Piero Bonaguri | Conservatory G.B. Martini of Bologna (original) (raw)

Papers by Piero Bonaguri

Research paper thumbnail of Homage to Luigi Dallapiccola

Homage to Luigi Dallapiccola, 2021

cover and presentation of the book published in 2021 by Ut Orpheus

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of The eight pieces published in this volume were born in the short span of a few months

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Ghiribizzi M.S. 43 : pour guitare seule / Niccolo Paganini ; réalisation et doigtés Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Appunti sull'epistolario tra Andrés Segovia e Salvador de Madariaga

Il Fronimo, 2020

On the new issue of “Il Fronimo” guitar magazine (april 2020) there is an article written by me o... more On the new issue of “Il Fronimo” guitar magazine (april 2020) there is an article written by me on my discovery of the letters written by Andrės Segovia to his great friend Salvador de Madariaga and preserved in La Coruña, Spain.
Madariaga was one of the best friends of Segovia. info at www.fronimo.it

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Junto a Rodrigo

Junto a Rodrigo, 2019

an Anthology of contemporary music for guitar edited by Piero Bonaguri and published by Ut Orpheu... more an Anthology of contemporary music for guitar edited by Piero Bonaguri and published by Ut Orpheus, Bologna, Italy. Pieces composed by Paolo Ugoletti, Giovanni Podera, Alessandro Spazzoli, Marco Reghezza, Marco Smaili.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Junto a Rodrigo. Ut Opheus, Piero Bonaguri Collection

Junto a Rodrigo, 2019

An anthology of contemporary pieces for solo guitar commissioned by Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Books by Piero Bonaguri

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction figured bass

Bonaguri, Piero - Chillemi, Luciano: Introduction to the Practice of Figured Bass for Guitarists, 2024

Intrduction to the English version of the book on guitar realization of figured bass written by L... more Intrduction to the English version of the book on guitar realization of figured bass written by Luciano Chillemi and me and recently published by Ut Orpheus

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of A new book on realization of the figured bass on the guitar (Ut Orpheus, 2024)

Bonaguri, Piero - Chillemi, Luciano: Introduzione alla pratica del basso continuo per chitarristi, 2024

La pratica del basso continuo è stata fondamentale in un periodo della storia della musica in cui... more La pratica del basso continuo è stata fondamentale in un periodo della storia della musica in cui il liuto e la chitarra erano pienamente inseriti nella vita musicale europea: non a caso tra i principali autori della trattatistica relativa a tale pratica spiccano i nomi di Thomas Campion e più tardi di Francois Champion e Santiago de Murcia (si veda in proposito, anche per una chiarezza sull'uso dei termini specifici, la parte iniziale del testo). La chitarra moderna nasce ai primi del secolo XIX, quando ormai la pratica del basso continuo era sostanzialmente esaurita; riteniamo però che un'informazione su questo modo di far musica e una familiarità con la sua pratica, almeno a livello elementare, possano essere di grande aiuto per lo studente di chitarra, per almeno due motivi. Anzitutto, attraverso la capacità di realizzare correttamente un basso numerato si accede improvvisamente alla possibilità di eseguire con la chitarra moderna una sterminata quantità di musica da camera di altissimo livello artistico (ma anche la musica solistica scritta durante il periodo in cui era in auge la pratica del basso continuo, come ad esempio quella di Robert de Visée, può essere interpretata in una luce diversa se teniamo presente tale pratica-ad esempio si potrà "rimpolpare" la texture quando necessario od opportuno). Ma la conoscenza pratica del basso continuo aiuta lo studente di chitarra anche a sviluppare una maggiore conoscenza delle possibilità tecniche dello strumento (grazie all'incrocio tra limiti e possibilità strumentali che questa pratica musicale incoraggia ad esplorare); e per questo può contribuire a colmare quel gap tra conoscenze armoniche e pratica strumentale che spesso si ravvisa negli studenti di chitarra. Per gli scopi introduttivi di questo testo, espressi qui sopra, si è ritenuto di trattare la materia attenendosi ad alcuni semplici criteri. Anzitutto, evidentemente, si è superato lo scrupolo secondo il quale la chitarra moderna a sei corde non sarebbe indicata per l'affronto di questa tematica. Non solo, a parere di chi scrive, si tratta di una preoccupazione che in ogni caso ha ormai fatto il suo tempo (ammesso che fosse valida trenta o quarant'anni fa: la stessa musicologia più avveduta oggi distingue opportunamente tra l'astrazione delle "esecuzioni filologiche" e la necessaria consapevolezza delle "esecuzioni storicamente informate"). È poi un dato di fatto che i programmi attuali di studio della chitarra nei conservatori comportano un po' ovunque l'approccio esecutivo a musiche precedenti il 1800, comprendendo quindi anche quei brani scritti nel momento di massimo fulgore della pratica del basso continuo. Si è poi ritenuto di non affrontare in questo testo le differenziazioni stilistiche che caratterizzarono la pratica del basso continuo in epoche e paesi diversi; del resto, anche in un manuale specialistico sul basso continuo come quello celebre di Hermann Keller-che pure affronta queste differenze-viene scritto che esse non verranno applicate alla realizzazione del continuo affidata al liuto (si intende con il termine "realizzazione" l'aggiunta delle altre voci implicate o suggerite dal basso). Questo perché realizzando il basso continuo al liuto diventa invece predominante la necessaria attenzione alle specificità idiomatiche dello strumento (ed analoga osservazione, evidentemente, può farsi per quanto riguarda la chitarra moderna). Inoltre, stante lo scopo didattico ed introduttivo di questo lavoro, non ci si è posti l'obiettivo di formare nello studente la capacità (comune tra Sei e Settecento) di realizzare il basso continuo "all'impronta", improvvisando (questo potrà comunque essere un obiettivo successivo, indicato per coloro che intendessero dedicarsi professionalmente alla pratica di continuista). Qui invece si è puntato a mettere lo studente in grado anzitutto di scrivere delle realizzazioni del basso corrette ed efficaci.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Homage To Fellegara. An anthology of contemporary music

