Efferent Verb Team:
Meet Claudio Passilongo, the winner of Voices, Vol. I, an Italian composer, pianist, and organist born in Naples. He now resides in Skive, a Danish town on the West Coast. Focused on his craft, Claudio spends his time composing, playing instruments, and seeking new ways to express himself.
Claudio views composing as an emotional and intellectual journey through the vast world of sounds, leading him to unforeseen places. He composes his own music for his community, reminiscent of historical musicians like Bach and Frescobaldi. As an organist and choir leader, his works are frequently performed, a rarity in modern times.
Passionate about the piano, Claudio performs solo and with bands. His recent tours took him to Tel Aviv, Hungary, Italy, Denmark, and Santa Monica, LA. Immerse yourself in this interview to learn more about Claudio Passilongo’s musical world.
Interviewer: Having started composing at the age of 9, how has your early introduction to music influenced your composing style and overall outlook on music?
Claudio: When a musician begins to compose at such an early stage it is quite obvious that he is influenced by the music and the artistic life that orbits his world, which in that case could be limited and is mostly represented by his family and school. In my case, I was lucky. I was born into a musical family. My uncle, for example, who was a model for me, was an organist at the Cathedral of Ferrara and so classical music came into my life very early.
My compositions were at that time very spontaneous – my uncle called them “naive,” and he was probably right since I had no consciousness of the technical tools necessary to compose. He, along with my former teachers, represented the Accademia, the rules, to which I was deeply both attracted and pushed back at the same time. This kind of contrast between what is considered to be the Accademia and my instinctive way of working on the sounds shaped my first years of composing and probably influenced my overall outlook on music. Later, with experience, I learned that I could manage both, in various degrees, and combine them if necessary. In his “The Naked Ape,” Desmond Morris states: In all exploratory behavior, whether artistic or scientific, there is the ever-present battle between the neophilic and neophobic urges. The former drives us on to new experiences and makes us crave for novelty. The latter holds us back and makes us take refuge in the familiar. (…) If we lost our neophilia, we would stagnate. If we lost our neophobia, we would rush headlong into disaster. I agree.
Interviewer: Can you share some insights on your experience studying composition with Salvatore Sciarrino and orchestration with Andrea Portera? How have these experiences shaped your career as a composer and musician?
Claudio: Contemporary music has been the subject of intense study for me. This music – rather, these musics – may have its own code that could be not always accessible at first glance. I mean, sometimes you may need a key to solve it. And that key can be gained in two ways: with great instinct or with a deep knowledge of the methodology involved in the composition process. This intellectual aspect has an incredible appeal to me. That’s why I decided to spend some time with a one-in-a-million Maestro such as Sciarrino, who has his own inimitable music style and language.
Andrea Portera helped me to grasp the secrets of many of the contemporary extended techniques, which are nowadays very common among the new generation of composers. His knowledge of orchestral writing was a model to me, at a certain stage of my writing.
Another important step I took was moving to Denmark. When I was admitted to the Danish Composer Society (DKF), I had the chance to be in contact with some of the greatest names of the Nordic music scene, such as Bent Soerensen, who was at that time the President of the society, and Hans Abrahamsen. I have never studied with them, but that musical environment gave me further stimuli to evolve my style.
Today, I feel and find myself far away from them all, but I am grateful to have met them.
Interviewer: As an accomplished jazz pianist and organist, what attracted you to both the classical and jazz worlds? How do you strike a balance between the two when creating your compositions?
Claudio: As stated above, I was born in a Classical music milieu, so it was completely natural to me that I would compose music with the Great European musical tradition as my guiding star: Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven were my daily bread. Jazz appeared to me later, when I was about twenty. Thelonious Monk’s swing had an incredible impact on my “body and soul,” and from then on, it never left me. As a performer, improvisation is the great bulk of my daytime job. The instinctiveness and emotional appeal of improvising are of paramount importance in my musical life. When I sit with papers to compose a Symphony, my approach is different. It is more meditative… I can spend a day or two on a single bar… But the emotional aspect of music must remain. In my opinion, the best music should offer a good balance of intellectual appeal and emotional meaning. If it lacks one of these features, the result is, at best, funny entertainment, or at worst, a jigsaw puzzle for frustrated mathematicians.
Interviewer: Claudio, how did your involvement with Roskildes Åbne Værksted affect you, and what do you see as the most significant outcome from your collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde?
Claudio: This experience was very funny and interesting. I had to prepare a score to be played at the museum. A violinist and a guitarist played my “Circle of Death and Rebirth” for the guests of the museum, who happened to be our audience as well. After the first performance, the audience was allowed to communicate their impressions to me, so that I could decide to re-arrange the piece on the spot for a new version to be played… And this lasted for a couple of hours… It was a kind of psychological experiment, to “measure” the degree of appreciation of a musical language from people who were somewhat interested in Modern Art.
