This is a conference for cultural policy makers, educators, media people, administrators, musicians and each and everybody interested in the subject. The increased mobility and migration of people and the fact that modern technology makes music from almost all times and places available here and now has induced a rapidly increasing degree of musical multiculturalism in most European communities. This multiculturalism has a societal aspect. More and more musical traditions are co-existing in the same geographical area. It also has an individual aspect. The same individual may master several musical traditions. Multiculturalism in music has implications for most areas of musical life and planning: education, mass media output, venues for musical performances etc. (from the programm of the conference). For information: Falun Folkmusic Festival, Box 387, 791 28 Falun, Sweden, tel. +46 23 19042; fax. +46 23 63399.

Research on ancient Greek myths with a musical content has been conducted since 1991 in a number of seminars held at the Fondazione Levi in Venice, and the fruits of these have now been published in "Musica e Storia", 2 (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1994). The next seminar in the series, (to be held at the Fondazione from 26-28 October, 1995), will confront the theme of the persistence and re-invention of these myths during the middle ages and the renaissance.
Here the overall picture is characterised by gaps and silences; of the hundred or so myths about music that are known from classical antiquity, only about half can be documented in the centuries that follow down to the end of the sixteenth century, whether these instances of continuous traditions, re-inventions or re-discoveries.
Among them are those associated with Achilles, Amphion, Apollo(both as a lyre-playing deity as well as through his connection with Marsyas), the Muses, Hermes, Arianna, Arion, Artemis, Athena, Dionysios, Cybele, Pan, Silenus, Orfeo, the Centaurs, Heracles, Circe, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melopomene, Polyhymnia, Comus, Narcissus, Eros, Hymen, the Pierides, the Sirens, and all those that inhabit Arcadia and Parnassus. In order to cast some light on this area of inquiry, which will be considered in this 'global' sense for the first time in this seminar, a number of fundamental questions will be considered. Through which authors and, above all, through which channels of transmission were the repertories of classical(and non-classical) myths about music disseminated during the middle ages? How were they selected and why? What sort of modifications, misunderstandings and trivialisations took place, and through which historical, literary, philological, philosophical and artistic influences did such transformations take place? In short, what was the place of this considerable heritage of musical myths in medieval and renaissance culture?
To carry this discussion forward we have invited historians of Latin and medieval literature, the history of ideas and the figurative arts, to discuss some of these questions with music historians and musical iconographers. Beginning from a common interest, they have been encouraged to overcome that fragmentation of knowledge that is often the result of specialisation. The seminar will proceed in the belief that it is really through the coming together of arguments shaped from different perspectives that the most fruitful ideas originate.

                                             Donatella Restani

**(Italian version of this text in Item 2)

Steven Feld has been studying and recording the "sounds" of the Kaluli people, who live near Mt. Bosavi in Papua New Guinea, since the mid-70's. He has published many works about this research: first of all, the well-known _Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression_. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1982; and the LP _The Kaluli of Papua Niugini: Weeping and Song_. LP with booklet in English and German. Baerenreiter Musicaphon BM 30 SL 2702. 1985.
Thanks to a recent collection issued by Rykodisc, "Voices of the Rainforest", the general public can now listen to some of those recordings on CD and enjoy one hour charming soundscape of the environmental sounds and the music of the Kaluli people, which covers work, leisure, and ritual musical styles.