Homage to Fellegara, 2022

Preface by Piero Bonaguri Introduction In October 2021 I performed in a concert in Bergamo the p... more Preface by Piero Bonaguri

Introduction
In October 2021 I performed in a concert in Bergamo the pieces from the volume Homage to Dallapiccola
published in this series. The recital took place in the Sala Fellegara of the Donizetti Conservatory, for the
concert season “Incontri Europei con la Musica” (European Meetings with Music), created by Vittorio
Fellegara together with Pieralberto Cattaneo. On that occasion I expressed the hope that a similar venture
could be undertaken as a tribute to Vittorio Fellegara, who had died ten years earlier.
My wish was immediately taken up by Pieralberto Cattaneo, who said he was ready not only to write
a piece for this project, but to involve other composers in the proposal, contacted also with the help of
Tiziana Moneta Fellegara.
Therefore, within a few months, numerous composers, connected to Vittorio Fellegara because they
were his disciples, friends and collaborators, wrote their “Omaggio a Fellegara”, which I asked to be
limited to the size of an album sheet.
The result was a collection of pieces, different from each other in terms of the compositional language
used, but united by the sincere and personal participation in the tribute to the great Composer.
This year, 2022, when the volume comes out, significantly acts as an ideal bridge between the ten-
year anniversary of the Composer’s death and 2023, the year in which the 100th anniversary of the
foundation of the Società Italiana di Musica Contemporanea (Italian Society of Contemporary Music)
will be celebrated. Fellegara was secretary of this society for many years.
On this occasion, I once again thank all the composers who participated in the venture.
A brief word on each piece – certainly not a compositional analysis, but almost my reaction as a
performer to this rich musical material.
Capriccio by Natale Arnoldi is a piece with very strong dynamic and agogic contrasts, which uses
various resources of the guitar (harmonic sounds, tambora also combined with glissato) and alternates
almost violent gestures with lyrical and heartfelt cantabile moments. Virtuosic moments alternate with
passages in which the expressive atmosphere is marked by a sense of mystery and questioning.
Recuerdos by Beatrice Campodonico takes us again into a dreamy atmosphere. In this piece of
music there is the repetition of a quadriad at various pitches (a very idiomatic instrumental procedure
which Villa-Lobos has taught us to appreciate) accompanied by pedal notes obtained on the two lowest
open strings of the guitar. Here, there is dynamic, rhythmic and agogic variety (the central section is
more lively, almost dancing, while the beginning and end are very sweet) and there is use of various
instrumental effects (harmonics, pizzicato, tapping, tambora).
... Erinnerungen... by Pieralberto Cattaneo has a mournful and heartfelt character, rather like
a dirge. It is slow and painful and its almost inexorable chordal sequences (with tonal reminiscences
in the sounds, even if disconnected from a tonal syntax) alternate with free figurations which include
repeated notes, fragments of melody, harmonic sounds, with evocative effects of intersected resonances.
A faster central part uses the six sounds deriving from the open strings of the guitar in various ways.
The resumption of the first tempo leads to the conclusion of the piece up until the final harmonic on the
high B. Many figures in the piece derive from the sequence of notes F E A G, while in the central part
appears a Volkslied which Fellegara had already developed in Wiegenlied.
IX
Ombra by Bruno Dozza offers an itinerary in which various musical elements played on different
sound levels alternate effectively and quickly (“Murmuring, a little restless (rubato)” is the indication at
