After a short illness, Giovanna Marini died at the age of 87, one of the most authoritative singer-songwriters, “storytellers” she liked to call herself, on the Italian musical scene. By describing the Italy of the poorest and carrying out social battles to the rhythm of music, you have collaborated with the greatest artists of the country to keep the tradition of popular singing alive.
Giovanna Marini, a life dedicated to music
Giovanna Marini was born in Rome on 19 January 1937. In the family they spoke “only about music”. Her father, Giovanni Salviucci, was a composer who was a pupil of the great Ottorino Respighi. Her mother, Ida Parpagliolo, was a music teacher. Giovanna graduated in guitar at the same school as her father, the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, and she began studying there traditional Italian music, those popular songs that were already on the verge of extinction at the time. “The songs are found in her books” Pier Paolo Pasolini will tell her: and she made it the mantra of her life, bringing to light the hidden treasures of oral tradition.
From Dario Fo to De Gregori, collaborations with the greatest
The first show in which Giovanna Marini takes part is called Hello beautiful, it was 1964. Subsequently, he participated in the composition of the Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano, with politically committed singer-songwriters such as Paolo Pietrangeli and Ivan Della Mea. With Dario Fo writes the songs for the show I think about it and sing about it. Then work with Francesco Gucciniwith his friend Pasolini, Citto Maselli and Ascanio Celestini.
The collaboration that also made her famous to the general public was the one with Francesco De Gregoriwith whom he recorded the album in 2002 The steam whistle, a re-adaptation of the traditional popular and political song. The tour that followed the album was an international success, even mentioned by the prestigious French newspaper Le Monde. “With Francesco De Gregori at 65 I discovered the hit parade. – she had commented – The ranking, who thought about it? In fact, I didn’t even know it existed. Francesco and I thought that only we would listen to this work. Instead, 2002 was a lucky year for me. I’ve been making records for 40 years, but no one noticed”.
Ideals before success
Giovanna Marini didn’t think about the hit parade, her goal was another. Marini wanted to tell the story of the real Italy, not the glossy one. “I was looking for the sounds, I found the people” she said. The dream of saving songs from oblivion, by transform music into a political instrument, takes place at the Ernesto De Martino Institute. Then with the foundation of the Popular School of Testaccio in Rome and, again, with the teachings of ethnomusicology applied to traditional oral singing. “The song belongs to everyone, it gives a voice to those who have none” she said at the presentation of the documentary dedicated to her, Giovanna, stories of a voice.
Success arrives, but she doesn’t even notice it. From the great Rome she moved to the quieter Frascati and she dedicated her last years to young people, to whom she taught what the music industry had discarded. Because for her music was the link capable of uniting the working class and the intellectual elite, and why “the story told by people is a completely different story”.
