The ILMC Foundation brings Pietro Maggioli's music back to life

After 70 years, the ILMC Foundation is reviving the works written by Pietro Maggioli during his military internment at Stalag XA Sandbostel. In 1935, composer Pietro Maggioli (pictured in black and white), former organist at the Mother Church of Pesaro, moved to Rovereto. Taken prisoner by German troops following the armistice of September 8, 1943, he was transferred to Stalag 333 Benjaminow and later to Stalag XA Sandbostel.

In Sandbostel he wrote the symphonic poem Cantico delle Creature (subtitled Lauda Francescana ) for soloists, male choir and orchestra, which was performed in the Stalag on 19 November 1944 as part of literary and religious events on St. Francis of Assisi organised by military chaplains starting on 4 October 1944; in Sandbostel Maggioli also wrote Preghiera del Prigioniero for soloists, male choir and orchestra and Missa captivorum for male choir and organ (lost).

After the war, Maggioli returned to Rovereto and in 1952 moved to Rome; he died there in 1963.

The manuscripts of both works were unfortunately lost; dear Diego Maggioli, son of Pietro, told me that the Canticle of the Creatures was performed in 1952 by the RAI Symphony Orchestra of Turin, while the Prisoner's Prayer was performed in 1956 by the RAI Symphony Orchestra of Rome.

Following further research at the RAI Music Archives in Turin, I recovered the vocal and piano reduction of the Canticle of the Creatures, which, while not the actual score of the opera, constituted a huge step forward in research on Maggioli. I noted the beauty of the work, sacred in the most sublime sense of the term, of solid architecture.

Maggioli's Canticle of the Creatures uses the original text by St. Francis of Assisi entirely, while the singing—distributed between tenor, baritone, and male choir—has a neo-Romantic feel and a broad orchestral scope, with an estimated orchestral strength of approximately 40 (forty) members.

However, the reduction of a work cannot restore the beauty and colors of the score in its entirety, other materials were needed to arrive at a draft of the work as close as possible to how the Author wrote it; the opportunity happily arose last April during a research trip to Rome as part of the FUTURE MEMORIES – 100 Viaggi project financially supported by the Puglia Region.

After Diego's death a few years ago, all that remained was hope for further research into his material. Thanks to the wonderful collaboration of Pia and Patrizia Maggioli, Diego's widow and daughter, we unexpectedly unearthed old Pyral discs (master discs) containing recordings of Cantico delle Creature, Preghiera del Prigioniero, and other works Maggioli wrote in captivity (the discs are in good condition).

The recovery of the Pyral discs was crucial because it finally allowed the reconstruction from phonographic sources of scores whose paper supports had been lost. After painstaking cleaning of the Pyral discs and meticulous loading of the original phonographic material onto modern media by Tommy Cavalieri of Sorriso Studios in Bari—now established as an invaluable trusted technician of the ILMC Foundation—we finally recovered the phonographic materials for all the works Maggioli wrote during his internment at Sandbostel.

As Tommy Cavalieri stated, “the records were washed with purified demineralized distilled water of the highest quality. The work was carried out with analog transfer from a direct-drive turntable and mechanically calibrated with stroboscopic reading on a 47-ohm phono module acquired directly on the high-resolution digital station (DAWAvid Protools). The necessary physical restoration of the microgroove support was carried out, and the content of the original records was successfully reproduced in its entirety.”

These are works of unprecedented beauty, of great symphonic scope, and they convey a sense of the unjustly forgotten work of a great Italian composer like Pietro Maggioli. Now, and especially in the case of the Canticle of the Creatures —thanks also to the piano adaptation already in the possession of the ILMC Foundation—it will be even easier to reconstruct Maggioli's scores; a major step forward in the history of concentration camp music literature.

Our goal is to reconstruct Maggioli's two scores and perform them in 2025, on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II . The works must be reconstructed, scores and parts prepared, and the soloists, male choir, and orchestra prepared. We are convinced that until a work written in captivity and deportation is performed, regardless of whether its score has been recovered or reconstructed, it remains a prisoner in the concentration camp or Gulag where it was conceived and created.

Friends of the ILMC Foundation, Colleagues,

Help us complete our dream ; we've only completed the first half of the process (the most difficult and expensive part), but thanks to your help, we can complete the Maggioli operation in just a few months.

DONATE. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

ILMC FOUNDATION STAFF

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You can support the Foundation's activities by sending a donation via bank transfer to:

Institute of Concentration Camp Musical Literature

BANK: INTESA SanPaolo BRANCH: 55000 - Centralized Third Sector Banking

IBAN: IT94 Y030 6909 6061 0000 0103 682

Swift code: BCITITMM

reason: OPERATION MAGGIOLI

You can also donate via Paypal by clicking the following link: https://www.paypal.com/donate/ ...

reason (optional): MAGGIOLI OPERATION

Or by sending a check made payable to:

Institute of Concentration Camp Musical Literature

In this case, please send by registered mail to:

Institute of Concentration Camp Musical Literature

Via V. Marone 38/C - 76121 Barletta (BT) - Italy

The ILMC Foundation will issue a regular receipt.

For any problems, please write to info@fondazioneilmc.it or call/send a WhatsApp message to +39 347 7517282