Antonio Virgilio Savona (21 December 1919 – 27 August 2009) was an Italian composer, arranger, and singer in the Italian vocal group, the Quartetto Cetra.Mario Luzzatto Fegiz, Corriere della Sera (29 August 2009)
Addio a Virgilio Savona, ideologo del Quartetto Cetra.
Retrieved 13 December 2012.

Biography

Savona was born in Palermo, Italy. His artistic career started very early. In 1926, aged 6, he began studying music. Two years later, he joined a choir and at the age of 10, he debuted in a radio broadcast playing a piece on a piano during a children's program. After high-school, Savona enrolled at the

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints pro ...

in Rome to study piano. In 1941, he replaced Iacopo Jacomelli in a vocal quartet called Quartetto Egie. The group changed name to Quartetto Ritmo at first, then to Quartetto Cetra one year later. On 19 August 1944 Virgilio Savona married the singer Lucia Mannucci, who later joined Quartetto Cetra to replace Enrico De Angelis, who left the group in 1947. Besides singing, Savona composed and

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

for the group. He wrote the music while Tata Giacobetti, another member of the quartet, wrote the lyrics. They collaborated for four decades and produced hundreds of songs which made up Quartetto Cetra's vast repertoire. Savona composed music and wrote scripts for radio and TV programs, stage shows and films. During the 1970s, he was active as pianist, orchestra conductor, arranger and producer. He extensively researched on folk songs. In 1971, he wrote ''Angela'', a song for

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

, Black American communist leader, innocent in prison at this time. In 70s, he published also other controversial songs, as ''Il testamento del parroco Meslier'' ("The Testament of Parson Meslier"), a violent attack on power and religion, based on the ''Testament'' of the priest and illuminist atheist philosopher Jean Meslier. In 1991, he wrote a popup book about Quartetto Cetra, published by

Sperling & Kupfer Arnoldo Mondadori Editore () is the biggest publishing company in Italy. History The company was founded in 1907 in Ostiglia by 18-year-old Arnoldo Mondadori who began his publishing career with the publication of the magazine ''Luce!''. In 1 ...

in the ''Supersound'' collection. In 2009, he passed away in Milan from complications of

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savona 1919 births 2009 deaths Musicians from Palermo Neurological disease deaths in Lombardy Deaths from Parkinson's disease Italian male songwriters 20th-century Italian male singers Male jazz musicians Quartetto Ritmo members Quartetto Cetra members Italian jazz pianists