Mauro Campagnoli

Mauro Campagnoli (born 1975), is an Italian composer and amateur ethnomusicologist.

Biography

Campagnoli was born in Turin.

He graduated in Cultural Anthropology from Turin University and was mainly involved in anthropological and ethnomusicological research in Africa: after having studied the music of some Bantu populations of Western Cameroon, he conducted several fieldworks in the Cameroonian rain forest among various groups of Pygmies, like the Baka Pygmies, studying in particular their music, dances, language and rites of initiations. In 2000, during a research mission, he took part into the secret rite of men's initiation to the "Spirit of the Forest", becoming a member of a baka patrilinear clan. During the next years he continued his fieldwork among this and other pygmy groups, like the BaKola Pygmies and the Bedzan Pygmies, in another area of the rainforest.

Campagnoli is also a skilled musician. He received two diplomas in Composition and Choral Music & Choir Conducting at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of music, in Turin. He won national and international composition contests and he followed training courses coordinated by important European contemporary composers, such as Emmanuel Nunes, Gérard Grisey and Ennio Morricone at the Chigiana Academy of Siena. In relation to his ethnomusicological researches, he composed the multimedia work Yelì - The Voice of the Forest, played at the Piccolo Teatro of Milan during the international world music festival called Festa della Musica, in 2001. He collaborated with RAI Italian Television Network as soundtrack composer for documentaries. He also took part into the Italian tour of an Aka Pygmy group from Central African Republic as a cultural mediator and ethnomusicologist.

Works

Essays

• Baka Pygmies of Cameroon (2004)
• Music and Musical Instruments of Baka Pygmies (2005)

Musical works

• Huehuetenango (1995, , for electric jazz ensemble)
• Eclisse, for poems by Libero de Libero from "Eclisse" (1936-1938), for mezzosoprano and piano, 1996
• Metropolis, for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and triangle, 1997
• Five dreams from Toyland, for clarinet, trumpet and piano, 1997
• Fahrenheit, for flute, viola e harp, 1998
• Shesade, three sonnets from the Canzoniere (Lyrics) of Cecco Angiolieri (1260-1310), for mezzosoprano, flute, oboe, violin, cello and piano, 2000
• Yelì – The voice of the Forest, multimedia work in 16 parts for flute, violin, cello, piano, electric bass, percussions, "ndumu" pygmy drum, voice and digital elaborations of fieldwork recordings made in the rainforest of Cameroon. Video scenography by Alessandro Amaducci, 2001

See also

Research fields

• African Pygmies
• Baka pygmies
• Pygmy music
• Hunter gatherers
• Indigenous people

Other researchers who studied pygmy cultures

• Colin Turnbull
• Simha Arom

Academic disciplines

• Ethnomusicology
• Cultural anthropology

External links

• Mauro Campagnoli official website Contains his fieldworks in Equatorial Africa
• Baka Pygmies Culture, music and photos

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