Musical Humanism Day: May 9th in Barletta
- Fondazione ILMC
- Apr 28, 2023
- 5 min read
The Day of Musical Humanism , a meeting to be held on Tuesday, May 9th at 6:00 pm in the Sala Rossa of the Swabian Castle in Barletta as part of Maggio dei Libri , a series of book, literary, and cultural events organized by the Municipality of Barletta (qualified as a "City that Reads"), is dedicated to the musical literature produced in civilian and military captivity during the Second World War. The meeting, moderated by Professor Ottavio Di Grazia (Suor Orsola Benincasa University), will see the participation of Francesco Lotoro , President of the Foundation Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature (committed for over thirty years to researching and disseminating music written in concentration camps), the Mayor of Barletta , Cosimo Damiano Cannito , the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Barletta, Oronzo Cilli , and the General Director of the Department of Tourism, Cultural Economy, and Territorial Development - Puglia Region, Aldo Patruno. Musical performances by: Lemuria String Quartet , Angelo De Leonardis (baritone), and the Pugliesi Foundation for Music (FPM) Male Choir , conducted by Maestro Nicola Petruzzella . Admission is free, subject to availability.
The meeting will also be enriched by the presence in the Red Room of the relatives of composers Charles Abeles (his nephew Peter Koppitz ), Arturo Coppola (his son Giancarlo Coppola ), Cesare Savino (the Marinelli-Savino family) and Paul Chenevier (his daughter Nelly Quercia ) – musicians who survived the civilian and military internment camps – who donated to the ILMC Foundation musical manuscripts written by their relatives in captivity and other materials from the camps.
The music written in the Camps is therefore the theme of this meeting, which we have chosen to call Musical Humanism Day because the approach to this musical literature must be, first and foremost, human, even before being artistic and professional. We must delve into the depths of the Man who produced it to grasp its profound, and not merely artistic, meanings. Humanism has always chronologically followed periods of darkness, confusion, and the loss of vital balance and the most constructive projects of a society. Therefore, this music—despite being now eighty years old—is a beacon, a point of reference for future generations.
THE COMPOSERS
The day after the infamous Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938), the Austrian-Jewish composer Charles Abeles was arrested and deported to Dachau. In May 1939, his wife managed to get him released on the condition that Abeles leave the Reich. They expatriated to Italy, but on July 28, 1940, Abeles was arrested in Milan as a suspected foreigner and deported to the Alberobello internment camp, opened by the fascist regime after Italy's entry into the war. In Alberobello, Abeles was allowed to leave the camp during the day to go to the city and give music lessons or study piano at the Nardone family residence. It was in the Nardone home that the Valzer-Rondò Felicità op. 282 was born; subsequently, Abeles was transferred to Ferramonti di Tarsia (Cosenza) and finally to Campagna (Salerno). After the liberation of the camp by the Allies, Abeles emigrated to the United States but returned to Vienna in June 1946. He died on April 17, 1987. Peter Koppitz , Abeles's nephew, donated the manuscript of the Valzer-Rondò Felicità to the ILMC Foundation and will be present on May 9 in Barletta; on that occasion, the Lemuria string quartet will perform Valzer-Rondò in a version for this instrumental ensemble; furthermore, the Male Voice Choir of the Pugliesi Foundation for Music (FPM) , directed by Maestro Nicola Petruzzella , will perform the world premiere of Wenn sich die Nacht auf Ferramonti for male choir, written by Abeles in the Ferramonti camp in Calabria.
ARTURO COPPOLA was born on March 9, 1913, in Sorrento. In 1932, he graduated in piano from the Naples Conservatory. He moved to Treviso to serve as an officer in the military, and in 1939 he graduated in choral singing from the Venice Conservatory. Taken prisoner by the Germans in the aftermath of the armistice of September 8, 1943, he was transferred to Stalag 333 Benjaminow. He became friends with the Italian writer Giovannino Guareschi. Later transferred to Stalag XA Sandbostel and finally to Wietzendorf, he wrote Elegia for cello and piano, Polka Merkatall for orchestra, and Treviso for male choir. He also wrote songs (Dai dai Bepin, Carlotta, Magri ma sani) and his masterpiece, La Favola di Natale, for narrator, choir, and orchestra, based on Guareschi's text. He died in Treviso on March 19, 1998. Giancarlo Coppola, Arturo's son, donated the manuscript of The Christmas Tale and other works written by his father in the Sandbostel Stalag to the ILMC Foundation and will be present on May 9 in Barletta; on that occasion, the Lemuria String Quartet will perform two pieces from The Christmas Tale .
On November 27, 1941, after the fall of Gondar and the surrender of Italian troops stationed in Italian East Africa to British troops, soldier-musician CESARE SAVINO, born in 1908 in Sammichele di Bari, was taken prisoner and interned at Huyton Camp (Liverpool). A stringed instrument virtuoso and an excellent violinist and mandolinist, Savino wrote a 59-page music notebook and another smaller one; he took his violin with him to Huyton Camp; he died in 1989 in his hometown. The Marinelli-Savino family donated to the ILMC Foundation the musical manuscripts written by Cesare Savino in Huyton Camp, along with his violin, currently being restored.
In June 1940, the composer PAUL CHENEVIER , who had volunteered in the 4th Regiment of Engineers in Grenoble and was promoted to corporal, was taken prisoner, interned in Stalag IXA Ziegenhein and assigned to various Kommandos; he wrote Marches for Kommandos 405, 1350 and 1404, Conseils à l'Enfant blond, Cœur captive, Le retour d'un père, Un château d'horreur , the vaudeville Barnabe , Tampon du capiston , the comic operetta Ombre en conserve , and died in 2015. Nelly Quercia, Chenevier's daughter, donated musical manuscripts and typescripts written by her father in the Stalag to the ILMC Foundation ; the baritone Angelo De Leonardis , accompanied by the Lemuria String Quartet , will perform the Italian premiere of Chenevier's Coeur captive .
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