Alessandro Cipriani (born April 28, 1959) is an Italian composer of

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

.AA.VV. "Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti", diretto da Alberto Basso, Volume appendice 2005, UTET, Torino, 2004, p. 116, .

Biography

Cipriani was born in

Tivoli, Italy Tivoli ( ; ; ) is a town and in Lazio, Central Italy, north-east of Rome, at the falls of the Aniene river where it issues from the Sabine Hills. The city offers a wide view over the Roman Campagna. History Gaius Julius Solinus cites Cato ...

. After ordinary musical studies Alessandro Cipriani completed his studies in

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

and

at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He created a number of pieces involving

instrumental music An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer t ...

with electronic processing, including a

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

and

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic ...

, entitled "Quadro", and a 60-minute work for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

percussions A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

and

, "Il Pensiero Magmatico" (Magmatic Thought) written in collaboration with Stefano Taglietti. Cipriani then became interested in establishing concrete connections with the music of cultures that are dissimilar to the classical and contemporary western tradition. A fundamental piece by Cipriani in this context is the

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three distinct works that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games. Three-part works that are considered components of ...

concerning

Islamic Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

and Gregorian religious chants, composed by the author from 2001 to 2007 in various

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic, also called quadrasonic or by the neologism quadio ortmanteau, formed by analogy with "stereo" sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are po ...

and 5.1 versions, both

acousmatic Acousmatic sound is sound that is heard without an originating cause being seen. The word ''acousmatic'', from the French , is derived from the Greek word ''akousmatikoi'' (ἀκουσματικοί), which referred to probationary pupils of the phi ...

and live. In these works Cipriani re-elaborates some traditional chants of these three

monotheistic Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...

religions, while maintaining a strong connection between the original voice, its comprehensibility and its electronic processing. The three pieces are "Al Nur (The Light)", based on an Islamic chant, "Mimaa'Makim", based on a Jewish chant, and "Aqua Sapientiae/Angelus Domini". Alessandro Cipriani's collaborations with musicians from various different cultures have led him to reflect on the relationship between local cultures and global culture in relation to

electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a Music genre, genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of Acoustics, acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated a ...

. These reflections were documented in a special issue of the magazine "Organised Sound", edited by Cipriani and they were followed by further collaborations with musicians representing various cultures such as the

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ne ...

singer Tuuni Lansman, the Iranian percussionist Mahammad Ghavi-Helm, the Chinese musicians Song Fei and Fan Wei Qing, the Berber performer Nour Eddine Fatty., the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n performers Ann Masina and Dudu Yende, the

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian actress Dorothée Munyaneza, the

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

n singer Min Ji Kim, and the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese singer Matsutoyo Sato (in the soundtrack of the movie "The Girl from Nagasaki" directed by Michel Comte, which was selected for the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in the "New Frontier" section.) One of Alessandro Cipriani's most intense collaborations was with the visual artist Alba D' Urbano. Following their meeting, in the eighties, a number of audiovisual works were produced, including 4 videos, 4 video-installations with sound and "Rosa Binaria: Memories", an interactive sound installation on sixteen channels, which was shown at th
Leopold-Hoesch-Museum
of Düren (Germany). After a period during which he concentrated on making soundtracks for various documentaries and videos by Giulio Latini and Silvia Di Domenico, in 2001 Cipriani began a long collaboration with the composers of Edison Studio, which led to a variety of collective compositions, in particular the soundtracks of ''

The Last Days of Pompeii ''The Last Days of Pompeii'' is a novel written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting '' The Last Day of Pompeii'' by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan. It culminates in ...

'', ''

Blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

'' by

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

Metropolis (1927 film) ''Metropolis'' is a 1927 German expressionist cinema, German expressionist science-fiction film, science-fiction silent film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in collaboration with Lang from von Harbou's Metropolis (novel), 1 ...

Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), better known as Fritz Lang (), was an Austrian-born film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety Obituari ...

, En Dirigeable sur le Champs de Bataille, ''

L'Inferno ''L'Inferno'' () is a 1911 Italian silent film, loosely adapted from '' Inferno'', the first canticle of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. ''L'Inferno'' took over three years to make, and was the first full-length Italian feature film. It is al ...

'', ''

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' () is a 1920 German silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The quintessential work of early German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypno ...

'' by

Robert Wiene Robert Wiene (; 27 April 1873 – 17 July 1938) was a German film director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer, active during the Silent film, silent era. He is widely-known for directing the landmark 1920 film ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ...

and ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (, ), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 ...

'' by

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

. The latter 3 soundtracks have been published on DVD by

Cineteca di Bologna The Cineteca di Bologna is a film archive in Bologna, Italy. It was founded on 18 May 1962. Since 1989, it has been a member of the Fédération internationale des archives du film (FIAF). It has been a member of the Association des ciném ...

, in 2011, 2016 and 2017 in

5.1 surround sound 5.1 surround sound ("five-point one") is the common name for surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home theatres. It uses five full-bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel (the "point one"). Dolb ...

and

Stereophonic sound Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

versions in ''Il Cinema Ritrovato'' series. In 2022, Manfredi Edizioni published an art book dedicated to the audiovisual work "Shipwrecks Naufrag

by Alessandro Cipriani and Giulio Latini. Th
book
has been edited by Valentino Catricalà in dual languages (Italian and English). It contains two interviews with Cipriani and Latini and various articles by art critics and musicologists. In 2023 Cipriani and Latini, in collaboration with Alessandro Sbordoni created a multiscreen concert-installation in surround 5.1 titled "Memoria d'Utopie" (Memory of Utopia

first screened at the 60th Nuova Consonanza Festival on 8 December 2023.

Educational publications

Alessandro Cipriani's publications in the field of the teaching of

are of international interest, in particular the textbook "Virtual Sound" written in collaboration with R. Bianchini. His research in the field of education then led him to collaborate with Maurizio Giri. This collaboration resulted in a textbook on sound synthesis and signal processing (based on the Max (software), Max software) "Electronic Music and Sound Design" Vol.1, Vol.2., and Vol. 3 These textbooks are English translations of the Italian texts "Musica Elettronica e Sound Design" Vol.1, vol.2, and Vol. 3

References

Bibliography

* AA.VV., ''Dizionario Enciclopedico Universale della Musica e dei Musicisti'', edited by Alberto Basso, Volume appendice 2005, UTET, Torino, 2004 * Cipriani, A., "Editorial" in ''

Organised Sound ''Organised Sound'' is an international peer-reviewed academic journal which focuses on the rapidly developing methods and issues arising from the use of technology in music today. Background Published three times a year, it concentrates upon t ...

,'' volume 13, n.2, pp. 85–88

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, doi:10.1017/S1355771808000113 * Cipriani, A. and Latini, G., "Global/Local Issues in Electroacoustic Music for the Cinema of the Real: A case study" in ''

'', Volume 13, n.2, pp. 89–96,

, doi:10.1017/S1355771808000125 * Catricalà, V., ed.
Shipwrecks Naufragi
', Manfredi Edizioni, Imola, 2022, ISBN 9791280049377 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cipriani, Alessandro Living people Italian composers 1959 births