Guitar
SKU:
UT.CH-111
Notturno
- Napolitana - Roma.
Composed by Francesco
Balilla Pratella. Edited
by Maurizio Mazzoli.
Saddle stitching.
Classical. Ut Orpheus #CH
111. Published by Ut
Orpheus (UT.CH-111).
ISBN 9790215316317. 9
x 12 inches.
The
three original pieces for
guitar Notturno,
Napolitana
(popolar songs) and
Roma (March
for guitar),
together with three
transcriptions, are
included in a manuscript
of 36 pages, noting in
the frontispiece
“Transcriptions and
compositions of F.
Balilla Pratella sent as
a tribute to M.R. Brondi
(1920)”.
These compositions follow
a traditional language,
and, in the tonality and
the alternating themes,
are an expression of
Pratella’s
folkloric vein, with
cantabile and melancholy
melodies, with the
exception of the march,
that show some echoes of
the nineteenth century
guitar masters’ way
of composing.
There is
a characteristic use of
the quartine with
no alternated thumb
forefinger tremolo, that
immediately recalls the
plectrum orchestra so
much used by Pratella in
his youth.
The
discovery of these pieces
– which happened
accidentally and saved
them from certain
destruction –
contributes to enhance
that period of great
guitarist turmoil
preceding Segovia,
establishing itself at
the beginning of
twentieth century in
Italy with three
compositions from an
author that, along
with the Bonaccorsi and
Colacicchi, anticipated
that current –
already initiated by the
Fara, Gabriel,
Caravaglios –
which was, in the
following decades, to go
by the name of
ethnomusicology.