L’ARCHILIUTO (The ARC(H)LUTE)

 

In the 14th century Arc(h)lute was twice the size of normal lute, with double neck and double system of strings, in the same way Arc(h)lute could be described as an "orchestra instrument" made up of a "double" presence: a preponderant core of STRINGS (with woods) which diligently reads the music together with a group of jazzmen who like reading, but who also love improvising.

KRAMERIANA

Kramer was one of the first Italian jazzmen; before World War II he was already recording according to demanding American standards on the hand organ. However, his written production is limited - apart from some compositions for accordion - to a repertoire of songs clearly stemming from overseas, but permeated with an Italian singability.

My writing is not aimed at pretentious revaluation, but at highlighting two aspects: tenderness and irony.

Tenderness (affection, poetry) is an unavoidable choice, given the orchestral form. But during my youth I loved Kramer for his way of playing which was devoid of opulence and virtuosity. As a young boy, my ear glued to the old Magnadyne, I used to listen to the few bars which were played by the Maestro in the orchestra; they sounded so "American" and reminded me of Coleman Hawkins’ phrasing.

Irony, I believe, is never lacking in what I do. In the case in point quotations from the Classics or opera in some jazz themes affably show that "our" man was strongly influenced by music of any genre.

"Krameriana" is a medley of well-known songs, divided in seven parts. Some of the titles were suggested to me by Vittorio Franchini’s splendid biography of the Maestro. Like some of the most authoritative examples of classical music-with due proportions! - I have created "a kind of connective tissue which is constantly different and changable" (I am using Berio’s words for his masterpiece "Rendering" on fragments of Schubert), a kind of "musical cement" to fill the "empty spaces" between one piece and another.

It contains some of my small orchestral compositions characterised on brief Kramerian quotations, single instrument cadences or collective improvisations.

ALTERED WELL-KNOWN MAZURKA

This "sacrilegious" orchestral version recalls the ARCH POET, the goliard Rhenish rhymer from the early Middle Ages, who embodied the typical character of the adventurous and sceptical goliard. This is an irreverent sneer to my long-gone university years, when the ballroom used to impose the cavalier Augusto Migliavacca’s masterpiece on me.

Gianni Coscia.