Interview with harpist Vincenzo Zitello
Feb. 7, 2009
Vincenzo,
you are a pioneer and the first to have made the Celtic harp popular in Italy,
besides being an international concert performer. How did your career
start?
Vincenzo Zitello
taken at the first meeting of the review, La
Musica nell'uovo, Feltrinelli Books and Music Shop, Monza, Jan. 11, 2009.
©
Photo by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
The harp is
the instrument I had always wanted to play as a child, but it was considered a
girlish instrument, and so my father made me study the violin. When I was about
14-15 years of age I started making the first experiments. Subsequently, I met Franco
Battiato who made me savor the joy of research, and
invited me to join – as a violinist – the "Telaio
Magnetico" group.
Besides Battiato you also worked with other artists.
I worked
for a long time with Ivano Fossati,
Fabrizio De Andrè and many
others. However, we were not only partners since these were people who gave me
a lot of support in some of the difficult moments.
And going
back to your story…
In 1974, I
listened to Renaissance de la harpe celtique, an
album of Alan Stivell which impressed
me deeply. Moreover, it had to do with something I had always wanted to be: a
male harpist. This was 1974 and I immediately started searching for a Celtic
harp, and found one in 1976, that is, when Professor Luciana Chierici of Civica Music School
of Milan had twenty Irish harps imported from Waltons, Dublin. I contacted Mara Galassi
(who achieved a diploma in modern harps, and later dedicated herself to
historical harps) since I wanted to study with her, but this was not possible.
So I started to frequent the Breton culture and music sessions
held at "Ti Kendalc'h" by Dominig Bouchaud and Mariannig Larc’hantec. In 1978 I
formed the harp and oboe duo with Roberto Mazza.
And when did
you achieve your specialization courses with Alan Stivell?
I specialized in Bard harps and Celtic songs in 1980.
And what were
the stages of your artistic path?
Vincenzo Zitello
at the harp and Vittorio Sorrentino,
sound technician. First meeting of the review, La Musica nell'uovo,
Feltrinelli Books and Music Shop, Monza, Jan. 11, 2009.
© Photo
byGloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
I continued with forming the "Asciara"
duo together with Saro Cosentino
in 1985 and with the registration of a 45 rpm record produced by Franco Battiato for EMI, developing a traditional Irish piece sung
in Gaelic. In 1987 I produced my first album Et Vice Versa, entirely dedicated to
compositions for Celtic harps with metal strings.
And the first
album was followed by the second, third and fourth…
And continued up to the eighth. I am now
working on the ninth. Let me see… the second, Kerygma, was in 1988; two years
later it was released in the United States,
Canada and Australia with Euphonia as the title.
In 1994 the third album La Via was
released in Europe with the title Serenade. In 1998 came the fifth CD: Aforismi
d’arpa. Concerto followed
in 2001 and Solo in 2005, entirely
played with Celtic and Bard harps. Atlas was
released two years later.
We mentioned
three types of harps, the modern, historical, and Celtic harps. What kind of
emotional impact do they stir in you?
The modern harp is a mental instrument which does not
allow for evolutions and this is well evident at historical levels. All in all,
very few have taken this path and did so in a very canonical and scarcely
creative manner. It is a carpentry instrument, not a violin-making one: the
modern harps are made for playing a certain type of music and nothing more.
Instead, imagine the violin: it is played everywhere, and in some ways by all (including
the Indians, gypsies…) and is continually evolving. The fact that Harpo Marx tuned his harp in a very personal way
demonstrates that we are dealing with an old instrument, which has lagged
behind in terms of creativity – that is – tied down to its historical aspect.
On the contrary, the Celtic harp is highly creative: we can rightly speak of
the innovation of sound and the way of linking up with the traditional harp. I
am underlining that the modern harp is an instrument which feels the impact of
the conservative world it is a part of: it is used only in a philological
manner. Even Beethoven thought it was useless! It is true that he wrote Variations of a Swiss tune for harps alone,
but it had been commissioned. In short, what I am not interested in is its
historical recovery, since I believe this to be a false operation and we do not
even know what and how it was really played! Historical frauds have been
established and unfortunately, we are full of these would-be truths.
And so, in
your view, what is the role of the harpist today?
Poster of Vincenzo
Zitello behind one of his harps. The first meeting
of the review, La Musica
nell'uovo, Feltrinelli
Books and music Shop of Monza, Jan. 1, 2009.