the beginning). We thus pass from melodic fragments, slow or with rapid figurations in rubato, also with
sound gestures in fortissimo, to a sort of choral writing, to passages played on sounds with “normal”
dynamics superimposed on others pianissimo (in fact, almost shadows), as indeterminate and nervous
clusters in which tremolos, trills and harmonic sounds are superimposed in various ways, all written
with innovative instrumental effects.
Acta est Fabula by Giordano Bruno Ferri has a solemn and hieratic character (well expressed by the
title), opening with melody for two parts, deliberately plain and essential, which almost brings to mind
(despite the chromaticisms) Gregorian and the first polyphonic forms. After contrasting sections, with
the use of chords in three parts and more, the initial theme returns, counterpointed by low notes, and the
piece ends by “stopping”, as indicated in the score, with a sense of relentless tragedy.
Frammento H by Pippo Molino is the eighth in a series of guitar fragments begun almost forty years
ago and which testifies to various moments in the composer’s creative itinerary. In this piece, strictly
written for three parts, there emerges a tense and dramatic cantabile atmosphere (the piece is all played
on the high and middle registers of the guitar), with the use of embellishments which bring to mind
musical aspects of the past, not only due to a certain use of the modality, but also with an expression of
current and constructive positivity.
Preludio by Ludovico Pelis offers a melody with a poignant and painfully questioning character, which
develops and is then offered again, in a central section of the piece, in slower tempo and accompanied
by an ever increasing number of open strings of the guitar, with a crescendo at the end of which there
is a return of the first tempo, where the melody is supported by the six open strings of the guitar, of
which only one continues to vibrate at the end of the piece, the B string, which is also the first note of
the melody.
Back to Fauré by Giovanni Podera evokes the last period of Fellegara’s poetics. He expressed his
admiration for “the subtle and discreet art of Fauré”. Fellegara considered Fauré “among the great
forerunners of the European musical twentieth century” and his delicate Elegia for guitar and string
quartet is dedicated to Fauré. The piece written by Podera, which identifies with Fellegara’s admiration
for Fauré, is expressive, delicate and luminous, very much played on the resonances of the guitar (hence
the indication “let it vibrate, always”) and has a clear formal structure, with a lyrical central section in
slower tempo, and is rich in melodic, harmonic and rhythmic hints.
Meditazione by Gabriele Rota is an expressively dense piece, where the use of the guitar’s sonority
is contained and rendered simple in favour of obtaining a great expressive clarity. The piece is played on
textural and dramatic contrasts, with a more relaxed and cantabile central part, almost a delicate lament,
characterized by a two-part counterpoint supported by the bass. This thematic idea returns, barely
hinted at, in the finale of the piece, before a kind of simple cadence on the fourth, fifth and first degree of E.
Frequentazioni letterarie by Andrea Talmelli offers a richly expressive and dramatic itinerary
divided into various moments, with a great variety of instrumental effects (among other things, sounds
to be performed with the left hand only, beating or plucking), dynamic and agogic figurations. A certain
insistence on the note A (the note on which the piece begins and ends) seems to me to help orientate
the listening, as a point of reference that occasionally reappears, often surrounded by sounds which are
close (a tone or semitone higher or lower) or together with E flat – again at the beginning and at the end
of the piece.

Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of HOMENAJE a Alirio Diaz

HOMENAJE a Alirio Diaz, 2021

A new Antholgy of contemporary music by Venezuelan Composers

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Homages for guitar (composer Alessandro Spazzoli. Editor Piero Bonaguri)

Homages, 2019

Preface Alessandro Spazzoli is proving to be one of today’s composers who is not a guitarist but ... more Preface
Alessandro Spazzoli is proving to be one of today’s composers who is not a guitarist but who is most
interested in the guitar – and also one of the most versatile... and sensitive to my requests!
These tributes to various composers, whose anniversaries are celebrated in 2019, arise as an answer to
my suggestions to the Composer: Sinfonia (Homage to Haydn) was written in 2017 starting from the
possibility of my performing the piece, planned (and then put into practice) in 2019 in Eisenstadt, a city
where Haydn lived and worked for many years in the castle belonging to the Esterhazy family. The year
of composition of the piece inspired Alessandro also to remember Prokofiev and his Classical Symphony
(written 100 years before).
A more recent composition is Elegía (Homage to Villa-Lobos) where the Composer plunges us into
the romantic mood saturated in saudade which is so typical of the vast production of this brilliant
Brasilian musician, a Composer – like Rodrigo – to whom not only guitarists owe so much.
Even more recent is another short tribute by Spazzoli (after other pieces already published in this
series) to Joaquín Rodrigo: in this case the Composer has complied with my marked preference for a
piece contained in the Album for Cecilia by Rodrigo, which became the thematic idea for this new piece.
I am grateful and delighted to have been the intermediary for these new compositional engagements
by Alessandro Spazzoli, which make up as many ample possibilities to enrich the guitar repertoire (and
also for his most useful anchorage in a universally famous musical production), and I wish these pieces
all the luck they deserve.
Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Homage to Luigi Dallapiccola

Homage to Luigi Dallapiccola, 2021

cover and presentation of the book published in 2021 by Ut Orpheus

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of The eight pieces published in this volume were born in the short span of a few months

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Ghiribizzi M.S. 43 : pour guitare seule / Niccolo Paganini ; réalisation et doigtés Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Appunti sull'epistolario tra Andrés Segovia e Salvador de Madariaga

Il Fronimo, 2020

On the new issue of “Il Fronimo” guitar magazine (april 2020) there is an article written by me o... more On the new issue of “Il Fronimo” guitar magazine (april 2020) there is an article written by me on my discovery of the letters written by Andrės Segovia to his great friend Salvador de Madariaga and preserved in La Coruña, Spain.
Madariaga was one of the best friends of Segovia. info at www.fronimo.it

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Junto a Rodrigo

Junto a Rodrigo, 2019

an Anthology of contemporary music for guitar edited by Piero Bonaguri and published by Ut Orpheu... more an Anthology of contemporary music for guitar edited by Piero Bonaguri and published by Ut Orpheus, Bologna, Italy. Pieces composed by Paolo Ugoletti, Giovanni Podera, Alessandro Spazzoli, Marco Reghezza, Marco Smaili.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Junto a Rodrigo. Ut Opheus, Piero Bonaguri Collection

Junto a Rodrigo, 2019

An anthology of contemporary pieces for solo guitar commissioned by Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Introduction figured bass

Bonaguri, Piero - Chillemi, Luciano: Introduction to the Practice of Figured Bass for Guitarists, 2024

Intrduction to the English version of the book on guitar realization of figured bass written by L... more Intrduction to the English version of the book on guitar realization of figured bass written by Luciano Chillemi and me and recently published by Ut Orpheus

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of A new book on realization of the figured bass on the guitar (Ut Orpheus, 2024)

Bonaguri, Piero - Chillemi, Luciano: Introduzione alla pratica del basso continuo per chitarristi, 2024