As stated in the "Preface", this work is the collective effort of a number of scholars, who collaborated with the main authors Linda Barwick (ethnomusicologist) and Joanne Page (ethnochoreologist), in the study of one performance of a genre of musical theatre, the "Maggio drammatico", widespread in Emilia and Tuscany: Jim Franklin transcribed the musical examples, further revised by Robert Gibson. Joanne Page provided the transcriptions of movement, further checked by Rebecca Gregg, and Melissa Sloan provided the designs published on p.38. It actually represents a group work accomplished by an Australian team on the basis of materials provided by an Italian institution. In fact, this study is based on the material provided by the Centro Tradizioni Popolari della Provincia di Lucca, consisting of the video recording and photographs of one performance of the Maggio "I Paladini di Francia" by the Compagnia di Gorfigliano (Gragnanella, 17 July 1988). The study of this performance conducted in the work under review has the aim "to contribute to the study of the Maggio in Tuscany from the perspective of musical and movement aspects of the performance" (p.3).
Italian scholars will certainly appreciate the documentation concerning the Compagnia di Gragnanella, one of the companies which had been active in Tuscany until 1950 and then from 1977 to 1988. Information about the company, its members, the text performed (one of the many texts for the Maggio coming from the traditional source "I Reali di Francia" by Andrea da Barberino), and stage setting are provided in pp. 7-16. However, the decision not to publish the text on which the performance is based in a monographic work, such as this one, may disappoint the reader. The "Analysis" (pp. 17-24) briefly illustrates the metrics employed in the text, the correspondance with musical forms, and the type of gesturality of the Maggio. These pages substantially confirm the deep similarity, from many points of view, between the Maggio of Gorfigliano and the Maggios performed in Emilia. This similarity is also pointed out thanks to the methodological coherence of Barwick's analysis with Magrini's analysis of Maggios from Emilia (Magrini 1982) and to the 12 musical examples carried out by Jim Franklin and Robert Gibson (Appendix 2). Unfortunately, the musical terminology employed in the analysis is often wrong and therefore to read these pages means also to make a difficult interpretative effort. Certainly, the authors' effort in writing in Italian must be appreciated, but editing by a native musically competent speaker would have helped very much the authors in avoiding curious misunderstandings.
A final remark about the first part of this work: in the "Preface" Linda Barwick mentions her research in the Philippines but forgets to acknowledge that she received the first information about the parallelism between the Maggio and the "komedya" or "moro-moro" from her Italian colleagues, together with other information and materials useful for her research on Maggio. Must we think that Italian scholars are anonymous informants? Coming to the study of movement, we congratulate the Center of Folk Traditions of the Province of Lucca on publishing a book containing movement notation scores. Movement notation is the only way to compare and analyse movement or motor activities. For the first time in Italy, except for rare publications on ethnic dance and other unpublished essays, it is possible to "read" a dramatic play in all its factors. The subject dealt with by the authors, both in terms of its overall character and of methodology is a very difficult one. The Maggio is half way between a theatre performance, dance and a ritual event. The authors, on the basis of a video recording and photos of the event, try to highlight the connection of these three language levels in the drama and analyse it with the help of Labanotation scores.
Although the video they utilize is quite suited to the notation of movement, it could be criticized from the analytic point of view. The Maggio, which, as we said before, is a unique blend of dramatic, theatrical and dance elements, is mainly a ritual event taking place through a dramatic, gestural and musical medium. Therefore, even if the description of the context, and particularly the participation of the public, is committed to written texts, photos and drawings, the reader is unable to grasp the emotional and ritual content of the event.
Secondly, the video only shows one single Maggio performance. If the "text" of an event is to be studied, it is necessary to take into account several examples in order to proceed to their analysis and to the classification of the data collected. On this basis, the structural and formal analysis of the rules governing the event can finally be carried out. The authors want to show the gesture style, but how can this be done without clarifying the communication grammar?
Having decided to exclude from the notation the movement which are not related to the play, the authors only provide a selection of the movement content of the event. (see N.1, p. 21). In doing so, they act as an ethnomusicologist who does not take into account all sounds which do not belong to the commonly accepted execution inasmuch as they are not related to the play. The unity of time, space and place, however, is a basic citerion to identify a dramatic event. On the basis of the above selection (which we must accept, all other movements not being included in the notation), they make a distinction between gesture and stylized representation of the story, possibly referring, as one might infer from the text, to indicators on one side and mimetic representation and stylized fight on the other. Again we met with problems when reading the section devoted to relation between text, music and movement: the Labanotation scores, in fact, pose major interpretation problems. The explanation of the system contains several unclear issues and other questions (such as those regarding the " quality" of movement) which are beyond the field of formal analysis and are currently a topic of discussion within the two schools practicing the Laban system of movement notation, referred to as Kinetography and Labanotation respectively. Due to the differences existing between the two schools, it would be helpful to know to which of them the authors belong.
At a first glance, the scores in the book appear to be written in Labanotation, although in their glossary the authors change the meaning of symbols already existing in the system, thus causing a certain confusion.
Kinetography records only the perceivable movements, and not the idea of movement, or the invisible movements (i.e. "out of view"). The "action stroke" here indicates this occurrence or minor movements, while in the system it only refers to "not specified movement".
Another problem arises with the use of pause (retention sign O) . In the system there are symbols for occurrences relating to body, space and spot, but in these scores the authors apply O, which relates to the position of the body as a "general sign of retention". Other problems of interpretation are due to orthography of columns and symbols which doesn't help the reader. The floor plans are overturned, and this make complication in reading direction and particularly turns and subsequent rotations. In the practise if two partners make an action at the same time, this is graphically reflected by the two scores and by the relation with music. In those scores the relation between the three is unclear. In conclusion the notation doesn't help the reconstruction of the scene because it is a prescriptive notation and because of orthographic solution adopted.
This hinders analytical studies based on comparison and formal- structural analysis and doesn't help us to understand the gestural classification proposed.

                  Tullia Magrini, Placida Staro and Massimo Zacchi

Reference: Magrini, Tullia. 1982. "La musica del Maggio". In "Il Maggio drammatico: una tradizione di teatro in musica", edited by T. Magrini. Bologna: Analisi.

I - I pensieri sono liberi.

II - Nef su les montagnes.

