Malipiero (Any takers?)

[vkioulaphides]

Greetings, all.

An idea has crossed my mind numerous times, and always I have thought, "Wouldn't that sound nice on the mandolin?" Yet, thoughts being fleeting things, y'know, I've never ~quite~ gotten to posting this idea here, where most "takers" might be found.

I am thinking of Gian Francesco Malipiero's four, short works for violin and piano; their (MOST poetic!) titles are Il Canto nell'infinito (The Song in the Infinite), Canto crepuscolare (Twilight Song), Il canto della lontananza (The Song of Separation), and Canto notturno (Night Song).

These are truly WONDERFUL little pieces and, judging from performances/recordings of them (in the original instrumentation) that I have heard, they should work like a dream on mandolin. :mandosmiley:

So... any takers? Alex, might Sebastiaan be interested, along with the estimable Ms. v.d. Dool? Others, who might collaborate semi-regularly with pianists?

The Italian "generazione dell'ottanta" is very near and dear to me-- although, I hasten to add, I was coming of age as a composer in the 1980s, NOT their 1880s! ;) My primary composition teacher was Giampaolo Bracali, erstwhile star-student at the Accademia Sta. Cecilia of Rome, a pupil of Virgilio Mortari, who in turn was student/assistant to Alfredo Casella-- hence the "extra" century between them and me, plus/minus a decade here, a decade there.

I thus put the proverbial bug in everyone's ear, hoping it chirps a lovely, "atmospheric" song in it...

Cheers,

Victor

[margora]

An interesting suggestion. Malipiero wrote a very fine work for guitar, so the thought of adaping the violin works for mandolin is quite reasonable.

[Alex Timmerman]

[QUOTE: vkioulaphides] Alex, might Sebastiaan be interested, along with the estimable Ms. v.d. Dool?


Hello Victor,

Absolutely! Sebastiaan is really in for playing music originally composed for violin and piano. I remember the exciting performance at his final exam at the Music Highschool playing The Sonata for violin and piano by Claude Debussy. Absolutely breathtaking! So yes, no problem there at all and I think Eva will love the Malipiero if only for the indeed lovely titles!


Thanks very much Victor for the idea,

Alex

[vkioulaphides]

It's just a suggestion of course; tastes differ. For my own, humble opinion, the Twilight Song "opens up" in a most wonderful way! Also, these are separate, independent works-- and the composer's complete works for violin! So there is a certain "encyclopedic" value in programming them together, while at the same time there is obviously some liberty, as regards the order in which they are performed. All I know is that the music itself is quite lovely, IMHO, and that the writing (register, choice-of-string, articulations, bow/pick-strokes, character) should work nicely on the mandolin. Beyond that...

Cheers,

Victor

[Jim Garber]

So, where does one find the music of Sr. Malipiero?

[vkioulaphides]

I'd guess Ricordi, or Suvini-Zerboni, or Ugrino... it's got to be one of those Italian publishing houses. Despite Malipiero's prominence in the local (i.e. national) scene for a very, very long time —largely thanks to his work on Monteverdi— he is hardly a "household name" anywhere, even in Italy.

Of the "ottanta" group, the (arguably) most successful, Ottorino Respighi, was the shortest-lived. :( Casella was blacklisted due to his political sympathies— and he wasn't an easy man to get along with, either, I'm told. Pizzetti is virtually unknown nowadays, although he was in a sense the "father" of the movement, at least as regards some of its most important aesthetic tenets. Somewhat later luminaries, such as Goffredo Petrassi and Virgilio Mortari (my teacher's teacher) had their own "hits" in their day, and IMHO Petrassi deserves much, MUCH more attention today than he is getting, or is remotely likely to get.

Let me dig for a bit...

Cheers,

Victor

[Theal]

Thanks very much for the idea Victor!
:)

[vkioulaphides]

Danke! Malipiero comes with all sorts of personal "baggage", you know... Descended from Venetian merchant-princes (so to speak, of course, considering the Serenissima was a Repubblica), then impoverished, then estranged, then secluded in Asolo... ah, his life-story itself could be an opera, no? His music exhibits this magical "distancing effect" (the German version of the term is actually more current than either the English or the Italian ones), keeping passion and detachment in a delicate balance, a canto sospeso between two "realities"— for as surreal as they may be. Worth another hearing, IMHO.

Cheers,

Victor