This publication gathers together in these three pieces the only compositions by Santucci devoted to the harp, both as a solo instrument and in dialogue with the organ, his favourite instrument.
The little Melodia per arpa, a simple piece having an apparently didactic purpose, does not show the date of composition but, judging by the handwriting of the manuscript, it probably dates back to the period between 1980 and 1990. No other information has reached us as to why the piece was composed.
The two pieces Alleluja Modo II and Wachet auf, both dated 20 March 1993, composed for the unusual duo of harp and organ, are dedicated to Anna Maria Restani, first harp in the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale of Bologna from 1965 to 2002, and to her son Wladimir Matesic, organist and now teacher at the Conservatoire in Trieste. Gregorian chant is the protagonist of the first piece, evoking a Gothic and rarefied atmosphere. The second is instead a blatant tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach (right from the first bars the reference to Prelude no. 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier is clear), through one of his most famous chorales (Wachet auf, ruft uns die stimme), also used by Santucci for numerous other compositions, including Il corteo dei Magi [for trumpet, organ, orchestra and choir, 1986, ms.], still performed in the Christmas concerts in Bologna.
(Giuseppe Monari)

Author: Pellegrino Santucci (1921-2010)

Editor: Giuseppe Monari

Publication Date: 1/20/2020

Pages: pp. 16 + parts pp. 8

Size: 230x310 mm

Binding: Saddle stitching

ISMN: 979-0-2153-2646-0

Code: HS 284

Pellegrino Maria Santucci (1921-2010) entered the order of the Servants of Mary at the age of twelve, where he learned the first rudiments of music, immediately revealing a marked aptitude for composition. He completed his education by attending the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome (where he was transferred for theological studies and where he was ordained priest in 1944) and graduating in Composition at the Pesaro Conservatoire in 1949. In 1947 he was appointed director of the Cappella Musicale of S. Maria dei Servi in ​​Bologna which, under his guidance, was to become a musical centre of unmatched artistic and popularizing activity, consisting in an impressive number of concerts, competitions, conferences, and the construction of a grandiose mechanical organ, on which the greatest organists in the world would perform. Santucci was a dynamic and prolific composer and writer, leaving an extraordinary number of sacred and liturgical compositions for various types of musical groups, as well as musicological publications and essays. All his artistic activity featured, also in the innovation of his personal writing, a continuous struggle to safeguard the immense artistic heritage of the sacred tradition, from the much loved Gregorian chant to the works of the great composers of the past.
(Giuseppe Monari)