Interviewer: Could you please share more details about your experience leading the Music Project with the Department of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Naples, Federico II? How did you manage to integrate music, mathematics, and physics within this project?
Claudio: That project was called RISMA and was extraordinary. The collaboration with the Department of Mathematics and Physics started thanks to a dear friend, Paolo Fergola, a Professor of Math, whose culture and love for music were unmeasurable. It started as a simple music class that I had to hold to the math students but then evolved into research on the relationships between the frequencies (harmonics), their overlapping, and the perception of dissonances and consonances. The project stopped abruptly when unfortunately Paolo died.
Interviewer: Your music is well-known internationally. Which specific composition or project are you most proud of, and is there a special story behind its creation or performance?
Claudio: If you ask a painter “What is the most beautiful picture you have painted?”, he will most likely answer “The one I haven’t painted yet”. The same goes for me. But having to make a choice among my works I would say that my Stabat Mater represents me most. This work has never been performed, but that score won a prize in Serbia. It is a work for Cori, Orchestra and two soloists, and represents at its best my idea of composing. Here I have gathered both the Avant-Garde world with the Tradition. Its complete name is Stabat Mater, – ossia del dolore universale, because it is a commemoration of all the grief suffered by all the mothers who have lost a son. Although the text is from Iacopone da Todi (at least he is the one to whom the text is attributed) it wants to be a Universal Musical “homage” to the suffering- My Stabat Mater embodies what Gustav Mahler once said, citing Thomas Moore: “Tradition is not worshipping of the ashes, but the preservation of fire”.
This quotation became my idea of composing too. One of my main goals is to communicate with the audience, without flattering it. And I think that Stabat mater reflects that spirit.
Interviewer: Your compositions have won several awards and have been performed internationally. How do these achievements influence your approach to music, and do you feel any pressure to continually create innovative work in response to your success?
Claudio: I have to admit that I do not know if these achievements have had any effect on my composing at all. I am happy of course to have my music performed, get prizes, and be appreciated by the public. Maybe they have affected my thinking at an unconscious level, but I do not consider them when I compose. About the pressure: yes, I feel it every time I create something new. This pressure is caused by myself first and foremost, because I try to be the fiercest critical I could meet. Besides, I feel that sometimes I have so much to say that it would be hard to narrow the path I am going through. A promenade in the garden sometimes saves the whole work.
Interviewer: With an array of musical styles within your compositions, such as Stabat Mater, Barock-in’ the harpsichord, and Symphonic Dystopia, what inspires you to explore different genres, and how do you decide which style best suits a particular project or idea?
Claudio: I am by nature a very curious man. I am interested in languages, linguistics, and history and I read a lot of divulgation science, so managing the multiplicity is somewhat natural to me.
This approach that I have toward life is the same one I have toward music. I am curious about all the musical styles I come in contact with.
What is of paramount importance to me is to establish a communicative relationship with the other. No one is an island. Creating communicative work is what I aim to do. And this communication should happen both via the intellectual aspects of music and the emotional perspective too.
Sometimes I have in mind a particular world that I want to explore. Other times, I do not know where I am going, and that is thrilling, because, it is like pushing you forward, and outside of your comfort zone.
Interviewer: Your experience includes composing for different mediums, such as music for shows like “Alberto” by Giuseppe Bonifati and film soundtracks like Divina by Alberto Castiglione. How has working on diverse projects shaped your artistic vision, and do you have a favorite medium for expressing your musical ideas?
Claudio: When I compose music destined to be a part of a bigger project, such as a movie or a theatrical play, I am well aware of the fact that Music is just one part – an important one, but only one- of the whole, and it should serve the cause…
Nevertheless, the greatest effort consists of preserving my personality. Both Alberto and Giuseppe gave me a lot of freedom in that respect, so it was somewhat quite easy for me to create something that would fit their works.
The images, the narrative, the stories, and the characterization of the characters on stage are exciting stimuli for those who want to deal with “multimedia” art forms. After all, both cinema and theatre can be considered multisensory experiences, and I am glad that my music is often part of that.
I am really excited about the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded artists. I have a strong passion for composing, particularly in choral and instrumental pieces. As an ambitious composer, one of my dreams is to find a world premiere for my Stabat Mater.
Contact:
Email: claudiopassilongo.composer@gmail.com
Tel: 0045 5015 4661
Address: Claudio Passilongo, Sofievej 7 – 7800 Skive, Denmark
Website: www.claudiopassilongo.com