Angelo Branduardi
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Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian
folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...
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folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...
singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece.


Biography

Branduardi was born in
Cuggiono Cuggiono ( lmo, Cugiònn ) is a small Italian town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Milan, west of Milan on the Motorway A4 to Turin, gate of Marcallo-Mesero. American baseball player Yogi Berra's parents were from there. Italian sing ...
, a small town in the
province of Milan The Province of Milan ( it, Provincia di Milano) was a province in the Lombardy region, Italy. Its capital was the city of Milan. The area of the former province is highly urbanized, with more than 2,000 inhabitants/km2, the third highest populati ...
, but early moved with the family to
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
. He was educated as a classical violinist in the
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
music conservatory,
Niccolò Paganini Niccolò (or Nicolò) Paganini (; 27 October 178227 May 1840) was an Italian violinist and composer. He was the most celebrated violin virtuoso of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique. His 24 Caprices f ...
. At the age of 18, he composed the music for the ''Confessioni di un malandrino'' (''Hooligan's Confession'') by
Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...
. He is married to Luisa Zappa, who wrote the lyrics for many of his songs. They have two daughters, Sarah and Maddalena, both musicians.


Works


The beginnings

Branduardi's first album was never released, and resulted from a co-operation with
Maurizio Fabrizio Maurizio Fabrizio (born 16 March 1952) is an Italian composer, conductor, arranger, producer, musician and singer-songwriter. Life and career Born in Milan, after studying at the conservatory in 1969 Fabrizio became a member of the La Scala orc ...
, composer and gifted performer. The first released album, ''Angelo Branduardi '74'' was arranged with
Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a Grammy Award-winning British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Sha ...
.


The minstrel

''La Luna'' ("The Moon"), including ''"Hooligan's Confession"'' (translation of a poem by
Esenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin ( rus, Сергей Александрович Есенин, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪtɕ jɪˈsʲenʲɪn; ( 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one o ...
) and the fine, delicate song giving the LP its name, was a prelude to the success of the following works. ''Alla fiera dell'Est'' (English edition: ''Highdown Fair'', 1976) was Branduardi's first vastly popular album, followed by ''La Pulce d'Acqua'' (English version, ''Fables and Fantasies'' 1978) and ''Cogli la prima mela'' (English edition, ''Life is the Only Teacher'', 1979). Lyrics for the English versions of Branduardi's albums were written by
Peter Sinfield Peter John Sinfield (born 27 December 1943) is an English poet and songwriter. He is best known as the co-founder and former lyricist of King Crimson, whose debut album ''In the Court of the Crimson King'' is considered one of the first and mos ...
, also lyricist for
King Crimson King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
and
Emerson, Lake & Palmer Emerson, Lake & Palmer (informally known as ELP) were an English progressive rock supergroup formed in London in 1970. The band consisted of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Greg Lake (vocals, bass, guitar, producer) and Carl Palmer (drums, percus ...
. In those albums, Branduardi exploited themes and patterns from early music, mostly
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
and early
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
. The song "Alla fiera dell'Est" ("At the Eastern Fair") is still popular among Italians of every age, who test themselves committing to memory all the fable-like, repetitive lyrics. It is based on an old Jewish song in Aramaic ( "Chad Gadya" – One Kid Goat) sung at the end of the
Passover Seder The Passover Seder (; he, סדר פסח , 'Passover order/arrangement'; yi, סדר ) is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew c ...
night service. In 2007 "Alla fiera dell'Est" was covered by Israeli singer
Shlomi Shabat Shlomi Shabat ( he, שלומי שבת; born August 30, 1954) is an Israeli vocalist and musician. He is of Turkish Eastern Sephardim, Eastern Sephardic Jewish origin. Early life Shabat was born in Yehud, Israel, to a family of Sephardic Jewish ...
for a Passover time commercial for cellphone company
Pelephone Pelephone ( he, פלאפון, , lit. "wonder phone") is a mobile network operator in Israel, and also the first company to offer mobile telephony services in Israel. Due to this, the brand-name "Pelephone" became the genericized trademark for mobi ...
. Lyrics had a broad spectrum of inspiration: a
Danse macabre The ''Danse Macabre'' (; ) (from the French language), also called the Dance of Death, is an artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. The ''Danse Macabre'' consists of the dead, or a personification of ...
, the theme of Satan's mistress, Chinese, Native American and
Druidic A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...
tradition, the apocryphal Gospels. Concertation owes much to the talents of
Maurizio Fabrizio Maurizio Fabrizio (born 16 March 1952) is an Italian composer, conductor, arranger, producer, musician and singer-songwriter. Life and career Born in Milan, after studying at the conservatory in 1969 Fabrizio became a member of the La Scala orc ...
, and exploits unusual instruments for pop music:
dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...
,
Pan flute A pan flute (also known as panpipes or syrinx) is a musical instrument based on the principle of the closed tube, consisting of multiple pipes of gradually increasing length (and occasionally girth). Multiple varieties of pan flutes have been ...
,
lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lute" can ref ...
,
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
, among others – mixed with more standard guitar, bass and drums.


