Escargot: Bruno De' Franceschi

Escargot Cultural Association

Bruno de'Franceschi
Composer and musician

Born in Milan in 1955. Studies piano at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) and Tradional Composition at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, he also studies further in Paris, Fribourg and Lausanne. He graduated in Literature at the DAMS in Bologna.
Right from the start his interest centres around the relationship between music and theatre, from the writing of stage music to the performance of music which calls for specific stage movements and stage presence on behalf of the performer.
In 1973 he writes "Gundrisse", composition for piano, voice and tapes in which the physical destruction of the instrument is also envisaged. He has taught in the "Civica Scuola d'Arte Drammatica" of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, on projects on the relationship between sound and movement, music and theatre.
Since 1985, he has been carrying on a research on the use of the voice and on listening tecniques inspired by the Martial Arts and borrowing from the language of the deaf and dumb. He mainly composes music for the stage. He has worked on projects using tapes, elaborators and live electronics in Italy and abroad.

Amongst his latest productions: "Provvisorio" (Temporary), for voices and tapes, based on texts by Giancarlo Majorino (Cortona, "Isole del disordine" 1994), "Il paradiso degli esuli" (The paradise of exiles), opera based on libretto by S. Del Seta, (Camerata Musicale Orchestra directed by G.Taverna, Pisa Teatro Verdi, 1994), "...che son stanca di soffrir" (for I am tired of suffering) for voices, chorus, brass and tapes directed by G.Taverna, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Resistence (Bibbiena, 1995), "... e muoio di non morire" (...and I die of not dying) for instruments, voices, tape and solo dancer freely based on the work of St. John of the Cross, solo performers of the Orchestra Città di Grosseto, directed by O.Lacagnina (Arezzo, "Il teatro e il sacro Festival", 1996).
He has collaborated and collaborates with various artists such as Giancarlo Majorino (poetry), Ale Guzzetti e A. Abate (sculptors), Raffaella Giordano and Giorgio Rossi (dancers) and amongst others with the following directors: Massimo Castri, Kantor, Massimo Navone, Giampiero Solari, Cristina Pezzoli, Cherif, Elio De Capitani.