La serra, Italian Guitar Sketches from the 20th Century

Description

One of the cycles recorded in this fascinating album issued by Da Vinci Classics is called “La Serra”, meaning “the hothouse”. And the various pieces composing it are titled after several flowers. However, one could also say that this entire album is a “hothouse” where hidden flowers can be admired and enjoyed; and these are rare flowers, flowers one does not normally have the chance to see – or to hear, in this case. All the works recorded here, in fact, are hidden gems, forgotten masterpieces, and most of them were penned by composers who are known, today, only by a handful of specialists. The fame of only few them has gone beyond the borders of Italy, and their very country has been singularly ungenerous toward their memory. This album, therefore, is not only an important artistic achievement, but also a fundamental document, a tribute to the figures and to the art of these composer who undeservedly fell into oblivion. Furthermore, it helps reconstruct the adventure of the guitar in Italy. If it is true that, in comparison with other Latin countries, Italy has been less active in the field of guitar music and composition, still there is much more than it appears. In order to obtain a balanced evaluation of the lights and shadows of the Italian guitar output and of its protagonists, endeavours such as this one are particularly noteworthy and valuable, since they provide us with more than a missing tile in the whole mosaic.
The cycle La Serra is the work of Mario Barbieri, who is now recognized as one of the most prolific composers for the guitar among those active in Italy in the early twentieth century. He was a member of what has come to be known as “the generation of the Eighties”. Massimo Mila, a famous Italian musicologist, coined this expression, referring to composer who were born in the 1880s, or around that period, and who had in common both the heritage of nineteenth-century Italian Romanticism (meaning, mostly, the language of opera) and the capability of going beyond it, in a quest for modernity which did not reject the models from tradition. (Information about Barbieri’s biography are derived from the studies of Giovanni Cestino, to whom the following paragraphs are indebted).
Barbieri, born in Naples, studied in the Conservatory “San Pietro a Majella” of his city, under the guidance of two of the leading musicians of his time, i.e. Camillo De Nardis and Giuseppe Martucci. He also studied Italian Literature at University, and in the early 1910s he moved to another sea city, Genova. In Liguria, he was among the protagonists of a musical renaissance, founding – along with Fr Giovanni Semeria – the local symphony orchestra, which is active to present day, and teaching composition at the Conservatory. Furthermore, he was the founder and editor of some musical and musicological journals, as well as an appreciated music critic on the Genoa daily newspaper.
In 1938, an opera he authored was awarded the EIAR Prize from the ancestor of today’s RAI, i.e. the (then) State-owned broadcasting company. Such was the opera’s success that its cast counted among its members Magda Olivero, who was one of the greatest sopranos of the era.
It was only in the Fifties that Barbieri’s attention started to focus on the guitar, and this interest was due to his personal encounter with a young and extremely gifted lady, who studied harmony under Barbieri’s guidance but was primarily a guitar player.
Even though Barbieri’s pupil (who was of Indian descent and the relative of a very famous figure of Indian culture) would leave Genoa rather soon, the mark left by their acquaintance was to remain fruitful for years. Later, in fact, Barbieri would befriend other guitarists, such as Federico Orsolino and Carlo Palladino, who were to become his reference points in the world of guitar playing.
La Serra dates from 1953, the same year of the very first guitar composition by Barbieri, and was to be followed by several other works. It is composed of seven Preludes, whose titles evoke the (scientific or common) name of seven flowers, but also the mental, poetic, or traditional associations behind them. About them, Angelo Gilardino wrote: “This is authentic music, written with wisdom by one who, though unable to play the guitar himself, had caught the soul of this instrument and learnt its arcane language as no other coeval composer had been able to do. In comparison with him, Ponce’s guitar scoring is generical, Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s approximative, Torroba’s naïve”.
The colours of these pieces are vivid and original, and their language, which makes ample use of modality, represents a refreshing – yet modern – reaction to the excessive focus on serial music which characterized the Fifties.
A similar – though different – exploration of new possibilities in the musical language is found in the life and work of Vito Frazzi, who created a system of eight-note scales based on the alternance of tones and semitones. These original and innovative scales, which Frazzi crafted before the analogous experiments of the better-known Olivier Messiaen, are also a fundamental element of modern jazz music. In spite of the importance of Frazzi’s work, and of the widespread dissemination of this technique, his name is not as known as it deserves, beyond the circle of music theorists and composers.
