Acusfere. suoni_culture_musicologie

Presentazione

Maurizio Agamennone, Vincenzo Caporaletti — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Eccoci, dunque, al n. 3 di «acusfere», rivista con periodicità annuale pubblicata dalla Libreria Musicale Italiana: abbiamo superato la boa del primo numero — la manifestazione cerimoniale degli interessi perseguiti — e anche del secondo, che è forse il passaggio più difficile perché deve mostrare la capacità e le energie per continuare in una impresa per niente facile come è la ideazione e conduzione di una rivista scientifica negli studi musicali. Perciò, il nostro viaggio continua.

I violini di Paolo VI

Antonella Dicuonzo — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The purpose of this article is to bring to light a curious story about the gift of five violins from Pope Paul VI to some Roma and Sinti musicians during the first international pilgrimage of nomads to Rome (1965). This story is still told in the families that remember the event, and its contours have been precisely defined thanks to the intersection of oral narratives and written sources. Apart from the uniqueness of the story itself, linked to an important event in Italian cultural history such as the 1965 meeting, the story of the violins is, on the one hand, further proof that the participation of Roma and Sinti in the great European pilgrimages was above all a musical one. On the other hand, it underlines the specific value that the pilgrimage to Rome has acquired for these communities, since the memory of this event is not only kept alive through the various narratives, but also seems to be “carried” by the violins themselves, which continue to be a symbol of recognition and revenge.

«L’antica cetra» en Corse: renaissance d’un instrument oublié

Toni Casalonga, Ugo Casalonga — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In Corsica, a number of textual sources from the 17th century to the early 20th century attest to the presence and use of a stringed instrument called cetera. In this article, after examining this body of evidence, we look back at how the cetera was abandoned and then forgotten. We describe the use of the instrument in Corsican society through the eyes of erudite travelers an its presence in popular poetry preserved by oral memory. We then attempt to analyse the factors that led to its abandonment, as well as the reasons that
led some rare individuals to keep an instrument that once belonged to their family. Finally, in the light of the cultural and political movement known as riacquistu that swept Corsica from the late 1960s onwards, we examine how this emblematic instrument was rediscovered and studied, how young luthiers were trained to make it, how musicians reinvented its use and, finally, how it is once again part of the island’s musical life today

Una esperienza di categorizzazione del timbro tramite test di definizione operativa

Jacopo Strada — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article contributes to the ongoing empirical research on the concept of timbre. My aim is to propose a reference system (currently limited to the Italian language) for associating certain sound parameters with the adjectives commonly used to describe timbre. The article begins with a study of the adjectives currently used to describe timbre, in order to formalise a reference vocabulary. This vocabulary is validated by tests with musicians and music experts. I then consider some criteria for the analysis of the sound spectrogram — the result of the data is fundamental to associate the constructed vocabulary. Finally, I explain the tests carried out, based on the experience of musicians and music experts, to correlate these data criteria with specific timbral lexical labels.

Un’altra Grecia? Turismo e pratiche musicali nelle Isole Ionie

Giuseppe Sanfratello — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article offers some observations on the relationship between music and tourism in the Ionian Islands of Greece, a destination of great interest to the international tourist market. The phenomenon of tourism is analysed in an attempt to interpret the practices of multipart singing on the Ionian islands of Corfu, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. In this perspective, key concepts such as “authenticity”, “representation”, and “insularity” emerge. Among other elements, the issue of identity is problematised: what does identity mean? What are “social identities”? How are they constructed and interpreted? Two case studies are examined: the Andronìki women’s choir of Kato Garoùnas (Corfu) and the male vocal ensemble Tragudhistàdhes tsi Zàkythos (Zakynthos). These cases fit perfectly into the circuit of “revival” operations, albeit from two different perspectives: one for the purposes of “self-preservation” and “self-reproduction”, the other for professional purposes, linked to the logics of identity “reproduction” aimed, in this case, at “insular branding”.

Per una storia della didattica jazz

Claudio Angeleri — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Jazz education has a long and complex history, with roots as far back as the 19th century. Throughout this period, jazz has lived in a balance between the affirmation of its own psycho-cognitive specificity and its institutional recognition in curricular and disciplinary terms. The definition of a jazz curriculum based on skills, knowledge and disciplines inherited from classical music, albeit expressed in jazz terms, has contributed on the one hand to a wide diffusion among the younger generations and to the professional growth of musicians. On the other hand, it has often contributed to a methodological standardisation focused mainly on logical-symbolic components (styles and harmonic/melodic/rhythmic formulae), to the detriment of the audiotactile characteristics of this music. Nevertheless, there has been no lack of significant teaching experience in the theoretical, research and laboratory fields, such as that of J. M. Schillinger, G. Russell, L. Tristano, G. Gaslini, G. Schuller, A. Hodeir, V. Caporaletti, among others. To this can be added the contribution of musicology, philosophy, anthropology, cognitive psychology, semiotics, and neuroscience, as well as the active participation of associations and music schools spread throughout the national and international territory. This article seeks to explore how this articulated and systemic process has, over time, contributed to the academic and institutional recognition of jazz, and has led pedagogy along independent paths.