|
Promoted and organised by Provincia di Pistoia – Assessorato alla Cultura
When the Festival Itinerari Musicali was born in 1986, on the initiative of the Province of Pistoia, the aim of this summer review consisting of outdoor concerts moving around the territory of the Province was to combine good artistic proposals with the discovering of villages, villas, gardens and places of natural and artistic value in our province. From then on, eight-ten performaces have been realised each year, so as to cover, in more editions, the whole Pistoian territory. In 2001, the Province of Pistoia decided to entrust as art director of the review the Pistoian musician Riccardo Tesi, so as to develop a more organized comparison between the music of the Tuscan tradition and contemporary world music. In 2001 Itinerari Musicali brought out a proper Festival, Sentieri Acustici. The great migrations, the development of the mass media, the advent of the digital era and Internet have created a sort of global village where communicating with the remotest places on earth has become simple and quick. Against this background, the shapes and sounds of ethnic music, which have always been linked to local environments, have started to travel, ending up by becoming part of a sort of database to which anyone can have free access. This process has enabled previously very distant musical cultures to come into contact and to measure up to each other; it has brought urban and rural cultures, common tools and new technologies closer; it has given traditional musicians the possibility of being listened to on a wide scale and becoming a source of inspiration for those musicians having different origins who are in search of new ideas and sounds. So in a musical landscape where the boundaries between genres are gradually becoming more and more blurred, new hybrid musical forms are continually coming into being generated from different styles and cultures meeting and merging together. Found side by side under the entry world music, a term that has taken over from the now old-fashioned folk, broadening its meaning, are musical experiences very far apart from each other but nevertheless grouped together by a filial bond, though at times distant, with ethnic music. Itinerari Musicali (Musical Itineraries) aims to document this great and varied artistic vitality and to favour its development within its production. This is why the programme finds rooms for singers-songwriters, jazz, rock, and ethnic musicians etc, etc, all grouped together, thanks to a bond with tradition, which every time is different. The event takes place between the months of July and August in the province of Pistoia and comprises a prologue, Itinerari Musicali , with single concerts taking place in ancient villages, villas, small squares and the most beautiful and charming corners of the province of Pistoia; and the Sentieri Acustici (Acoustic Paths) festival which take place over a week in the Pistoian mountains. Sentieri Acustici aims to be a festival that has strong roots in the local area that hosts it and from the very beginning its goal has been to rediscover and enhance local traditions (both musical and others), by frequently offering an important stage for Pistoian and Tuscan music with concerts, original productions, conferences, courses and workgroups. By definition, the paths are not easy to access and not very frequented, they are hidden, scattered with obstacles and often tough to follow, but they lead to uncontaminated places of rare beauty: in selecting the artists we try to steer clear of market logics, and draw up a bill with well-known names flanked by emerging artists and musical ideas that travel (sail) on paths lesser known to the general public but with great artistic value. Teaching and training are another extremely important aspect of the festival's philosophy: in the courses that take place during the day it is possible to learn the techniques and repertoire of traditional instruments and dances with some of the best Italian and international specialists, but also go on guided excursions in the area, get to know plants with medicinal properties or learn how to cook the local cuisine. The constant growth in terms of numbers and quality of the public and the many people attending the courses over the few years of the festival's existence are very important achievements for a festival like ours, whose purpose is also to be a place where people can meet, share and exchange experiences, take a closer look at their interests and extend their knowledge, naturally in a fun and party atmosphere.
|