L'intento di questi primi due CD della serie "Musica Alpina", secondo gli autori, e` quello di offrire ad un pubblico interessato degli esempi di canto e musica degli uomini dell'intero arco alpino, musica popolare nel senso "piu` vero ed autentico del termine" (virgolette mie). Si tratta di registrazioni raccolte nel corso di diversi anni durante numerosi viaggi attraverso le Alpi, alcune realizzate dagli autori, altre riprodotte da cassette difficilmente reperibili poiche' diffuse solo a livello regionale o in ristrette cerchie di esperti.
Per il libretto allegato sono state scelte, tra le numerose lingue parlate nelle Alpi, una romanza, una germanica ed una slava (l'italiano e il tedesco, che interessano la maggior parte delle canzoni, e lo sloveno), sperando che la soluzione plurilingue porti ad una maggiore diffusione ed una migliore comprensione di questi esempi, il cui scopo principale e` quello di documentare l'ambiente umano e culturale nelle Alpi da Vienna a Nizza nella sua musicalita` in parte arcaica, in parte di denuncia, in parte poeticamente commovente. "Sono testimonianze di un mondo di vita e di lavoro perlopiu` morto, in parte moribondo e che forse sopravvivera`. Ci sono canzoni di denuncia, di sfogo e protesta e molte parlano della diversita`...", commentano Gerlinde e Hans Haid nell'introduzione, e altrove: "La scelta degli esempi da inserire in questi due CD e` stata dettata soprattutto dall'importanza poetica e sociale e non e`certo rappresentativa in senso scientifico, ha invece una forte coloritura personale." I testi degli esempi italiani sono tratti per la maggior parte dagli opuscoli allegati ai dischi. Per quanto riguarda i dialetti tedeschi si sono seguite le direttive del Volksliedwerk austriaco che consigliano una trascrizione "estesa". Salvo diversa indicazione, le trascrizioni delle melodie sono di Gerlinde Haid. Anche in questo caso si e` scelta una via di mezzo tra leggibilita`e rigore scientifico. Si e` rinunciato del tutto a riportare le variazioni nelle diverse strofe.
I due CD contengono uno 16, l'altro 20 brani piu` una brevissima intervista a Lidwina Eiter (Zaunhof nella Pitztal/Tirolo), per un totale di quasi due ore di musica dell'intero arco alpino. La maggior parte delle registrazioni è stata realizzata in Italia (14 in tutto, 9 brani sono di origine austriaca e per finire c'e` un solo contributo delle Alpi francesi, uno svizzero e uno tedesco - bavarese).
La "consistenza" delle scelte per territorio e` sicuramente dettata dalla disponibilita` dei repertori registrati nonche' dalla "forte coloritura personale" degli autori. I contributi italiani si devono a Roberto Leydi, Bruno Pianta, Diego Carpitella, Roberto Starec, Pietro Sassu, Glauco Sanga ed altri; la maggior parte dei repertori austriaci, ma anche quelli sudtirolesi e friulani sono invece stati resi disponibile grazie ai lavori di Gerlinde e Hans Haid, Arnold Bloechl, l'ORF, Hans Giegle, Walter Deutsch, Helmut Mueller, Maria Walcher, ecc.
Cio` che si vuole documentare con queste musiche, secondo gli autori, e` la parte piu` intima di un popolo, quella parte dei suoni e dei testi "impuri", critici, pungenti, trasversali, tutto cio` che fa parte della sua identita`: il canto come espressione di aggressione e sofferenza, di protesta, disubbidienza e diserzione. Il canto popolare che fa trasparire un altro mondo, quello dello sfruttamento: si fa riferimento alla costruzione del San Gottardo che costo` la vita a molti operai, ai minatori di Monteneve in Val Ridanna, agli operai della ferriera di Gradenberg o alle mondine della Val Padana. Ma il canto viene documentato anche come espressione di dolore privato, come nel caso del lamento recitato da Rosa Korn a St. Franz nella Val di Fersina. Infine, troviamo anche la musica da ballo e da festa, la musica popolare come "Disco music" nella Val di Resia, la musica rituale: il Natale, vissuto come la festa di un ebreo e di uno straniero; i tre Re Magi come immigrati; il "tote pulchra", l'antico culto mariano senza intermedi.
Il mondo documentato appare ricco di una tradizione della cui forza e bellezza "Musica alpina" e` testimonianza ottimista: "Il meglio di essa nascera` a nuova vita, ritrovera` consensi, una nuova necessita`".
A questo lavoro, come promettono gli autori, faranno seguito altri CD su diverse tematiche:

III Lieder von Deserteuren, Wilderern, Aussenseitern (1994)

IV Lieder von Hirten/Hirtinnen und Bauern/Baeuerinnen (1994)

V Liebe und Freiheit in den Bergen (1995)

VI Rufen, Jodeln, Schreien, Urtoene

VII Ostalpen

VIII Westalpen

                                              Stefan Degasperi

1. CDs

   LA LIRA IN CALABRIA. 1992. Edited by Coop.R.L.S. CD RLS 002. Booklet 38 pp., photos, transcriptions, graphics. Cooperativa Raffaele Lombardi Satriani (Via S. Francesco da Paola 110/B. 89127 Reggio Calabria. Tel. 0965.22313, fax. 0965.811353).

2. BOOKS

   De Raho, Francesco. 1994. TARANTOLISMO. Roma: Edizioni Sensibili alle foglie (piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice 34, I-00153 Roma, tel/fax: 06.5745000).