©Photo
by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
That of
experimentation, contamination. The harp today is the instrument for creativity,
because we feel the need for this. Take for example: jazz applied to the harp
which I find interesting (as an idea, not as a language). There are many
musicians of the late 20th century who started to take unusual paths and have
continued along this trend, guided by their own creative identity. Instead, the
New Age as I see it, had some good ideas in store, but were then impoverished
and commercialized. If I were to define what the New Age has become, I would
have no qualms in saying that we are dealing with a supermarket of hollowness.
We always have to look for new experiences because
this stimulates creativity – to say the least – it helps to discover new strong
points in life. Along these lines I sustain the importance of learning to
listen. In moments when we are so engrossed by others or by ourselves, we find
this hard to accomplish, but when you listen, you become fertile as an artist.
Are you
placing the accent on listening to your interior self, given that – man comes
first – before the artist?
Exactly. The Celtic and Bard
harps make the composer grow precisely because they allow him to listen to his
own self. The consequence is attention towards things, the flow of sensations, and
interior resonance. All these do not occur with the academic harp.
Can we say
that academism is a niche?
We certainly can. The Celtic and Bard harps are
satisfying a need: that of listening to the world in a different way which
makes us perceive the magic of things.
How about an
incursion in one of the themes you developed in Atlas, your latest CD: the theme of time?
Kronos you mean?
Yes.
Vincenzo Zitello
during the first meeting of the review, La
Musica nell'uovo, Feltrinelli Books and Music Shop of Monza, Jan. 11 2009.
© Photo
by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
I like this piece very much, because when you listen
to it, it seems like you are losing the way, but at a certain point, here you
are again: it is like a cell that links you to the infinite. The final theme
has a strong nucleus. Some did not hesitate to define Kronos as a masterpiece.
The idea of loss and rediscovery is in a sense, linked
to the idea of learning to listen and listening to oneself, as I said earlier.
Listen to the time of creativity and that in which creations take root. And it
makes you think. Thought is fundamental. You become what you think. All this is
true in both music and life.
In the
booklet provided with Atlas ‑ commenting
on Kronos ‑
you cite Allen Ginsberg: "[…] who threw their watches off the roof to cast
their ballot/for Eternity outside of Time," excerpt from Howl.
In 1995, I wrote music for theater production. The Beat Generation
making a CD for the actor Massimo Arrigoni and on the
occasion of a tribute to Fernanda Pivano
at Conegliano Veneto, I accompanied Ginsberg – a
really particular personage ‑ in one of his readings. The excerpt from Howl
underlined how, if man binds himself to a particular moment, to the span of
time that has concluded, he becomes a prisoner of that moment and will never
find the possibility of constantly moving on. The concept I wanted to express
in Kronos is
that of opening of time in an unceasing becoming, step after step, always moving
forward, opening one door after another.
The passage –
appearing on the booklet ‑ is dedicated to "to the boys of 1974 in Bottanuco, Pinuccio, Nunzio, Fabrizio, and to the
evenings and the time we passed playing in the farmhouse."
The dedication not only aims at the
orientation of Kronos towards the three boys, but also at
concretizing my concept with an example - Pinuccio, Nunzio and Fabrizio smoked and
were drug addicts: their problem was that they were incapable of
handling that span of time that had ended, as mentioned earlier.
Bound to the
contingent, they were incapable of leaving the prison, to project themselves
beyond?
Yes, precisely. In my view, Khronos is the future time, but
also (due to this) the personal time available to discover yourself, fulfill
yourself. I have a daughter, Anna, who is four and a half years of age. At a
certain time I stop studying or doing what I am doing, to play with her and
live my time with her.
It seems to
me, quality time you would lose, if you did not live it fully in the present. In
Atlas you also dedicated the lullaby Ninna Anna to her.
Yes, it is a gentle lullaby – as I said in the booklet – where the low ocarina imitates the
cooing of doves that accompanied her first afternoon naps.
You also
wrote in the booklet: "When I hold you in my arms I climb the peak of an
infinite stairway leading to the stars."
You,
therefore, conceive a time from which you cut off all the negative, pejorative
things (time that imprisons, enclave, time that leads us to forget…)
Yes, for me time is a positive entity. It is a time in
which you “can”: I would not know how to express my viewpoint, otherwise.
No need to do
so: it is very clear.
Every day each of us has the right to try. There are
many instruments that help relationships, research, and creativity. Just think of the computer. However,
with my affirmations I am not identifying an epoch in which it is better or worse
to live. I am only underlining that each of us has the right to follow our own
feelings and creativity, and thus, produce what we retain right. I am not
interested in overturning music only to be talked about (I do not like artists who
try to attract attention by doing so): I compose according to a musical concept
that corresponds to my feelings and let the others make their judgments. In
short, I do what I enjoy doing - that’s all – and probably this comes through. Take
for example, the meeting I held at the Feltrinelli Books and Music Shop of Monza, last
Jan. 11.