Vito Frazzi was born near Parma; his maternal uncle, also called Vito, was a famous double bassist. He studied at the Conservatory of Parma, graduating in organ and composition, and he taught piano as a second instrument at the Conservatory of Florence. In the Tuscan capital, he befriended Ildebrando Pizzetti and some of the latter’s famous acquaintances, including author Giovanni Papini. His friendship with Pizzetti prompted him to embark in a creative activity as a composer himself, writing chamber music and, later, symphonic works. One of his main fields of inspiration was the human voice, particularly in the domain of vocal chamber music on lyrics by important Italian poets. His activity led him to accept the chair of harmony and later of composition at the Conservatory of Florence, teaching such important composers as Luigi Dallapiccola and Valentino Bucchi; he became also the professor of composition at the prestigious courses of the Accademia Chigiana.
Some of his important works relate to literature in yet a different way, since he composed stage music for important plays, and he kept an eye open for Italian traditional and folk music. His major achievements are in the field of opera, with the great success of his Re Lear and of his Don Chisciotte, but he also looked with interest to the world of early music, which he considered as a repository of inspiration. As remarked by Gianluigi Mattietti, “his compositional style […] is inspired by the utmost artisan-like refinement”, and unifies “different elements”, such as a “powerful dramatic component”, “lyrically-inspired melodies”, “a taste for rhythmic characterization and for inflections derived from folklore”. His Due Pezzi per chitarra are interesting and vivid examples of his creative fantasy, thanks to the wide palette of colours they employ and the numerous artistic ideas they display.
Sergio Chiereghin was born near Venice, in the city of Chioggia immortalized by playwright Carlo Goldoni. He studied piano, composition, and conducting, and his musical activity encompassed both performance (as a pianist and conductor) and composition, especially starting in his thirties. His works have gained him widespread recognition, resulting in international and intercontinental performances, and in his winning of international composition competitions. His output for the guitar is particularly significant, alongside his works for symphonic orchestras and for chamber music ensemble: his Concerto for two guitars was premiered at the International Guitar Festival in Toronto in 1984. He taught at the Conservatory of Padua, and his artistic activity explores in his own personal fashion the possible innovations in the musical language, reinterpreting in a modern key the traditional tenets of melody, harmony and counterpoint. His Trois Chansons Jouées are three homages to female characters, whose personal traits are given a musical form in the lyrical inspiration of these instrumental pieces. The guitar here demonstrates its potential for both expressivity and structure, singing and accompanying itself at one and the same time.
Giuseppe Rosetta, born at the beginning of the twentieth century, was a pupil of Respighi, one of the great masters of Italian late Romantic music. Once his education was completed, Rosetta left Rome for his native city, Vercelli, between Turin and Milan. His activity there was multifaceted, as an organist, a choir conductor and a professor. Among his students was the already-mentioned Angelo Gilardino, one of the most important guitarists in twentieth-century Italy. Rosetta saw music not as a means for achieving human glory, but rather as an instrument for the glory of God; his compositional style mirrors these values, and is correspondingly sober, expressive, intense. Following Gilardino’s promptings, Rosetta began to write for the guitar, and this resulted in a highly original output, of which Mirage is a fascinating example.
Ettore Desderi shared with Rosetta their Piedmontese origins. Before dedicating himself fully to music, he had graduated in architecture at the Polytechnical University of Turin; among his teachers were Luigi Perrachio and Franco Alfano, as well as Pizzetti. Similar to Rosetta, he was interested in sacred music: he was the founder of the Italian branch of the International Association for Sacred Music, and he maintained in the years a deep connection with Germany where this Association had been born. He taught at various institutions in Piedmont, before concluding his career at the Conservatories of Milan and Bologna, and was deeply engaged also in the organization of festivals and concerts. His musical style reflects a fecund interaction between ancient and modern music, filtered through the lens of his appreciation for sacred music. This is clearly revealed by his demanding, long, and imposing Toccata e Fuga, where Bach is evidently the underlying model. Notwithstanding this, his music is suffused with recent experiences and is idiomatic for the guitar, which here reveals its capability for intensely polyphonic writing.
Together, these works offer a wide panorama on the resources of the guitar and on how Italian culture looked at it in the course of the twentieth century.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2025