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I have been lecturing on Musicology at the University of Palermo for about 50 years.
My interests' fileds
can be represented by a geographical metaphor
the two Poles and the Equator
of our history, of our civilization..
Namely, the music of Hellenic Antiquity
as current music
and the equator as the Renaissance
The Hellenic antiquity and the Italian Renaissance are maybe the two highest periods of our art
That period is called Renaissance because it's the renaissance of classical antiquity
and they are
particularly suitable for being studied in a place like Palermo
becuase they are two pleasant periods of music in Sicily
Since Sicily is quite discontinuous and nonlinear
in the history of music some prosperous periods alternate with
arid ones
The Hellenic antiquity represents the most prosperous period
when the greatest poets
..in that period poet and composer had the same meaning..
were used to come to Sicily
for Eschilo, to represent his tragedies
Pindaro and Bacchilide brought their "Epinici", their poems to celebrate wins at the Olympic Games
of Sicilian lords
of Diomenidi family
Then, after this prosperous period many dark centuries followed
and to have composers whose works are famous till today, in Sicily, we have to wait for the 16th century
when we experienced a period of extraordinary growth
and when the greatest composers, the most famous European composers, live in Sicily, especially in Palermo
and then the 20th century
when Palermo becomes music world capital
A series of composers who establish on the occasion of "Nuova Musica" International Weeks
held in Palermo from 1960 to 1968
and arrive the greatest composers, John Cage from U.S.,
Karlheinz Stockhausen from Germany
but Italian composers, not well-known till then,
and in particular some Sicilian composers at their debut
Francesco Pennisi is the most famous Italian composer all over the world
Salvatore Sciarrino trains in my department
in fact Palermo is unique for the fact that in the 20th century main composers study at the University rather than at the academy of music
Salvatore Sciarrino started attending institute at the age of 12
and left it at the age of 20 when became composer
after him, there was another great composer, Federico Incardona
who decided to stay in Palermo and founded a school that is successful till today, unlike Sciarrino who emigrated
As regards Renaissance composers, we published 25 great volumes collecting their works
and as regards Classical Antiquity composers, I published a book with transcriptions on stave
and I curated a recording edition
So, these musics are not only studied
but we give them new life
Our university is so prideful towards music, firstly thanks to living composers or who died young and our contemporaries
and secondly, for having revived composers' musics of 16th and 17th centuries
and musics by antique "Sicilioti", namely Greeks of Sicily.
The institute is located near here at Via Divisi, in the old town center of Palermo
When this place, this street in front of me, was opened by viceroy Marcantonio Colonna
it was called Strada Colonna
and some years later,
the most important composer of that time in Palermo Antonio Alverso
composed a duet whose title is Strada Colonna in 1596
some years after the opening of this beautiful street
that was covered by the sea at the time
Today it's about half a kilometer far from the sea
because the place where we are standing and where Nautoscopio is erected
it was built after the war, in fact under our feet there are the debris of Palermo
Palermo was the Italian city to have suffered bombing more than others
All this big area, from the street that today we call Foro Italico, Strada Colonna before, is a debris area of the destroyed town.
We hope reconstruction will go on and especially a reconstruction of culture and civilization rather than of stones.