d’après … cinq chansons d’élite di Azio Corghi: un contrappunto di simboli
Keywords:
Corghi, chansons, cello, piano, analysisAbstract
The composition is made in five separate movements that draw inspiration from five songs of the French Revolution: La Carmagnole, Vive Henri Quatre, Charmante Gabrielle, Romance patriotique and Ah! ça ira. The analysis refers to the second version (2006), for cello and piano, dedicated to the cellist Silvia Chiesa and the pianist Maurizio Baglini. The “three-voice counterpoint”, that was born between the composer and the two internationally renowned artists, was a good point of reference to investigate not only the language of the Maestro, made of symbolic references to his thoughts, but also to reflect on his memories and his ideals to be transmitted with passion to future generations. Corghi himself, in the Introductory Note to his score, underlines two peculiar aspects of his activity: the attention to his own cultural roots and the interest in materials taken explicitly from the past. In order to deepen the investigation of a piece so strongly linked to historical references and musical quotations, I chose to pursue the path of an analysis that was not only descriptive, that is, based on the identification of the basic materials and their variation in formal function, but also “affective”, that is, based on memories that emerged from the Maestro’s lessons, as well as from conversations with the first performers of the Chansons. The results highlight how such references contribute both to the connection between the music and the textual meaning and to the temporal unfolding of the harmonic-contrapuntual events and therefore to the formal construction of the individual movements.
