After years of intense work, the publication “Sonatas for bells: the Gandinese tradition” published by Edizioni Carrara of the Volonté group will be presented on Saturday 4 May in Gandino. The authors Fabio Rinaldi and Mario Castelli, both from Gandino, present for the first time in its entirety the Gandhian bell music documentation of the sound of joy, otherwise called “keyboard” (traditionally, the percussion of the bells through a mechanism controlled by a employee thanks to a keyboard). The beating heart of the publication are the scores written by Professor Mario Castelli, supported by the brothers Andrea and Pasquale and by the last official Gandhi bell ringer, Fabio Rinaldi, nephew of the Castellis. All people appointed with the exclusive task of “playing with joy”, who succeeded Gandino from 1957 to 2015.
In the field of transcriptions and compositions for bells, the volume constitutes the complete work of Mario Castelli, former member of the Rai Orchestra of Milan. The book collects sonatas, interludes, baptismal signals, “Ave Marie”, hymns and “calls” of the different classes to which they belong, with the relative explanatory notes of each individual piece or musical phrase at the end of each chapter. This is music that has remained entrusted almost exclusively to oral tradition and has now been reproduced in its entirety in writing. The proposed pieces have been reconstructed with a careful and faithful work of musical transcription from 1980 to today, which has allowed them to be rediscovered in their most authentic guise, as evidence of a community richness that goes beyond the Gandhian reality which, in addition to being an intangible heritage of the Lombardy Region since 2015, it rises to become a traditional heritage at much higher levels. The new publication contributes to a more in-depth knowledge of this traditional heritage, with the hope that it can be rediscovered, re-evaluated and proposed again in the future.
Fabio Rinaldi was the bell ringer of the Basilica and its subsidiaries in Gandino from 2005 to 2010 and from 2011 to 2015, currently he is an “itinerant” bell ringer. Mario Castelli (Fabio’s uncle) was a musician at the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Milan for 28 years and is still the bell ringer of the parish and subsidiary of Cirano di Gandino.
The presentation of the book will take place Saturday 4 May at 8.30pm at the Cineteatro Loverini in Gandino (free entry) and will be presented by Laura Remigi. In addition to the authors, Vittorio Carrara (publisher of the Volontè group), Simone Margnelli (national president of the Italian Association of Campanology) and Don Ferruccio Garghentini, provost of Gandino, will speak.
In the second part of the evening, the concert of the cultural association of traditional and popular music Rataplam (30th anniversary of foundation: 1994-2024), conducted by Maria Teresa Villa, is scheduled. Some pieces present in the publication will be performed, pieces which have as their basis the glass “bells” (Mario and Fabio), but supported by guitar (Alberto Bonfanti and Maria Teresa Villa), double bass (Lucio Mariani), accordion (Giovanni Angelini), percussion (Cesare Capelli), mandolin (Giulio Ghezzi). Refreshments will follow with km 0 products from Savoldelli Clemente Agriculture combined with the tasting of fine wines from Podere Arizzi. The evening can be followed live on the Gandino WebTV YouTube channel.
The book (cover price 30 euros) will be available for purchase at the presentation, by contacting the author (Fabio, 3406775068), or at the Gyl stationery shop in Gandino, or by downloading the digital version on the edizionicarrara.it website. The evening is included in the “Weeks of Culture” promoted by the Pastoral Offices in collaboration with the diocesan cultural institutes.
