Bologna.
What comes to our mind first?
Spaghetti.
There is nothing to be done. For me too, no need
to lose your hair.
Our marvellous mother tongue got fixate and you cannot evade
its slowly moving spheres.
Indeed, Bologna is one of the famous gastronomical centres,
however, nota bene, it is not spaghetti that is a big deal here but tortellini
shaped after Lucrezia Borgia’s bellybutton by a heated innkeeper who goggled at
her through a keyhole; in a word, let us be gastro-communicative even if there
are other more fascinating things to talk about.
For example, let us mention that there were 180 towers in
the city in the 1200s. We can only guess what this amount was for. They were
60-80m high medieval skyscrapers located on a relatively small area.
It is more
than astonishing
Because this height is that of a twenty storey building today
and they were not familiar with either tensioned concrete or steel support
rails and they constructed these gigantic and slim oddities from brick and
stone the size of two fists; inside there was a complicated flight of stairs
only to go up to the roof.
Today there are 20 of them left with Two Towers
among them which inspired the designer of Twin Towers too.
The university. It is the oldest in Europe; it was in
function in 1088 already.
Its library contained the knowledge of the then world and
the book agents turned back only at the Great Wall in China.
The gigantic San Petronio basilica got started as the
biggest church of Christianity but Pope IV. Pius had enough of the
mind-boggling waste of money so it was built as high as 47 m inside only so
that the public could have enough air and spiritual perspective.
The 25 thousand people who can be seated in it.
And Alessandro Piccinini lived here.
He was a harpist, lutenist, composer and performer. He
dwelled and walked in this odd city with the many towers where the weird
shadows of the prolonged extensions and dilatations floated in the air and the
reimported vertical horizon had an extra effect on everything and everybody.
Piccinini was no exception: his name is attached to the gearing of the
Renaissance lute with extra strings and a longer neck; these prolate and
prolonged instruments are called theorba and archiluto today.
His son published two volumes - Intavolatura di Liuto et di
Chitarrone, libro primo (Bologna, 1623) and Intavolaturo di Liuto (Bologna,
1639).
The first edition in 1623 is practically a tractate too;
several pages are about play modes, accords and stringing and a separate
chapter is devoted to dynamics and the application of falses.
This period was the era of the break-through of monody; the
base of Baroque performance mode - basso continuo dates from here; the
emergence of the long bass strings is outright obvious just like the city
stretched upwards as the scene…
Basso continuo is to be understood in these decades as
Piccinini composed it, that is, the lower strings must be plucked as if it was
an organ pedal.
The rising heyday is heard on the record.
The instrumentation is very special because Monteilhet took
Piccinini’s tractate literally and a genuine organ, a small portative turn up
in a few pieces as companion. There is a baroque guitar in many places mostly
in unison to intensify the rhythm.
Piccinini travelled a lot; he made long detours in Ferrara
and Naples.
While listening to Toccata Cromatica we have a strong
feeling that he had a lot of cups of coffee with the prince of Venosa in
Naples. For they met each other indeed
and Arabian coffee might as well be present and it was Gesualdo who created
excellent music from the chromatic aberrations.
So does it happen here. From
about the 45th second things take a really odd turn; some false strings come up
then the whole structure shifts into another system; a huge delight is borne
out of the initially despairingly false accords.
Very brave.
Despite the
different tuning and harmony constructing system of today everything comes over
sound by sound even 400 years later. We do not seem to have changed a lot
inside in this field.
We are given lines from variants of the contemporary
favourite melodies in many places with the guitar in the same parts almost all
along, however, with an extreme sense in a way that the different tones
deliberately hang out just a bit, as little as the odd flavour stands out.
The whole record is covered with intense melodiousness just
like a protective umbrella which attracts us to listen to it when the
structures are a bit more complex or give in themselves with difficulties or
when false accords stroke us backwards.
They are protective like the arcades against excessive
sunshine to make us feel like taking a walk.
Arcades of which there are 38 kilometres in Bologna.
Ironically, later or even in today’s orchestral performances
the lute and the whole instrument family itself - what remained of it -
degraded back to plain basso continuo companion… Piccinini’s long strings
toppled Apollo’s instrument off the throne then went into servility themselves.
The towers of Bologna tumbled down.
Later, Early Music was the great come-back; we have lots to
select from.
For we do have to make a selection, yes, because it is a
complicated instrument to play with difficulties with the plenty of gut
strings. You can hardly find a record with a perfect tuning and there are even
fewer with some fine rolling and ease, and, at the same time seriousness and
deepness penetrating deep inside.
Like this record.
Highly recommended.
Translated by Kenesei Andrea
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Thank you for the images.
