Giovanna Marini

Giovanna Marini (born January 19, 1937 in Rome ) is an Italian musician , singer , composer , songwriter and ethnomusicologist . She is considered one of the most important interpreters and researchers in the field of traditional Italian folk music .

biography

Giovanna Marini ( civil registration as Giovanna Salviucci in Marini ) was born in 1937 into a family of musicians in Rome. In 1959 she completed her studies in classical guitar at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and then perfected her skills with the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia .

Around 1960 she met the filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini , the writer Italo Calvino and the musicologists Roberto Leydi, Diego Carpitella and Alessandro Portelli. She began to deal with the tradition of workers' songs and the social history recorded in them , and traveled all over the Italian peninsula to collect folk songs in various Italian dialects and regional languages . In 1962 Giovanna Marini founded the Ensemble Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano in Milan with Fausto Amodei, Gualtiero Bertelli, Gianni Bosio, Caterina Bueno, Giovanna Daffini, Ivan Della Mea, Roberto Leydi, Paolo Pietrangeli, Alessandro Portelli and the ensembles Duo di Piadena and Pastori di Orgosolo , whose aim was to rediscover and spread the tradition of the Italian workers' song. She learned the art of improvised folk telling from the Sardinian poet Peppino Marotto. Giovanna Marini became one of the most important employees of the Istituto Ernesto de Martino, founded in 1966 in the Tuscan town of Sesto Fiorentino, northwest of Florence , which had set itself the task of spreading knowledge about working-class culture in Italy. She recorded a large number of her rediscovered folk songs from memory with the help of a notation system she had developed and cataloged them.

In 1966 Dario Fo organized the folk song festival Ci ragiono e canto in Milan , at which, in addition to Giovanna Marini, Rosa Balistreri, Caterina Bueno, Maria Teresa Bulciolu, Ciccio Busacca, Giovanna Daffini, Enzo Del Re, Ivan Della Mea and the groups Padano di Piadena and Coro del Galletto di Gallura performed. The festival took place two more times in 1969 and 1973.

The Quartetto Vocale was founded in 1976 in order composed by Giovanna Marini polyphonic pieces that she had previously sung alone for guitar, also polyphonic to interpret. Originally the group consisted of eleven participants. Today the ensemble consists of Giovanna Marini, Patrizia Nasini (from 1981), Patrizia Bovi (from 1990) and Francesca Breschi. The cantatas Correvano coi carri (1977), Sibemolle (1998) and Cantata del secolo Breve (2000) were composed for the Quartetto Vocale . The latter was inspired by the historical work of Eric Hobsbawm and was performed in 2001 at the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne . On the occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution in 1989, Giovanna Marini set the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to music .

From 1989 she taught applied ethnomusicology at the Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio (SPMT) in the Roman quarter of Testaccio . From 1991 to 2000 she held a chair in ethnomusicology at the University of Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint Denis . She went on study trips through Italy with her students in order to transcribe orally transmitted traditional songs on the occasion of profane and religious festivals. In 2002 Giovanna Marini became known to a wide audience through the well-selling album Il fischio del vapore , on which she sings Italian folk songs together with the Italian songwriter Francesco de Gregori . In 2004 she set Oscar Wilde's ballad from the Prison in Reading and De Profundis to music . In 2005 she wrote the music for Pier Paolo Pasolini's poems from the volume Le ceneri di Gramsci (1957) for the Angelica di Musica Contemporanea Festival .

Giovanna Marini still teaches at the Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio (SPMT) in Rome.

Works

Ballads

• 1965: Vi parlo dell'America.
• 1967: Chiesa Chiesa.
• 1968: Viva Voltaire e Montesquieu.
• 1968: Lunga vita allo spettacolo.
• 1969: La Vivazione.
• 1970: La Nave.
• 1970: La Creatora.
• 1973: I treni per Reggio Calabria.
• 1974: L'eroe.

