Francesco Faccioli (b. 2001) attends the third year of Humanities at Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna. His interests range from music to theatre, with a special regard to the Classics. Francesco Lerro (b. 1999) graduated in Classical Studies in February 2023 at the University of Milan with a thesis on Latin prosody and 4th-century Christian poetry. He attends the third year of Choir Conduction and Coral Composition at the Conservatory of Milan. He has been playing the violin since 2007. At the moment, he works as a cantor at Milan Cathedral (Duomo).
On 24th March 2023 they both took part in the public reading of Vergil’s Aeneid (books 2 and 12) that took place in Bologna, organized by Prof. Valentina Garulli. Mr. Faccioli curated the musical project accompanying the reading, while for the nonce Mr. Lerro composed an original piece named Il discorso di Laocoonte [Laocoön’s Speech].
For the second consecutive year I had the pleasure of taking part in the public reading organised by Professor Valentina Garulli of Bologna University as part of the Festival Européen Latin Grec. My role in this project regarded the creation of some musical interludes to be played in accompaniment to the reading itself. I selected pieces coming from the classical repertoire and previously recorded by high school students.
The challenge of this musical project was to establish a dialogue between Vergil’s Aeneid and the instruments, such that the music was not merely an interlude, but a sounding bar for Vergil’s text. My aim was to create a common space in which two classicisms as far apart from each other as the musical one and the literary one could contaminate and mutually enrich. Furthermore, together with musical interludes were also projected original video clips, creating a web of contemporary, multimedia translations.
Five tracks were included in the musical project. The first one, the Danse macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns, tried to convey the mystery that lingers on Sinon and his deceitful wooden horse. A well-known aria from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (When I am laid in Earth) stressed the emotion capturing Creusa and Aeneas in their last meeting. Beethoven’s The Tempest resembled the confused clang of weapons in book 12 and, finally, the well-known Chopin’s Funeral March perfectly fitting for Turnus’ dreadful end.
Alongside the classical pieces, an original composition was included, written and performed by Francesco Lerro, a student at the University of Milan and the conservatory Giuseppe Verdi. Lerro created a magnificent composition for piano and voice from the lines in which Laocoön desperately beseeches Trojans not to welcome the wooden horse into the city (Aen. 2, 40–49).
Francesco Faccioli: What musical genres influenced you in composing this piece? Were they functioning for the emotions you wanted to convey?
Francesco Lerro: I always thought that starting point of my work is Virgil’s text. As the great Claudio Monteverdi said, words come first and music just follows. This means that every idea suggested by the music is closely related to the text: I wanted music to be just the ‘amplification’ of the meaning of the verses.
Of course, it is impossible to know exactly how Virgil himself would have sung his own poetry, for we have nothing but weak evidences of Greek and Roman music. That’s why I chose to use a modal and not a tonic scale, which – for what we know – refers to the ancient music theory. Then, I just put Vergil’s text in a sort of recitar cantando in which notes have regular values (except for little variations) divided in crotchets and quavers. The succession of long and short notes, that is longae and breves, mirrors the same prosodic distinction of Latin syllables.
Beside that, the shorts preludio, intermezzos and coda played by piano solo are written on the same musical theme that I composed thinking of the situation: the staccato and the descending notes are the image of the falling of Troy, that is about to happen, and the little circulationes made of four quavers are the image of the suspicious atmosphere created by Laocoön’s words.
Francesco Faccioli: How did you succeed in blending classical music and classical text?
Francesco Lerro: I prefer talking of “ancient music” rather than “classical music”. As I said, despite the fact that most of the harmonic successions do not follow traditional harmonic rules, my main historical reference is the 16th century, when Italian musicians tried to find out how Greek music would have sound to their ancient listeners. I am talking about Vincenzo Galilei’s treatises and, of course, Claudio Monteverdi and his ideas about the so called seconda prattica.
The recitativo form was conceived in the same period as the most faithful way to reproduce how ancient poets and singer would have sung their songs. This is why I thought that it should have been the most appropriate musical form for my piece. Besides, since I didn’t follow the traditional harmonic rules, when listening to my piece you will listen to a modern composition that has lots of references to the ancient music, and you will actually find out how contemporary music can be, in its substance, ancient.
Francesco Faccioli: Did you encounter any difficulties during composition?
Francesco Lerro: Yes, of course. First of all, I found some difficulties linked to the harmonic language I used, since my piece is not written in the traditional functional harmony but using some “weird” chords (such as the seventh or the ninth chords not necessarily used with the proper function they would have in tonal harmony) and using a scale that, in some points, clearly refers to a modal scale. It was very challenging to find the right harmonic (and melodic) successions that could be as much as possible incisive and fitting for the atmosphere.
Secondly, since I am not an expert composer, it was quite hard writing music “on commission”, which means that, since the very first idea of the work did not come from my mind, I had to force myself to find solutions and ideas that, at least at the beginning, did not spontaneously come to my mind.
Laocoön’s Speech (Verg. Aen. 2, 40–49)
Primus ibi ante omnes, magna comitante caterva,
Laocoon ardens summa decurrit ab arce
et procul: “o miseri, quae tanta insania, cives?
Creditis auectos hostes? Aut ulla putatis
dona carere dolis Danaum? Sic notus Vlixes?
Aut hoc inclusi ligno occultantur Achiui,
aut haec in nostros fabricata est machina muros,
inspectura domos, uenturaque desuper urbi,
aut aliquis latet error: equo ne credite, Teucri.
quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”.
Enter Laocoön first — and a large crowd of followers with him —
Running, ahead of the rest, from the citadel, blazing with passion,
Shouting while still far off: “Poor citizens, what utter madness
Seizes you? Do you believe the foe’s gone, or that gifts from Danaän
Donors don’t involve ruses? Is that what we know of Ulysses?
Either this structure of wood is concealing Achaeans inside it,
Or it’s an engine of war they’ve designed to destroy our defences,
Spy on our homes, make aerial assault on our city, or some less
Evident trap. Sons of Teucer, whatever this horse is, be careful.
I am afraid of Danaäns, not least when they offer donations.” (Virgil, Aeneid, transl. with not. by Frederick Ahl, with an intr. by Elaine Fantham, Oxford 2007: 29)
Post by Francesco Faccioli, peer-reviewed by Prof. Valentina Garulli, placed by Olga Strycharczyk
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