La pratica del basso continuo è stata fondamentale in un periodo della storia della musica in cui... more La pratica del basso continuo è stata fondamentale in un periodo della storia della musica in cui il liuto e la chitarra erano pienamente inseriti nella vita musicale europea: non a caso tra i principali autori della trattatistica relativa a tale pratica spiccano i nomi di Thomas Campion e più tardi di Francois Champion e Santiago de Murcia (si veda in proposito, anche per una chiarezza sull'uso dei termini specifici, la parte iniziale del testo). La chitarra moderna nasce ai primi del secolo XIX, quando ormai la pratica del basso continuo era sostanzialmente esaurita; riteniamo però che un'informazione su questo modo di far musica e una familiarità con la sua pratica, almeno a livello elementare, possano essere di grande aiuto per lo studente di chitarra, per almeno due motivi. Anzitutto, attraverso la capacità di realizzare correttamente un basso numerato si accede improvvisamente alla possibilità di eseguire con la chitarra moderna una sterminata quantità di musica da camera di altissimo livello artistico (ma anche la musica solistica scritta durante il periodo in cui era in auge la pratica del basso continuo, come ad esempio quella di Robert de Visée, può essere interpretata in una luce diversa se teniamo presente tale pratica-ad esempio si potrà "rimpolpare" la texture quando necessario od opportuno). Ma la conoscenza pratica del basso continuo aiuta lo studente di chitarra anche a sviluppare una maggiore conoscenza delle possibilità tecniche dello strumento (grazie all'incrocio tra limiti e possibilità strumentali che questa pratica musicale incoraggia ad esplorare); e per questo può contribuire a colmare quel gap tra conoscenze armoniche e pratica strumentale che spesso si ravvisa negli studenti di chitarra. Per gli scopi introduttivi di questo testo, espressi qui sopra, si è ritenuto di trattare la materia attenendosi ad alcuni semplici criteri. Anzitutto, evidentemente, si è superato lo scrupolo secondo il quale la chitarra moderna a sei corde non sarebbe indicata per l'affronto di questa tematica. Non solo, a parere di chi scrive, si tratta di una preoccupazione che in ogni caso ha ormai fatto il suo tempo (ammesso che fosse valida trenta o quarant'anni fa: la stessa musicologia più avveduta oggi distingue opportunamente tra l'astrazione delle "esecuzioni filologiche" e la necessaria consapevolezza delle "esecuzioni storicamente informate"). È poi un dato di fatto che i programmi attuali di studio della chitarra nei conservatori comportano un po' ovunque l'approccio esecutivo a musiche precedenti il 1800, comprendendo quindi anche quei brani scritti nel momento di massimo fulgore della pratica del basso continuo. Si è poi ritenuto di non affrontare in questo testo le differenziazioni stilistiche che caratterizzarono la pratica del basso continuo in epoche e paesi diversi; del resto, anche in un manuale specialistico sul basso continuo come quello celebre di Hermann Keller-che pure affronta queste differenze-viene scritto che esse non verranno applicate alla realizzazione del continuo affidata al liuto (si intende con il termine "realizzazione" l'aggiunta delle altre voci implicate o suggerite dal basso). Questo perché realizzando il basso continuo al liuto diventa invece predominante la necessaria attenzione alle specificità idiomatiche dello strumento (ed analoga osservazione, evidentemente, può farsi per quanto riguarda la chitarra moderna). Inoltre, stante lo scopo didattico ed introduttivo di questo lavoro, non ci si è posti l'obiettivo di formare nello studente la capacità (comune tra Sei e Settecento) di realizzare il basso continuo "all'impronta", improvvisando (questo potrà comunque essere un obiettivo successivo, indicato per coloro che intendessero dedicarsi professionalmente alla pratica di continuista). Qui invece si è puntato a mettere lo studente in grado anzitutto di scrivere delle realizzazioni del basso corrette ed efficaci.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Homage To Fellegara. An anthology of contemporary music

Homage to Fellegara, 2022

Preface by Piero Bonaguri Introduction In October 2021 I performed in a concert in Bergamo the p... more Preface by Piero Bonaguri

