Walter Maioli

Last updated

Walter Maioli (born 1950 in Milan) is an Italian researcher, paleorganologist, poly-instrumentalist, and composer specialized in experimental archaeology and music, in particular that of archaic civilization. He has been researching the music of antiquity and prehistory for more than thirty-five years. [1] [2] Always interested in the music of the Mediterranean, he has gone on journeys to discover the folkloristic Italian and Mediterranean traditions learning the Arabic, African, Oriental, and European music since the beginning of the seventies.

Contents

In 1972 he founded the pioneer world music group Aktuala, dedicated to folkloristic African and Asian music.

In the eighties Walter Maioli's research focused on the field of prehistoric instruments; his work was presented at the Archaeological Symposium of Amsterdam for the opening of the Den Haag Museum in The Hague (Den Haag). In 1987 he prepared the Natural Art Laboratory of Morimondo in the Ticino Park, working on the Art of the Nature, publishing books on the subject for the Jaca Book: "Origins, sounds and music", and for Giorgio Mondadori: "Orchestra of the Nature".

In 1991 he displayed the collection called "The Origins of Musical Instruments" to the History of Nature Museum in Milan and presented "Art of the Stars" sounds for the planetarium, at Ulrico Hoelpi Civic Planetarium in Milan in collaboration with Fiorella Terenzi. Starting in 1994, for one and a half years he coordinated the musical part of the Archeon Archaeological Theme Park in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, producing the CD called "200.000 years in music".

In 1995 he founded Synaulia, a team of musicians, archeologists, paleorganologists, and choreographers dedicated to the application of their historical research to ancient music and dance, in particular to the ancient Etruscan and Roman periods, carrying out an intense activity of conferences, seminars, and concerts in Europe, in particular in the Netherlands and Germany. In Italy, some of his performances were presented at archaeological sites such as Mausoleo di Augusto, Mercati Traianei, Terme di Diocleziano, Ostia Antica, Villa Adriana, Preneste, Pompei and Stabia, with the scope of recreating the sound atmosphere and executive context of the Roman age. When Michael Hoffman, chose the Synaulia group to participate in the shooting of the movie A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1998, Walter Maioli took care of the reproduction of the musical instruments.

Among the collaborations of Walter Maioli and Synaulia, there are performances with Giorgio Albertazzi: "Eros voglio cantare", "Intorno a Dante", and "Mammi, Pappi e Sirene in Magna Grecia, and the music composition for the first two episodes of the television program on TV RAI 2 "Albertazzi e Fo raccontato la storia del teatro italiano". Two songs of Synaulia were used in Gladiator , directed by Ridley Scott.

Walter Maioli and the Synaulia took care of the musical parts of Rome of BBC-HBO, Empire of ABC and the New Line Cinema's Nativity (2006), as well as other documentaries of the BBC, CNN, Japanese TV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic Society and experimental archaeological videos for the RAI, CNN, Museo Nazionale Etrusco of Villa Giulia in Rome and other museums in Germany. From November 2007 Walter Maioli with the Fondazione Ras has started the laboratory "Synaulia in Stabiae" in Castellamaare di Stabiae. [3]

Discography

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Launeddas</span> Sardinian woodwind instrument made of three pipes

The launeddas are a traditional Sardinian woodwind instrument made of three pipes, each of which has an idioglot single reed. They are a polyphonic instrument, with one of the pipes functioning as a drone and the other two playing the melody in thirds and sixths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelo Branduardi</span> Italian singer and songwriter (1950-)

Angelo Branduardi is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of ancient Rome</span>

The music of ancient Rome was a part of Roman culture from the earliest of times. Songs (carmen) were an integral part of almost every social occasion. The Secular Ode of Horace, for instance, was commissioned by Augustus and performed by a mixed children's choir at the Secular Games in 17 BC. Music was customary at funerals, and the tibia, a woodwind instrument, was played at sacrifices to ward off ill influences. Under the influence of ancient Greek theory, music was thought to reflect the orderliness of the cosmos, and was associated particularly with mathematics and knowledge.

Aktuala were a pioneering band from Italy, formed in 1972. The name comes from the Esperanto for "contemporary".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Cantarella</span> Italian classicist

Eva Cantarella is an Italian classicist. She is professor of Roman law and ancient Greek law at the University of Milan, and has served as Dean of the Law School at the University of Camerino.

Gabin Dabiré was a singer, guitarist, kora player, and composer from Burkina Faso who has lived in Italy since 1975.

