Four Gypsy Pieces for Piccolo and Piano: Nicola Mazzanti

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• published: 19 Jul 2014
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Four Gypsy Pieces for Piccolo and Piano Total Duration - 19:30. Movement I - Shaman (Gypsy healer) 7:22 "I have vivid memories of us lying on the grass and looking up to a summery night sky, my mother and grandmother relating what they could see up there in the big wide dome of heaven. It was sometimes as if a stairway stretched up to the stars. This was where I learned to see visions in the sky. You lay there flat on the grass looking up into the velvety darkness in the same way you might gaze into a crystal ball, staring until a milkiness blinded you and you saw pictures in the stars or around the moon, animals, faces, objects which we could fit into our lives as guiding forces of change." Patrick Jasper Lee - Romani Gypsy Within the Gypsy clan, a shaman or Chovihano inherits an inner key or pass which gives them permission to access their world - the Otherworld, which when entered, provides a link with their pagan past as well as incite into what their role will be in the Roman, Shamanic tradition. How they enter this world fascinated me and ultimately led to the inspiration of this movement. Movement II - mulo (spirit) 4:44 "The Gypsy fears two things; the mulo or ghost of the dead returning to haunt them and being a social outcast from their clan." An eyewitness account written by Sara Norberg-Prytyk,a Polish-Jewish survivor of Auschwitz tells the story of her life in the concentration camps during World War II. Mengele walked in with a little 4 year old Gypsy boy - beautiful and dressed in a gorgeous white uniform. Mengele had him dance the kozak and sing a song. Sara and the rest stood at attention while the little boy showed off. Menegle then fed him a box of chocolates. They left. Marusia, a friend of Sara's stated - "I am sure that Mengele will kill him soon." There was a family camp near Auschwitz on field "C". There were 25,000 Gypsies in that camp. The Gypsies were permitted to think they would live throughout the war. The liquidation took place one October evening. One could hear the murmur of the engines. They were all taken to the gas chambers. The next day Mengele paraded around the camp without the Gypsy boy. The men told her that at the last minute Mengele had pushed him into the gas chamber with his own hands. This lament mourns the spirit of the little Gypsy boy. Movement III - chavvies (children) 3:03 "There was a time when folks believed that Gypsies used to steal children. That's the way they said it was, but the truth is, Gypsies have to be protected from the Gorjios who take their chavvies away." When I read this statement by a Romani Gypsy man I thought of the legend of the pied piper allegedly written by the English author and poet, Robert Brown. With his magic flute, outlandish dress, and shrewd business propositions, the Pied Piper resembles all the traditional attributes of the Gypsy people. The melody captures the alluring aspects of the Pied Piper's call. Movement IV Yag (spirit of fire) 4:21 "The old Gypsies would throw sacred herbs such as mugwort and rosemary onto their fires and then stare into the flames until the flames had turned themselves into shapes and people, for there were whose who were waiting to learn from it and who were naturally identifying with it." Yag's spirit or fire draws the Chovihano or shaman into the flames to dance. The shaman is able to draw himself into the smoke which came from the fire and is able to look into the future. In one instance, a healer saw, very distantly, something sticking out of the soil. The ground began to rumble and move beneath him, as if some kind of earth tremor were taking place. It was both exhilarating and disturbing. Then he became aware of a great vortex of energy which was attempting to spiral its way up to the surface. This theme continues in every ancient woodland visited.