Experimentation and crisis

Subsequent albums showed an increasing desire towards experimentation and differentiation. ''Branduardi'' (1981) had a more intimate tone, ''Cercando l'oro'' ("Searching for Gold", 1983) had very sophisticated and delicate arrangements (starts with a
String Quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...
), ''Branduardi canta Yeats'' ("Branduardi sings Yeats", 1985) was a tribute to
William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
. ''Pane e rose'' ("Bread and Roses", 1988) was a still inspired, but increasingly dark picture of life and death. ''Il Ladro'' ("The Thief", 1991) marked a very delicate point of Branduardi's life, edging on depression, echoed in a dark, almost cemeterial, style of singing. The album ''Si può fare'' ("It Can Be Done", 1993) brought back Branduardi to normality, but the artist is now struggling to evade the ''
minstrel A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
'' character which was now too tight for him. In 1994, he published ''Domenica e lunedì'' ("Sunday and Monday"), dedicated to the Italian poet
Franco Fortini Franco Fortini was the pseudonym of Franco Lattes (10 September 1917 – 28 November 1994), an Italian poet, writer, translator, essayist, literary critic and Marxist intellectual. Life Franco Fortini was born in Florence, the son of a Jewish ...
who was one of Branduardi's professors in his school years.


New directions

In 1996, during the celebrations for the restoration of the Duomo of
Spilimbergo Spilimbergo (german: Spengenberg; fur, Spilimberc or ) is a ''comune'' with a population of 11,961, located in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, in northern Italy, on the right side of the Tagliamento river. The town is notable as the home of the ...
after the catastrophic 1976 earthquake, he recorded the album ''Futuro antico'' ("Ancient Future"), in which he, as an early
Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
musician, keeps reusing, mixing, wording pre-existing material along with his own. This experience, accomplished with the aid of musicians and musicologists, continued with ''Futuro antico II'' and ''Futuro antico III''. The same year he performed "Te vojo 'bbene assaje" ("I love you so much" in
Neapolitan Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to: Geography and history * Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city * Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
) with Italian pop singer
Eugenio Finardi Eugenio Finardi (born July 16, 1952) is an Italian rock singer, songwriter, guitarist and keyboardist. Life Eugenio Finardi was born in Milan, Italy, on July 16, 1952, in a musical family: his father Enzo was an Italian music sound engineer a ...
. In 1998, Branduardi teamed up with Italian stand-up comedian and writer
Giorgio Faletti Giorgio Faletti (; 25 November 1950 – 4 July 2014) was an Italian writer, musician, actor and comedian. Born in Asti, Piedmont, he lived on Elba Island. His books have been translated into 25 languages and published with great success in Euro ...
for '' Il dito e la luna'' ("The Finger and the Moon"). He subsequently reworked earlier musical themes with writings of and about St. Francis to produce ''L'infinitamente piccolo'' ("The Infinitely Small"); he wrote a musical on the same topic (''Francesco''). In 2003, a new album, ''Altro ed altrove'' ("Other and Elsewhere"), in a time period marked by a rise of racism and intolerance, brought together (mainly) love stories from several cultures. For the last 10 years, his band, on stage, has been composed of Davide Raggazoni (drums), Michele Ascolese (guitars), Leonardo Pieri (keyboards) and Stefano Olivato (bass and harmonica), or with
Ellade Bandini Ellade Bandini (born 17 July 1946, Ferrara, Italy) is an Italian drummer. Bandini started his prolific career at the young age of 17. Among his notable collaborations in pop music and jazz are Francesco Guccini, Fabrizio De André, Paolo Conte, ...
(drums) and Maurizio Fabrizio (guitars and keyboards).


