaggiore , Province of Cuneo
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2016
Place of death Alba , Province of Cuneo