Oratorios, operas and symphonic poems

• 1973: Fare Musica. Oratorio for instruments, choir and soloists.
• 1976: Correvano coi carri. Oratorio for eleven voices and guitar.
• 1979: La grande madre impazzita. Oratorio for instruments with percussion and five solo voices.
• 1980: Cantate de tous les jours per quartetto vocale.
• 1981: Che dirà la gente che si bacia nei caffè.
• 1982: Le cadeau de l'empereur. Opera for instruments, solo voices and choir by the SPMT.
• 1984: Pour Pier Paolo. Five poems by PP Pasolini for five voices and five instruments.
• 1986: Requiem. Cantata delle cinque punch. Oratorio for two choirs, solo voices and instruments.
• 1989: La déclaration des Droits de l'homme. For choir, solo voices and instruments.
• 1990: Cantata profana per quartetto vocale.
• 1992: Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato. Text: Eugenio Montale . For choir and two solo voices.
• 1992: Les Naufragés de l'Olympe. Comical opera for three soloists and instrumental group.
• 1993: Regrets de Rome. Text: Joaquim Du Bellay . For choir and solo baritone.
• 1993: La vita sopra e sotto i mille metri. For vocal quartet.
• 1994: La bague magique. Comical opera for choir, solo voices and violoncello based on the text by Carlo Goldoni . Libretto by Valeria Tasca and Giovanna Marini.
• 1995: Partze, vent'anni dalla morte di Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cantata for vocal quartet.
• 1996: Vita Nova di Dante . by Lulu Menasse.
• 1997: Concerto per Leopardi . ( Coro dei morti , Canto notturno del pastore errante per l'Asia and Ultimo canto a Saffo ). For choir and string quartet.
• 1998: Napoli per voi Small symphonic poem of 50 minutes for vocal quartet.
• 1998: Sibemolle. Cantata for vocal quartet.
• 1999: Ustica. For vocal quartet ("Gesang für Ustica"), by Marco Paolini, commissioned by the Association of Family Members of the Victims of Ustica .
• 2000: La Cantata del secolo breve. For vocal quartet.
• 2004: La torre di Babele. For vocal quartet.

Working for the theater

• 1979: Nora Helmer Text: R. Lerici, Director: Carlo Quartucci
• 1980: Robinson Crusoe Text: R. Lerici, Director: Carlo Quartucci
• 1981: I due sergenti , directed by Attilio Corsini
• 1981: La pulce di Feydau , directed by Attilio Corsini
• 1982: Casanova , directed by Attilio Corsini
• 1982: Pantalone , directed by Attilio Corsini
• 1983: Funerale Text: R. Lerici, Director: Carlo Quartucci
• 1984: Il bacio della donna ragno , directed by Marco Mattolini
• 1984: Gesualdo Choreography: Anne-Marie Reynaud
• 1985: Bent
• 1985: Drama , choreography: Anne-Marie Reynaud.
• 1986: On ne badine pas avec l'amour di Alfred de Musset , directed by Viviane Théophilides
• 1987: L'école des femmes (by Molière ), directed by Marco Mattolini
• 1988: Troyennes d'Euripide , directed by Thierry Salmon
• 1991: L'assemblée des femmes by Aristophanes , directed by Michel Voita
• 1994: Antigone di Sofocle , director: Hansgünther Heyme
• 1995: I turcs tal Friul by Pier Paolo Pasolini, directed by Elio De Capitani
• 1996: Oresteia di Eschilo , director: Franz Marjinen
• 1997: Elektra di Sofocle , director: Hansgünther Heyme
• 1997: Il sogno di una notte di Mezza Estate by William Shakespeare , directed by Elio De Capitani
• 1998: Ion di Euripide , directed by Hansguenther Heyme
• 1998: Journal d'Eve by Dario Fo , directed by Christine Leboutte
• 1999: Blanche-Neige by Robert Walser , director: Rudolph Straub.
• 1999: Coefore di Eschilo based on Aeschylus and PP Pasolini, directed by Elio De Capitani.
• 1999: Animarrovescio , choreography: Adriana Borriello
• 2000: Antigone di Sofocle , directed by Patrice Kerbrat
• 2000: Théorème by PP Pasolini. Director: Christine Leboutte.
• 2000: Eumenidi di Eschilo based on Aeschylus and PP Pasolini, directed by Elio De Capitani.
• 2002: Villarosa Text: Enzo Alaimo
• 2003: Woyzec , directed by Giancarlo Cobelli
• 2004: La ballata del carcere di Reading by Oscar Wilde
• 2004: De profundis by Oscar Wilde

