Composer Spotlight-Giordano Maselli

Get to Know...Giordano Maselli

Are you looking for a lively and energetic quartet for C flutes for you or your students? Then, look no further than Kids Stuff by Italian composer Giordano Maselli! The winning work in the chamber music category in 2018, Kids Stuff, is charming with interesting lines for each part, it has a pleasing drive and sense of movement. It sounds like it would be so fun to play and is equally pleasing to the listener. Giordano is primarily a composer of music for film and television which is perhaps why Kids Stuff seems to tell a charming story. Despite the title, I picture young swallows flying about sometimes dipping and diving others soaring in a beautiful blue sky. Listen and see what it says to you.
 
We're excited to listen to Giordano’s new flute quartet, Il Giardino Romano which was premiered in April 2019 and is dedicated to the exedra of Marcus Aurelius and his large equestrian statue! We’re also pretty curious about his arrangement of “Stairway to Heaven”….3 flutes, 3 recorders, this could be very interesting! I think we should be thanking his friends (see the first question below) for encouraging his interest in writing for flute!
 
Q&A with Giordano
 
What about new music for the flute appeals to you?
I quite recently discovered flute repertoire thanks to Alchimie Sonore, a group of flutist friends. They introduced me to composers and music that was new to me, like R. Guiot and G. Briccialdi. I have worked with them in different ways, by both writing an original piece like Kids’ Stuff and arranging the world famous “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin for three flutes in C and three recorders, for example. Other than writing for friends, it was an exciting experience to write for flute quartet because it was an unexplored world to me and as the repertoire is not vast it’s easy to write something new [laugh].
 
Who is/are your favorite “new music” composer/s and why?
I grew up listening to John Williams’ music, so I cannot avoid mentioning his name. Even if it’s a simple-minded answer, he’s my favorite film composer, just like Thomas Newman who makes the best use of timbre layering/orchestration and sound design I ever heard. In addition to soundtracks, I also like the music of John Mackey, especially the piece called The Frozen Cathedral. I also like Eric Whitacre’s productions, he’s one of my favorite composers; Lux Aurumque is a masterpiece. 
 
What is/are your favorite “new music” piece/s and why?
It’s definitely the above-mentioned The Frozen Cathedral by J. Mackey, it’s a majestic composition I studied during the symphonic orchestration & conducting course at the conservatory. I’ve always been attracted to it and even after hearing it hundreds of times it still gave me the chills. I think that Mackey has a strong descriptive capacity, his music is able to let the mind travel to distant destinations.
 
Describe your musical background and current activities.
My business is always divided between music for the concert stage and film (or television) music. My main activity is to work in the film industry and it gives me the opportunity to write a lot of original music and to be able to make it real. The score is the most powerful way to play with audience’s emotions, you can manipulate the plot by just putting the wrong music for the moment or you can reinforce or foreshadow the narrative developments. I’m currently scoring for an Italian comedy film, it’s such a great fun! The downside of film music is that you don’t have the creativity freedom you want and for this reason I love writing chamber or orchestral music for concert stage. Recently I’ve finished composing a piece for harp solo which has been recorded and it will be played for the first time live during the conservatory’s final exam of a harpist friend of mine. Then, I finished writing a new flute quartet piece dedicated to the exedra of Marcus Aurelius and his large equestrian statue. The premiere of the latter will be in April 2019, I wish you could listen to this soon! I have a special affection to a project called “Start from scratch”, it’s an album I’ve been working on for a long time which swings between soundtracks and concert music. It consists of eleven instrumental tracks composed by me and played by all of my musician friends, every one of them have put themselves into it and it was such an extraordinary experience. We are currently finalizing the mastering process and the cover art…It’s coming out soon!
 
What instrument would you like to write music for next?
I’d like to write something for recorders.
 
How did you become involved with FNMC and what attracted you to the organization?
I entered the composition contest in 2018. For a composer there is nothing more beautiful than listening to his own music played around the world, so thank you so much FNMC for your business and for the opportunity you gave to me and to my music.
 
What advice can you give to flutists about approaching new music in practice?
Probably it won’t be anything useful because I am not a flute player [laugh]. The musicians who approach the study of never heard music play an important role, my advice is to do it with all the passion that you have and to always keep looking at the original music because the world is full of wonderful undiscovered music that nobody has heard yet, so it’s your responsibility to bring it to light. [Editor’s note, we couldn’t agree more!]
 
 
More About Giordano...
Italian composer Giordano Maselli, earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors in Classical Composition and a Master’s Degree with honors in Movie Soundtrack Composition at Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Rome. He started his musical training at the age of 3. After trying various instruments, he focused on the piano and scoring for visual media by the age of 9. He studied classical composition at the Arts Academy in Rome and privately with M° L. Pelosi, leading him toward admission to the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia where he continued studying with M° M. Gabrieli focusing on film scoring. His compositions include some short movies like “Tom”, “Shah Mat”, “Adele”, “Cattive Notizie”, the complete soundtrack of the “Last Monkey” web series, cartoon soundtracks for the firm Musicartoon, and videogame scores with RedDoll. Maselli has a series of interesting collaborations in the YouTube universe in fellowship with Matteo Bruno (Cane Secco), a popular Italian blogger with whom he creates TV spots, short movies, soundtracks, event music, and music for the Internet. He has also worked with Video Eikon and Ballandi in several TV documentaries including the theme song of the Sky TV show “Itinerari di caccia”, “Morandi 7.1” featuring Gianni Morandi and with Pesci Combattenti in “Nessuno Può Volare”. In 2014 and 2015 he was awarded by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) the Best Original Score Award in the 48h Film Project. In 2015, he entered the Italian movie market with “Hybris”, a psycho-thriller produced by Mirelatives Picture. The movie has been released in Italy and the soundtrack is available on ITunes. As an orchestrator, he has collaborated with Riccardo Studer in several tracks of “Dylan Dog – Vittima degli eventi,” a fun movie directed by Claudio di Biagio. He has worked with Goblin on the track “Dark Bolero” and on the album “Fearless”. Maselli has also founded his own recording studio with the aim of working as closely as possible with other musicians in “live room” composing. He is currently working on an album named “Start From Scratch.”​

http://www.giordanomaselli.com/​  

If You Liked Kid's Stuff...

Il Giardino Romano
Instrumentation: 2 c flutes, alto flute, bass flute
Date of Composition: 2019
Duration: 4:40

Stairway to Heaven (arrangement)
Instrumentation: 3 recorders and three C flutes

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