FÒCO

FÒCO
A creation by Germana Mastropasqua and Xavier Rebut

Compositions and Italian songs from the oral tradition for 2 voices

Fòco, il fuoco... it's fire, the fire that animates us, the fire that feeds our breath, the fire of the song, of each musical phrase and of the breaths between them, the fire of the colors of the voices. Home to poetic inspiration, it marks life and the time of rituals, it's also the one that burns for the loved one, the one whose breath keeps us alive. It's the flame that focuses us on what matters. It's the breath of a community´, a family or friends who breathe into the song the sparks of all their stories... like an air from a Neapolitan farce or a Greek tragedy.
Germana and Xavier have spent a lifetime exploring the worlds of Italian voices, those of the oral tradition, and the secular and sacred repertoires of a popular Italy that has always kept the practice of singing handed down from generation to generation. On stage, they evoke in music pieces of life, encounters, places and events large and small. With their own songs, those taken from collections and Xavier's own compositions, they tell us about their practice, their research and their journey. A culture that sometimes hangs by a thread in today's hustle and bustle, but to which they tirelessly give voice, they give breath, the breath that keeps us alive and feeds the inner fire of joy.

THE REPERTOIRE
Germana and Xavier invent a music rooted in their long experience of Italian oral singing, a music shaped by voices, polyphonic interplay and interweaving. It brings to light the codes of a language where timbre and the art of ornamentation take pride of place, and where the richness of sometimes untempered scales harmonizes the voices through the alchemy of their color.

There are Xavier's compositions, inspired by the songs of a popular Italy traveled far and wide, which reinvent a function or ritual, and there are the rewritings of traditional songs, tailor-made for their voices. These sound worlds feed a narrative created by sound, a narrative that takes shape throughout the concert.

Guitar, harmonium and percussion punctuate the repertoire, underlining and amplifying the polyphony and architecture of the voices, and the space they create for our ears.

Fòco is the natural continuation of the duo's creations, from the first, based on songs of work, love and anarchy, to songs of emigration, festive and celebratory songs with cantatorio repertoires, and sacred songs. From this practice and research into timbres and sound universes, all different, comes an original music for each creation, which flows naturally from it. She draws a large score to give free rein to the fire of inventiveness´.

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