Segni

Few elements of the modern soundscape have remained unchanged, or nearly so, over the last fifteen centuries. One of these is certainly the sound of bells, which (at least in Europe) still marks the passage of time in both urban and rural contexts. Discovering that two families in my family tree were bell ringers—a profession passed down from father to son and considered equivalent to that of "musici"(musicians)—led me to seek the basis for my composition in the repertoire of bell-ringing typical of my city, Reggio Emilia. The musical source material for the piece is based on several melodies and bell-ringing patterns collected by the Reggio Emilia composer Guglielmo Mattioli just over a century ago, in 1922, and also on spectrographic analysis of the bell concert of the Basilica della Ghiara in Reggio. For this, I would like to thank Maestro Sauro Rodolfi, thanks to whom I learned about Mattioli's writings, as well as Stefano Fantini and Giorgio Torelli of the Reggio Emilia Bell Ringers' Union, who allowed me to visit the Ghiara bell tower. The purpose of my piece is not to imitate the sound of bells—perhaps among the most inimitable, for the richness and uniqueness of their timbre—but to evoke what this sound has signified over the centuries: births, deaths, marriages, invasions, epidemics, victories... The passage, recounted in sounds, of History in the stories and lives of ordinary people. Lives held together by "signs" (Segni)—the ringing of bells at Mass and solemn celebrations—even across the centuries.

Recorded in Sala delle Carrozze, Reggio Emilia Conservatory on November 11th, 2025