DANIELE LOMBARDI
Florence, Italy (1946 • 2018)
Daniele Lombardi was a musician (composer and pianist) and a visual artist.
As a composer Daniele Lombardi always had a profound interest in a multimedia idea of art. His dual training of musical and visual studies placed him in a dimension that encompasses sign, gesture and sound.
Since the 1980s, many of his works employed mixed media, such as video, laser with optical fibers (First Concerto for piano and orchestra, S. Petersburg 1988 and Impromptwo, Colmar 1993). Already with Synergia he had experimented with the union of ideographic images and a chamber orchestra (L’Aquila and Rome, 1978). He later composed visual and sound works for multiple combinations, including:
For Agata Smeralda as Alice Through the Looking Glass, Florence 1984; Faustimmung, Florence 1987; Amor d’un’ombra e gelosia d’un’aura (Love of a shadow and jealousy of an aura), Rome 1988; Atalanta Fugiens – Rimini, Rocca Malatestiana; Milan, Castello Sforzesco, 1990; La luce (A sentimental education, The Resistance and its light), melologue based on texts by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rome 1989; L’ora alata (The winged hour), Fattoria di Celle 1992; Minotaurus 2, Prato Museo Pecci 1999; Divina.com, Dante’s plates in Florence, Florence 2004 and Ravenna Festival 2015, in a version for orchestra.
He wrote Grande Sonata, Nel giardino (Grande Sonata, In the Garden) for 12 pianos, followed byTre Sinfonie and Threnodia for the victims 9/11 for 21 pianos, which have had 16 different performances since 1987 (Florence, Milan, Rome, Paris, Berlin, New York, Naples, Genoa etc.).
As a pianist he carried out extensive work on the music of the historical avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, giving the first modern performance of a large number of compositions of Italian and Russian futurist music, as well as works by authors such as George Antheil, Leo Ornstein, Alberto Savinio, Alexandr Mossolov, Arthur Vincent Lourié.
The musicological interest underlying this commitment also led him to produce various writings, such as Il suono veloce – Futurismo & Futurismi in musica (The Fast Sound. Futurism & Futurisms in Music) (Milan 1996, Ricordi-Lim) and, later, Nuova Antologia del FuturismoMusicale (Milan 2009, Mudima) along with a substantial body of essays in specialized journals.
Lombardi’s extensive repertoire included much music composed by various contemporary authors, as well as many works dedicated to him.
He performed in numerous prestigious Italian concert venues such as the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Venice Biennale Music Festival, the Brescia and Bergamo Festivals, etc. and in various parts of the world (New York, Guggenheim; Moscow, Pushkin Museum; Cairo and Alexandria; Europe, etc.), as well as for various radio and television broadcasters.
He recorded numerous CDs and DVDs (Col Legno, Arte Nova, Edipan, Musica & Immagine, Nuova Era, Neos Music, Cramps, Mudima Music, Atopos, Sonavolant, Ema Vinci etc.).
As a visual artist he developed a vast pictorial work alongside with his activity as a pianist and composer, exhibiting only in public spaces. It began in 1973 in Como, Villa Olmo, for the AutunnoMusicale, where he presented for the first time his Hypothesis of Metamusical Theatre, a manifesto that accompanied visual works which the public was meant to contemplate as virtual sounds in physical silence.
In 1998 he was the first artist invited by SMAC (Metropolitan System for Contemporary Art) to document his multimedia work for the Tuscany Region with exhibitions and concerts: in Prato (Pecci Museum), Pistoia (Palazzo Fabroni) and Florence (performance of the Two Symphonies for 21 pianos in the Uffizi Courtyard).
Among his exhibitions, notable ones include:
- Daniele Lombardi, London I.C.A. 1992, with two concerts of his compositions;
- Udir vedendo (Hearing by seeing), Cairo 1996; Virtual Music, Los Angeles 2000;
- Augenmusik, Berlin 2001;
- Musica inaudita (Unheard music), Siena 2002;
- Guarda che musica (Look at that music), Florence 2012, Gallery of Modern Art of Palazzo Pitti;
- Ascoltar con gli occhi (Listening with your eyes), Rome 2017, Macro Museum.
In 2016 he created a Porta Sonora in bronze (cm.190×365) for the Chapel of the Fattoria di Celle (Near Pistoia) with a violin piece, Vergine Madre, which is part of his composition Divina.com.
He was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Primo Conti Foundation (Fiesole) from 1980 to 2013.
He was a full academic of the Painting Class of the Academy of Arts and Drawing in Florence since 2014.
In 2013 he received the Arts Award of Fiorentini nel mondo.
He was also an expert in contemporary musical writing and performance practice. In 1981 he organized a great exhibition of musical scores in the Sala d’armi of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence:Spartito preso. La musica da vedere (Spartito preso. Music to be seen) (Catalogue Vallecchi, Florence 1981), later presented in Turin, (Mole Antonelliana), then in Rome, La Spezia, L’Aquila,and other locations.
On this subject, which led him to a thorough semiotic analysis, he also wrote Scrittura & Suono (Writing & Sound), Edipan, Rome 1984 and several other essays.
He was a professor of piano at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan until 2015, where he had also taught for 15 years a course on the performance practice of contemporary piano music.
As an organizer and artistic director, throughout the decade 1980-1990, he directed for several years in Rome: Nuova Musica Italiana (New Italian Music) and Nuova Musica Internazionale (New International Music) (Coop. La Musica, RAI).
He co-founded and co-directed with Bruno Nicolai the contemporary music magazine 1985 La Musica and was also involved in the artistic programming of the Musical Publishing House Edipanfrom 1983 to 1992.
He curated the following musical events:
- Pratoeventi 76, Prato 1976;
- Suono Segno Gesto, Prato Teatro Metastasio 1979;
- Attraversamenti, aspettando il Maggio (Crossings, waiting for the Maggio), Florence Teatro Goldoni 2003;
- W Russolo, Portogruaro 2007;
- Musica torna Musica (Music returns Music), Florence Galleria dell’Accademia 2010;
- Effetto Serra (Greenhouse Effect), Florence Torrigiani garden 2012;
- Tarataratata, Spoleto Teatro Lirico Sperimentale 2014.
- He was the artistic director of several book and record series:
- Musica d’Arte a Firenze (Art Music in Florence), Florence, Nardini press;
- Mudima Music Records Milan, Ed. Mudima;
- Atopos Music Records