It was the
inauguration session of the Review, La Musica nell’uovo (artistic
director, Michele Sangineto), which will continue up
to July 19.
Michele Sangineto, to the left, and Vincenzo
Zitello, to the right, taken at the first meeting
of the review, La Musica
nell'uovo, Feltrinelli
Books and Music Shop of Monza, Jan. 11 2009.
©
Photo by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
Do you remember how
many people attended?
I certainly remember. The small hall where you gave an exhibition with your (Celtic and Bard) harps
was crowded.
Those were people who had gone to the store to buy
books and then stopped to listen. After the meeting I received a lot of
e-mails.
Many were
literally enchanted by your music. I think in doing so, you opened an emotional
window for them.
Vincenzo
Zitello doing a sound check
at the first meeting of the review, La Musica nell'uovo, Feltrinelli Books and Music Shop of Monza, Jan. 11 2009.
© Photo
by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
I agree, on the other hand this is my task. I realize
this when I am on stage: I am convinced that is where I belong and am only
doing something that is part of me.
Vincenzo,
often in your concerts you play with two harps (Celtic and Bard). Why?
During the 1970s minimalist, reiterative music was
what attracted me more. To this end, I vividly recall Philip Glass in1973, in an
organ concert in Lugano. I was deeply impressed while
others thought he was a buffoon and dismissed him with “He’s making a
fool of us, insisting on just one note!” The idea of playing with two harps was
inspired by reiterative music (which I admit – is a bit a niche thing): when I
perform it is because I have decided to choose an obsessive manner to express
something that is so profoundly a part of me. For example, in my piece Gaelik (Raga) there’s a drone that keeps time.
Our conversation
started from the idea of becoming, of time that leaves us free to let our own
creativity flow and fulfill ourselves as men and artists and we talked about
the concept of reiteration, insistence, and obsession, in which we allow
ourselves to be hollowed out, before being able to bring something to light. I
think that is only an apparent antithesis, because there is a passage, perhaps
even a unifying element: vital Energy.
Yes, there are energies that convey thought, leaving
it free to pursue its path, to stop (hollow out as you said), and resume. In
the end, you find the thread of thought once again…
… when you have harvested, with something to offer the public
to enjoy.
Vincenzo
Zitello during the first meeting of the review, La Musica nell'uovo, Feltrinelli
Books and Music Shop of Monza, Jan. 11 2009.
©
Photo by Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski
|
Yes. Some creations are possible because there are
intergalactic wells (if we wish to define them as so) from which we can draw
thoughts and Energy. Things, facts, gestures, communicate between themselves
and allow a force to come forth and which one reaches. I’d like to give a very
concrete example. During some of my concerts you wrote a series of poems which
you successively gathered in a compilation.
I remember
the first time quite well. Your concert’s opening piece was Serenade. After the first notes, I dug
into my bag where I always have pen and paper, and inspired by your music,
started writing verses.
Yours are an example of what intuition dictates. Your
poetry arose from the frequencies of sound. It’s true that the music was there,
but you were right there: the poems you composed are a heritage which belongs
to you and you alone. I played and noticed that you ‑ seated in the first
row ‑, were writing. The music with the frequencies of its sounds
addressed all present and all appreciated and loved it, but only you vibrated
in that particular way.
Relations exist between things, complex and at the
same time, simple relations that are spontaneously established. It is thought
that flows. We can speak of the hand’s intelligence. It is not intelligent in
itself, but the brain helps it to move and it seems almost to possess a life of
its own. There are wonders that act in such a way to make things search for,
and find, and touch one another. These are synergies: one prodding the other…
Of course, it
is not only a juxtaposition – I listen to a piece and
then, fresh from this, I write a poem which comments on it. It is emotional
contact, non-verbal communication, an intuitive link, analysis and the
synthesis at the same time (capacities of poetry itself).
This is true synergy. You are always a sort of medium
which – on coming in direct contact with the things art stirs up – hooks things
to one another and makes them interact. This characteristic of yours is
immediately evident, just looking at you.
Vincenzo,
thank you for having sustained with words, my research for synergies. The last
part of our session solicited a homage to Atlas, which I would like to offer:
Upheaval
Of the drop
that colors the clod
Alternating
psalters with fujaras.
Revivals
and wind-flute above the hills.
Translation by
Yolanda Rillorta