Cantatori sauna finlandese was commissioned by the Swinging Europe 2003 Big Band (later renamed the European Jazz Orchestra). Led by Italian conductor and jazz bassist, Bruno Tommaso, Swinging Europe 2003 concentrated on present-day La Banda music – an Italian musical tradition which has its roots in the music of that small community’s amateur wind bands of the 19th century. The contemporary Banda tradition mixes influences from the vast heritage of Italian music, from Frescobaldi to Puccini and Morricone, from folk to jazz.
Like the modern Banda tradition, Cantatori sauna finlandese seeks its inspiration from historical aesthetics and forms. Starting out as a four-part imitation, the piece soon departs from its stylistic default framework and grows through modulations into a twisted double canon above a stable ground-like repetitive chord progression.
Cantatori sauna finlandese continues attacca to Questa storia del mago non mi convince, a piece originally written for Ensemble Ambrosius in 1997.
Instrumentation
for big band (with string quartet and accordion)
2003
Flute
Clarinet in Bb (doubling bass clarinet in Bb)
Soprano saxophone (in Bb)
Alto saxophone (in Eb)
Barytone saxophone (in Bb)
2 trumpets (in Bb)
2 trombones
String quartet
Vibraphone
Accordion
Electric guitar
Double bass
Drums