Re: Pasolini

Re: Pasolini
Studio album by Stefano Battaglia
Released May 15, 2007
Recorded April and July 2005
Artesuono Studio, Udine
Genre Jazz
Length 118:32
Label ECM
ECM 1998/1999
Producer Manfred Eicher, Stefano Battaglia
Stefano Battaglia chronology
Raccolto
(2005)		 Re: Pasolini
(2007)		 Pastorale
(2010)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic [1]

Re: Pasolini is a double album by Italian pianist Stefano Battaglia, recorded in 2005 and released in 2007 on the ECM label. The album, with jazz instrumentation, is dedicated to the figure of filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini. The cover artwork features a still from the film, The Gospel According to Matthew (1964), considered one of his masterworks.

The compositions

The album is split over two discs: the first one features a well-planned, slow-tempo track list; the second shows more subdued and improvised hues, and the pieces become more lackadaisical.

"Canzone di Laura Betti", as the title suggests, is dedicated to actress Laura Betti. "Totò e Ninetto" was named after actors Totò and Ninetto Davoli: the title refers to Pasolini's film, The Hawks and the Sparrows, in which the actors play two priests who preach whilst prowling around aimlessly. "Canto Popolare" is an aria which pays homage to Italian traditional folk songs. "Fevrar" (February), refers to an early poem in Friulan dialect by Pasolini; Battaglia defines the composition an homage "to the undefinable light of Friuli, a dance inspired by its borders and boundaries." "Il Sogno di una Cosa" ("The Dream of a Thing") is a nostalgic look at an archaic Italy now vanished, whilst "Teorema" refers to Pasolini's film of the same name. "Callas" refers to the noted opera singer, Maria Callas, who took part in Pasolini's Medea. Originally, the piece was to have featured piano, strings and percussion. The track that closes the first disc is "Pietra Lata", named after a neighbourhood of Rome. The song expressed the Rome described in the works of Rossellini and Pasolini,

"where the city is reveled in its vital figure through its metamorphosis: the biting glow of the Roman sky on bridges stones, the bright prisons of car's metal, the scorching and almost oily dust of the summer's breeze, the rain-soaked streets at night, the asphalt mirroring the reflections of the windows and the street lamps[...], a melancholic, merciless Rome."

The second disc opens with "Lyra", a hymn to Pasolini and his poetic side. The composition is a series of eight brief, free-form variations - originally, fifteen pieces were recorded. "Meditazione Orale" ("Oral Meditation") is based on an audio recording featuring music by Ennio Morricone and the original text of the same name issued in 1974, while "Scritti Corsari" refers to Pasolini's fighting side, his approach towards politics and ethic. Similarly, "Setaccio" focuses on the figure of the young Pasolini developing his artistic interests. "Mimesis, Divina Mimesis" represents "the dialogue, the fight between what is real and its mimesis." The title also refers to Pasolini's Divina Mimesis, a rereading of Dante's Divine Comedy. "Ostia" is named after the town near Rome, where Pasolini was mysteriously and brutally murdered on November 1, 1975. The piece wants to depict "Pasolini's last heartbeats, a soundtrack to that violent and gory tragedy." Ultimately, "Pasolini" resulted from Battagia's fusion of two pieces, one inspired by Pasolini's playing soccer. This was the first piece written by Battaglia to honour the filmmaker.[2]

Track listing

All compositions by Stefano Battaglia, unless otherwise noted.

Disc One

  1. "Canzone di Laura Betti" - 5:00
  2. "Totò e Ninetto" - 4:47
  3. "Canto Popolare" - 5:04
  4. "Cosa Sono le Nuvole" (Modugno, Pasolini) - 7:15
  5. "Fevrar" - 9:10
  6. "Il Sogno di una Cosa" - 4:49
  7. "Teorema" - 10:41
  8. "Callas" - 5:07
  9. "Pietra Lata" - 10:08

Disc Two

  1. "Lyra I" - 1:12
  2. "Lyra II" 3:34
  3. "Meditazione Orale" - 5:24
  4. "Lyra III" - 1:59
  5. "Lyra IV" - 2:01
  6. "Scritti Corsari" - 1:22
  7. "Lyra V" - 2:20
  8. "Epigrammi" - 2:27
  9. "Lyra VI" - 1:33
  10. "Setaccio" - 2:20
  11. "Lyra VII" - 4:07
  12. "Mimesis, Divina Mimesis" - 7:08
  13. "Lyra VIII" - 5:35
  14. "Ostia" - 11:22
  15. "Pasolini" - 4:07

Personnel

On Disc One:

Disc Two:

References

  1. ↑ Re: Pasolini at AllMusic
  2. ↑ Original liner notes by Stefano Battaglia
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