Music for movies

• 1962: Matrimonio degli alberi (Folco Quilici and Carlo Alberto Pinelli).
• 1967: Lettera aperta a un giornale della sera (Citto Maselli).
• 1972: Il sospetto (Citto Maselli).
• 1972: Terminal (Paolo Breccia).
• 1975: I tre operai (Citto Maselli).
• 1977: Porci con le ali (Paolo Pietrangeli).
• 1980: Il mistero del Morca (Marco Mattolini).
• 1981: I giorni cantati (Paolo Pietrangeli).
• 1982: Caffé express (Nanni Loy).
• 1982: La giornata di Chiara Brenna (P. Pelloni).
• 1985: Storia d'amore (Citto Maselli).
• 1985: La montagna (Carlo Alberto Pinelli).
• 1986: Teresa Raquin (Gian Carlo Cobelli).
• 1986: Avventura di un fotografo (Citto Maselli).
• 1988: Codice privato (Citto Maselli).
• 1988: Il Tevere (Citto Maselli).
• 1988: Cortili di Roma .
• 1989: Il segreto (Citto Maselli).
• 1991: L'alba (Citto Maselli).
• 1995: Prigionieri della guerra ( Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi ).
• 1995: La fabrique du corps humain (Marc Hureau).
• 1995: Lacerazioni (Wolfgango De Biasi and Andrea Felici).
• 1996: Demolizione (Citto Maselli).
• 1998: Su tutte le vette è pace (Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci-Lucchi).
• 1998: Cronache del Terzo Millenio (Citto Maselli).
• 2000: L'India (Giannikian Lucchi-Ricci).

Discography

LPs

• Lu Picurare
• La disispirata
• Bella Ciao
• Ci ragiono e canto
• Vi parlo dell'America
• Chiesa Chiesa
• Lunga vita allo spettacolo e Viva Voltaire e Montesquieu
• La Nave e La Creatora
• La Vivazione dischi
• Controcanale 70
• L'eroe
• I treni per Reggio Calabria
• La grande madre impazzita
• Correvano coi carri
• Cantate de tous les jours
• Le cadeau de l'empereur
• Pour Pier Paolo
• requiem

CDs

• Giovanna Marini
• Troyennes
• Cantata profane.
• La vie au-dessus et au dessous de mille mètres
• Départs
• Oresteia
• Musiche di scena
• Sibemolle
• requiem
• Le chant de la terre (Quartetto Giovanna Marini and Micrologus , Opus 111)
• Fogli volanti (workers' fight songs , collected by Giovanna Marini and arranged for the chapel and choir)
• Il fischio del vapore (Francesco De Gregori e Giovanna Marini)
• Buongiorno e buonasera
• Passioni
• Antologia - Giovanna Marini
• La ballata del carcere di Reading di Oscar Wilde (with Umberto Orsini and Giovanna Marini)

Printed publications

• Italia quanto sei lunga. Mazzotta, Milan 1974.
• Modes Urbani e modi contadini. 1976, self-published.
• La grande madre impazzita. Napoleone, Rome 1979.
• Cantata Profana. Sapere 2000, 1990.
• Modi di tradizione orale. Arpège, Paris 1997.
• Concerto per Giacomo Leopardi. Ed. Mus. Ut Orpheus, Bologna 1998.
• Sibemolle. , 1999, self-published.
• Il canto della terra. with Opus 111, Paris 1999.
• Una mattina mi son svegliata. Rizzoli 2004.

Web links

• Giovanna Marini website (in Italian)
• Website of the Istituto Ernesto de Martino (in Italian)
• Website of the Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio (in Italian)
• Works by and about Giovanna Marini in the catalog of the German National Library