Academic Year 2023-24

Live version - Mantua 21/02/2024

Carlo Sampaolesi - Accordion

Signs For The Unknown (2024), for accordion

I am never anywhere / anywhere I go (2024)
for spatialized trio and special instruments (big barrel and aluminium cans)

Premiered on 04.2024 in the Foyer of the Conservatory of Mantua, Italy

Performers: 
mdi ensemble
Giorgio Casati (Cello)
Paolo Casiraghi (Bb Clarinet)
Sonia Formenti (Piccolo flute)

"I am never anywhere, anywhere I go" is a piece for spatialized trio and sound object. Clarinet, piccolo and cello are disposed at the vertices of a triangle, in the center of which a special instrument is placed: a barrel that acts as a resonator to a metal grid, which the musicians gradually approach to play through bows and cans.
The spectral and timbral properties of this 'new instrument,' as well as the visual and gestural implications it brings to the performance, are the object of research in this work. The attempt at an organic homogeneity of sound, despite the different sources from which it comes, together with the extremely resonant acoustic environment of the foyer help to accentuate the concept that gives the piece its title: "wherever I go, I am nowhere."

I am never anywhere / anywhere I go (2024), for spatialized trio and special instruments

Grani (2024) for ensemble.

Premiered on 17.05.2024 by Ensemble Suono Giallo

Flute - Andrea Biagini
Sax - Michele Bianchini
Percussion - Laura Mancini
Piano - Simone Nocchi 
D.Bass - Giacomo Piermatti

Grani [use headphones]

flute: Manuel Zurria
cello: Francesco Dillon
piano: Anna d'Errico

Im lus (2024), for trio

for Ensemble
Ensemble Suono Giallo
Michele Bianchini    Sassofono
Andrea Biagini        Flauto
Laura Mancini        Percussioni
Simone Nocchi        Pianoforte
Giacomo Piermatti  Contrabbasso

Come impeto qui ed all'interno, dove altrove solitudine

Broken Things Are Hints (2024)
for amplified percussion trio

Broken Things Are Hints (2024) [use headphones]

Giuseppe Franza is a composer whose works explore the tension between stasis and action, with a focus on the physical and spatial experience of sound. His music draws on sounds that emerge from everyday life, filtering them through imagination to reveal their hidden voices. What do these sounds have to tell us?

Giuseppe is particularly fascinated by the sounds of malfunction—unwanted, accidental noises that transform into central, noble materials in his compositions. He strives to create spaces and imaginary worlds where these sounds are held, transformed, and allowed to speak through a dreamlike grammar. His work embraces contradictions, celebrating the beauty in the broken and the accidental.

Giuseppe Franza studied composition at the Conservatory "San Pietro a Majella" in Naples and with Maurizio Azzan at the Conservatory of Mantua, while obtaining a postgraduate degree with Clara Iannotta at the MDW - University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He has attended masterclasses with composers such as Salvatore Sciarrino (Accademia Chigiana), Frank Bedrossian, Francesca Verunelli, and Luca Francesconi, among others. 
He currently lives in Naples.

contact: giuseppe.franza@outlook.com