The Eclectic Beating: Contemporary Music For Chitarra Battente – Marcello De Carolis

The tracks on this CD faithfully recount the project started some years ago by Marcello De Carolis, a young classical guitar virtuoso who followed a typical course of academic studies and has a brilliant start to his concert career. Attracted by the popular culture of his region of birth and residence, Lucania, he did not have far to go to discover the sound of the chitarra battente and become enthralled by it. An instrument reminiscent of the music of village festivals, both in song and dance, the chitarra battente music – no less Calabrian than Lucanian – goes far back in time to an era of interwoven history and myth. Even with certain documents that precisely reference certain luthiers who crafted it, such as the legendary masters of the De Bonis dynasty of Bisignano, the musical identity of the chitarra battente remains enveloped in legend. Completely devoid of a cultured repertoire, however, it was never merely an instrument of the common people; indeed, a few surviving examples dating back to the last century do boast very fine workmanship, but as for written music nothing is known.
Francesco Loccisano is the virtuoso who delved into the art of the chitarra battente, searching in the field for the songs and dances that still flourish in folk festivals today. In his art, he has embraced a legacy otherwise at risk of extinction and, as such, his recovery of this local instrument is a gesture that propagates cultural heritage, as well as a strictly musical venture. Recently, the Conservatory of Nocera Terinese (in the Province of Cosenza) established for him a course in chitarra battente, just like the Conservatory of Cordoba did by establishing a professorship for teaching the flamenco guitar. In this collection, De Carolis joins Loccisano in playing two pieces that enhance the value of the folk instrument, albeit with the latter artist not evoking the music commonly heard at country fairs, rather, he forces the boundaries of his music and instrument by proposing a version that is updated, yet reminiscent of their origins.
In resolutely moving towards a celebration of the chitarra battente as a concert instrument, admittedly with folk origins but with a broad development prospect in the cultured repertoire, in one of his versions of a piece by the famous jazz pianist Chick Corea, Marcello De Carolis projects the instrument into a completely new musical universe. The Iberian flavour of the piece is mediated by a refined musical intellect that fully acknowledges the Hispanic orientation of the French masters of the early twentieth century. Indeed, it would even be perfectly natural for De Carolis to foray into the genre of jazz. Perhaps it is just a matter of time.