Riccardo Piacentini is an Italian composer and pianist, professor of Composition at the Milan Conservatory.

Amiata Records is an independent cross-cultural record label founded in 1992 by Matteo Silva and Marc Eagleton with headquarters in Florence and offices in London, and Rome.

Synaulia is a team of musicians, archeologists, paleontologists and choreographers dedicated to the application of their historical research to ancient music and dance, in particular to the ancient Etruscan and Roman periods.

Matteo Silva is a well known composer, music producer, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. He was born in Ulm, Germany from German mother and Italian father, grew up in Bologna, Italy and Lugano, Switzerland, studied composition at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan with Niccolò Castiglioni and philosophy in Venice with Emanuele Severino; he is founder of the independent music record label Amiata Records; as radio editor he collaborated with Rete 2, a cultural channel of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and produced the “Encyclopedia of World Music” in 76 volumes for the Italian RCS Rizzoli Group published by Fabbri; for the group “Espresso – La Repubblica” he produced, among other series, a very popular CD series of “World Music”, a work that for the first time in Italy let music of less known cultures be accessible to a larger audience. Another remarkable project produced for the "Espresso - La Repubblica" group has been " La grande musica della Sardegna" a CD series on all different music styles in Sardinia approached in a musicological way but published for the first time outside the academic circuits with great public success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Liberovici</span> Italian composer (born 1962)

Andrea Liberovici is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music and a theatre director.

<i>Tappeto Volante</i> 1976 studio album by Aktuala

Tappeto Volante is the third and final album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala. It was released on Bla Bla records in 1976. It is the second recording of percussionist Trilok Gurtu

<i>La Terra</i> (album) 1974 album by Aktuala

La Terra is the second studio album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala. It was released on Bla Bla records in 1974. The cover features a medieval map of the world as it was known surrounded by the "world ocean". There are fewer, longer pieces than on the first record and they feature extended jams. Maioli writes that it was representative of the music played by the core group of Maioli, Cavallanti and Cerantola for two years; rehearsing and jamming in restaurants and psych wards until they got the perfect sound, and that it features the influences but not the performances of many of the other musicians who performed with them over that time. It is the first recording of master world percussionist Trilok Gurtu, who had to leave Italy shortly after the recording because of work visa expiry.

<i>Aktuala</i> (album) 1972 studio album by Aktuala

Aktuala is the first studio album by Italian world music pioneers Aktuala and was released on Bla Bla records in 1972.

<i>Dai primitivi allelettronica</i> (album) 1980 studio album by Futuro Antico

Dai primitivi all'elettronica is a recording made by Futuro Antico in 1980. It features a mixture of synthesized and ethnic music, highlighting the role intonation plays in music. This theme was featured in Tappo Volante, the last Aktuala album, which featured the mixture of ethnic sounds and studio processing. The track "Echo Raga" is featured on that recording as well.

Futuro Antico is a pioneering World Music group comprising Walter Maioli with Riccardo Sinigaglia and Gabin Dabiré. The aim of the project is D'ai primitivi all'elettronica, and they recruited a number of musicians from India and Africa for the recording. The project is considered by the participants to be open-ended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corde Oblique</span> Italian neofolk band

Corde Oblique are one of the main ethereal progressive neofolk bands from Italy. They are the solo project of Riccardo Prencipe with vocal contributions from numerous female singers and actresses. After seven albums the project began to change its skin and proposed "FolkGaze" sounds, a cross between folk and shoegazer.

Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) is an electroacoustic composition by Luciano Berio, for voice and tape. Composed in 1958 and 1959, it is based on the interpretative reading of the poem "Sirens" from chapter 11 of the novel Ulysses by James Joyce by Cathy Berberian and on the elaboration of her recorded voice by technological means.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biancamaria Frabotta</span> Italian writer (1946–2022)

Biancamaria Frabotta was an Italian writer. She promoted the study of women writers in Italy and her early poetry focused on feminist issues. The main themes of her later works are melancholy, the dichotomy between Nature and History and between Action and Contemplation, the relationship between the body and the self, and conjugal love. Besides essays on feminism and academic works on poets such as Giorgio Caproni, Franco Fortini, and Amelia Rosselli, she wrote plays, radio-dramas, a television show on Petrarch, and a novel. Until her retirement in 2016, she taught Modern Italian Literature at the University of Rome La Sapienza, where she previously received her Laurea degree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giorgio Nottoli</span> Italian composer, musician and academic (born 1945)

Giorgio Nottoli is an Italian composer, musician and academic.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.