“Trenodia” by Pier Paolo Scattolin is available to stream
- Michele Viviani
- Aug 9, 2020
- 3 min read
As a member of the Euridice Choir, I was fortunate to take part in the recording of this project, created for the centenary of World War I in 2018. Now, Trenodia by Pier Paolo Scattolin is available for streaming on YouTube and Spotify.
Below—serving as a listening guide—are excerpts from the liner notes of the CD, written by the composer himself.
“Trenodia,” or “[se]…this is the man,” is a secular oratorio in five parts. It is not a commemorative “musical,” but rather a temporal and sonic space for reflection on human actions (…).
In this oratorio, war is unambiguously presented as the shared suffering of soldiers enduring a negative experience. The spoken sections consist of readings from a collection of poems and prose written by poets and soldiers who participated in or wrote about World War I (including Carlo Emilio Gadda, Piero Jahier, Emilio Lussu, Paolo Monelli, Aldo Palazzeschi, Edoardo Sanguineti, Renato Serra, and Giuseppe Ungaretti).
The music—primarily original compositions—evokes fragmentary quotations of melodies that were sung in the trenches during the long, alienating pauses of war. The composition unfolds in polyrhythmic “clods,” juxtaposing fragmented musical forms—elements that are distant and contradictory, much like the Christmas carol sung by opposing armies who, defying orders, observed a truce on Christmas Eve. Their dispersal amid the recitations makes them dramatically alive and realistic, though vastly different from the completeness of a traditional “song.”
1. Parodo – Prelude
The fragments echoing folk songs are drawn from:Quel mazzolin di fiori, O ce biel cjs’cjèl a Udin, Fa la nana, Oi de la Valcamonica, Oh barbiera, La leggenda del Piave.
The quotations from composed music come from Agnus Dei for Choir by Krzysztof Penderecki and from some melodies by Scattolin taken from Trenodia 2.
2. Frammenti – Trenodia 1
The folk songs included are: Nella Somalia bella, Era una notte che pioveva, Gran Dio del cielo, La banda.
3. Echi – Trenodia 2
The third section consists entirely of original music. The poetic texts are drawn from Sono una creatura, S. Martino del Carso, Soldati by Ungaretti: their continuous intertwining and overlapping gives the music form and development.
4. Per non dimenticare – Trenodia 3
This section of Trenodia also does not feature folk music. Preceded by the recitation of Gadda’s prose “Io mi ripeto”, the text is composed of “Non ho voglia di tuffarmi in un gomitolo di strade” by Ungaretti and a quotation from “Nella Somalia Bella”:“…o mamma mamma dimmelo, dimmi se sei contenta che io vado alla guerra.”
The music takes on a completely aleatoric character, symbolizing the emptiness and tragedy of war as a means of resolving conflicts between peoples.
5. Esodo – Catarsi (Exodus – Catharsis)
The final section guides the listener on a path of hope and reconciliation: a peace that, as in World War I, cost millions of lives and injuries. The section is preceded by the reading of “In Memoriam of Soldier David Sutherland, killed in action in the German trench on May 16, 1916, and of the others who died”, written by British lieutenant Ewart Alan Mackintosh.
It includes a quotation from the Adagio of Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B Minor, which opens the section, and from Penderecki’s Agnus Dei, here in Scattolin’s orchestrated version. In the opening measures, a melodic quotation from Trenodia 2 is superimposed.
Preceded by the recitation of a fragment of Carlo Emilio Gadda’s prose “Io mi ripeto”, the piece closes with the Agnus Dei from Scattolin’s Requiem for Giorgio Vacchi. The conclusion of the work is entrusted to the recitation of Aldo Palazzeschi’s text “Mi offrite una guerra.”
Composer: Pier Paolo Scattolin (1949)Performers:
Coro Euridice of the Istituto Comprensivo n.19, Lavinia-Fontan di Bologna
Coro di voci bianche Euridice “EuridiCínni”
Coro Euridice
Orchestra da camera Euridice
Ensemble strumenti antichi “Circe”
Soloists: Angela Beghelli and Angela Troilo
Reciting voice: Simone Marelli
Conductor: Pier Paolo Scattolin
Edition: October 2018
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