Discography

* ''
Angelo Branduardi Angelo Branduardi (born 12 February 1950) is an Italian folk/folk rock singer-songwriter and composer who scored relative success in Italy and European countries such as France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and Greece. Biography Branduardi wa ...
'' (1974) * '' La luna'' (1975 – French edition: ''Confession d'un malandrin'', 1981) * ''
Alla fiera dell'est ''Alla fiera dell'est'' is an album by the Italian singer-songwriter Angelo Branduardi. It was released in 1976 by Polydor and won the prize of Italian music critics in the same year. In 1978 it was released in a French version with the title "A la ...
'' (1976, Italian Music Critics's Award – French edition: ''A la foire de l'est'' – English edition: ''Highdown Fair'', 1978) * ''
La pulce d'acqua ("The Water Flea") is an album by Italian singer-songwriter Angelo Branduardi. It was released in 1977 by Polydor. A French edition, entitled , was released in 1979; an English edition, entitled ''Fables and Fantasies'' and with lyrics written b ...
'' (1977 'La demoiselle" – French Edition: English edition: ''Fables and fantasies'', 1980) * '' Cogli la prima mela'' (1979 ) * (1980 – French Edition: ''va ou le vent te mene'' avec Maurizio Fabrizio, English Edition :"Life is the only teacher") * '' Gulliver, la luna e altri disegni'' (1980) * ''
Concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...
'' (1980, live collection, 3LP, released on 2CD in 1992) * '' Branduardi '81'' (1981) * '' Cercando l'oro'' (1983 – French edition: ''Tout l'or du monde'') * ''
State buoni se potete ''State buoni se potete'' is a List of Italian films of 1983, 1983 Cinema of Italy, Italian Historical film, historical comedy-drama film written and directed by Luigi Magni. The film is loosely based on real life events of Saint Philip Neri, Fili ...
'' (1983, soundtrack for the movie with the same name) * '' Branduardi canta Yeats'' (1986) * '' Poets in New York (Poetas en Nueva York)'' (contributor,
Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
tribute album, 1986) * '' Pane e rose'' (1988 – French edition: ''Du pain et des roses'') * ''
Secondo Ponzio Pilato ''Secondo Ponzio Pilato'' (or "According to Ponzio Pilato", which is the traditional way of attributing Gospels authors' names) is a 1987 Italian historical comedy-drama film written and directed by Luigi Magni. The film is an example of Magnis' ...
'' (1988) * '' Il ladro'' (1990) * '' Musiche da film'' (1992) * ''
Si può fare Si può fare may refer to: * ''Si può fare'' (album) * ''Si può fare'' (film) {{disambiguation ...
'' (1992 – French edition: ''Ça se fait'') * '' Domenica e lunedì'' (1994 – French edition: ''La menace'', 1995) * '' Camminando camminando'' (1996, live collection) * '' Futuro antico I'' (1996) * '' Il dito e la luna'' (1998, lyrics by
Giorgio Faletti Giorgio Faletti (; 25 November 1950 – 4 July 2014) was an Italian writer, musician, actor and comedian. Born in Asti, Piedmont, he lived on Elba Island. His books have been translated into 25 languages and published with great success in Euro ...
) * '' Studio Collection'' (1998, collection) * '' Futuro antico II'' (1999) * '' L'infinitamente piccolo'' (2000) * '' Futuro antico III'' (2002) * '' Altro ed altrove'' (2003) * '' The Platinum Collection'' (2005, collection) * '' Futuro antico IV'' (2007) * '' Senza Spina'' (2009) * ''
Futuro antico VI A Futuro house, or Futuro Pod, is a round, prefabrication, prefabricated house designed by Finland, Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, of which fewer than 100 were built during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The shape, reminiscent of a flying sa ...
'' (2009) * '' Futuro antico VII'' (2010) * '' Così è se mi pare'' (2011) * '' Il rovo e la rosa - ballate d'amore e morte'' (2013) * '' Futuro antico VIII'' (2014) * '' Da Francesco a Francesco'' (2016)


References


External links

*
Branduardi.info – reportages, photos, videos

Si può fare – Official web radio with complete discography and artist's commentary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Branduardi, Angelo 1950 births Living people People from Cuggiono Italian male singer-songwriters David di Donatello winners Nastro d'Argento winners 20th-century Italian male singers 21st-century Italian male singers