Introduction
In October 2021 I performed in a concert in Bergamo the pieces from the volume Homage to Dallapiccola
published in this series. The recital took place in the Sala Fellegara of the Donizetti Conservatory, for the
concert season “Incontri Europei con la Musica” (European Meetings with Music), created by Vittorio
Fellegara together with Pieralberto Cattaneo. On that occasion I expressed the hope that a similar venture
could be undertaken as a tribute to Vittorio Fellegara, who had died ten years earlier.
My wish was immediately taken up by Pieralberto Cattaneo, who said he was ready not only to write
a piece for this project, but to involve other composers in the proposal, contacted also with the help of
Tiziana Moneta Fellegara.
Therefore, within a few months, numerous composers, connected to Vittorio Fellegara because they
were his disciples, friends and collaborators, wrote their “Omaggio a Fellegara”, which I asked to be
limited to the size of an album sheet.
The result was a collection of pieces, different from each other in terms of the compositional language
used, but united by the sincere and personal participation in the tribute to the great Composer.
This year, 2022, when the volume comes out, significantly acts as an ideal bridge between the ten-
year anniversary of the Composer’s death and 2023, the year in which the 100th anniversary of the
foundation of the Società Italiana di Musica Contemporanea (Italian Society of Contemporary Music)
will be celebrated. Fellegara was secretary of this society for many years.
On this occasion, I once again thank all the composers who participated in the venture.
A brief word on each piece – certainly not a compositional analysis, but almost my reaction as a
performer to this rich musical material.
Capriccio by Natale Arnoldi is a piece with very strong dynamic and agogic contrasts, which uses
various resources of the guitar (harmonic sounds, tambora also combined with glissato) and alternates
almost violent gestures with lyrical and heartfelt cantabile moments. Virtuosic moments alternate with
passages in which the expressive atmosphere is marked by a sense of mystery and questioning.
Recuerdos by Beatrice Campodonico takes us again into a dreamy atmosphere. In this piece of
music there is the repetition of a quadriad at various pitches (a very idiomatic instrumental procedure
which Villa-Lobos has taught us to appreciate) accompanied by pedal notes obtained on the two lowest
open strings of the guitar. Here, there is dynamic, rhythmic and agogic variety (the central section is
more lively, almost dancing, while the beginning and end are very sweet) and there is use of various
instrumental effects (harmonics, pizzicato, tapping, tambora).
... Erinnerungen... by Pieralberto Cattaneo has a mournful and heartfelt character, rather like
a dirge. It is slow and painful and its almost inexorable chordal sequences (with tonal reminiscences
in the sounds, even if disconnected from a tonal syntax) alternate with free figurations which include
repeated notes, fragments of melody, harmonic sounds, with evocative effects of intersected resonances.
A faster central part uses the six sounds deriving from the open strings of the guitar in various ways.
The resumption of the first tempo leads to the conclusion of the piece up until the final harmonic on the
high B. Many figures in the piece derive from the sequence of notes F E A G, while in the central part
appears a Volkslied which Fellegara had already developed in Wiegenlied.
IX
Ombra by Bruno Dozza offers an itinerary in which various musical elements played on different
sound levels alternate effectively and quickly (“Murmuring, a little restless (rubato)” is the indication at
the beginning). We thus pass from melodic fragments, slow or with rapid figurations in rubato, also with
sound gestures in fortissimo, to a sort of choral writing, to passages played on sounds with “normal”
dynamics superimposed on others pianissimo (in fact, almost shadows), as indeterminate and nervous
clusters in which tremolos, trills and harmonic sounds are superimposed in various ways, all written
with innovative instrumental effects.
Acta est Fabula by Giordano Bruno Ferri has a solemn and hieratic character (well expressed by the
title), opening with melody for two parts, deliberately plain and essential, which almost brings to mind
(despite the chromaticisms) Gregorian and the first polyphonic forms. After contrasting sections, with
the use of chords in three parts and more, the initial theme returns, counterpointed by low notes, and the
piece ends by “stopping”, as indicated in the score, with a sense of relentless tragedy.
Frammento H by Pippo Molino is the eighth in a series of guitar fragments begun almost forty years
ago and which testifies to various moments in the composer’s creative itinerary. In this piece, strictly
written for three parts, there emerges a tense and dramatic cantabile atmosphere (the piece is all played
on the high and middle registers of the guitar), with the use of embellishments which bring to mind
musical aspects of the past, not only due to a certain use of the modality, but also with an expression of
current and constructive positivity.
Preludio by Ludovico Pelis offers a melody with a poignant and painfully questioning character, which
develops and is then offered again, in a central section of the piece, in slower tempo and accompanied
by an ever increasing number of open strings of the guitar, with a crescendo at the end of which there
is a return of the first tempo, where the melody is supported by the six open strings of the guitar, of
which only one continues to vibrate at the end of the piece, the B string, which is also the first note of
the melody.
Back to Fauré by Giovanni Podera evokes the last period of Fellegara’s poetics. He expressed his
admiration for “the subtle and discreet art of Fauré”. Fellegara considered Fauré “among the great
forerunners of the European musical twentieth century” and his delicate Elegia for guitar and string
quartet is dedicated to Fauré. The piece written by Podera, which identifies with Fellegara’s admiration
for Fauré, is expressive, delicate and luminous, very much played on the resonances of the guitar (hence
the indication “let it vibrate, always”) and has a clear formal structure, with a lyrical central section in
slower tempo, and is rich in melodic, harmonic and rhythmic hints.
Meditazione by Gabriele Rota is an expressively dense piece, where the use of the guitar’s sonority
is contained and rendered simple in favour of obtaining a great expressive clarity. The piece is played on
textural and dramatic contrasts, with a more relaxed and cantabile central part, almost a delicate lament,
characterized by a two-part counterpoint supported by the bass. This thematic idea returns, barely
hinted at, in the finale of the piece, before a kind of simple cadence on the fourth, fifth and first degree of E.
Frequentazioni letterarie by Andrea Talmelli offers a richly expressive and dramatic itinerary
divided into various moments, with a great variety of instrumental effects (among other things, sounds
to be performed with the left hand only, beating or plucking), dynamic and agogic figurations. A certain
insistence on the note A (the note on which the piece begins and ends) seems to me to help orientate
the listening, as a point of reference that occasionally reappears, often surrounded by sounds which are
close (a tone or semitone higher or lower) or together with E flat – again at the beginning and at the end
of the piece.

Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of HOMENAJE a Alirio Diaz

HOMENAJE a Alirio Diaz, 2021

A new Antholgy of contemporary music by Venezuelan Composers

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Research paper thumbnail of Homages for guitar (composer Alessandro Spazzoli. Editor Piero Bonaguri)

Homages, 2019

Preface Alessandro Spazzoli is proving to be one of today’s composers who is not a guitarist but ... more Preface
Alessandro Spazzoli is proving to be one of today’s composers who is not a guitarist but who is most
interested in the guitar – and also one of the most versatile... and sensitive to my requests!
These tributes to various composers, whose anniversaries are celebrated in 2019, arise as an answer to
my suggestions to the Composer: Sinfonia (Homage to Haydn) was written in 2017 starting from the
possibility of my performing the piece, planned (and then put into practice) in 2019 in Eisenstadt, a city
where Haydn lived and worked for many years in the castle belonging to the Esterhazy family. The year
of composition of the piece inspired Alessandro also to remember Prokofiev and his Classical Symphony
(written 100 years before).
A more recent composition is Elegía (Homage to Villa-Lobos) where the Composer plunges us into
the romantic mood saturated in saudade which is so typical of the vast production of this brilliant
Brasilian musician, a Composer – like Rodrigo – to whom not only guitarists owe so much.
Even more recent is another short tribute by Spazzoli (after other pieces already published in this
series) to Joaquín Rodrigo: in this case the Composer has complied with my marked preference for a
piece contained in the Album for Cecilia by Rodrigo, which became the thematic idea for this new piece.
I am grateful and delighted to have been the intermediary for these new compositional engagements
by Alessandro Spazzoli, which make up as many ample possibilities to enrich the guitar repertoire (and
also for his most useful anchorage in a universally famous musical production), and I wish these pieces
all the luck they deserve.
Piero Bonaguri

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact