Zanni

“Zanni” for marimba and electronics, is a reverie on the characters of the Commedia dell’arte. Pantalone, Arlecchino, Briguella, Capitano invade the space of the marimba, transforming it into a small imaginary and poetic theater.
Zanni is the first person from Veneto in the sixteenth century, as well as the various comrades who followed him – Arlecchino, Pantalone, Brighella, Capitano and the others – give birth here to burlesque and fantasy skits that have as imaginary space and theatrical. the marimba. Speakers hidden in the belly of the instrument broadcast prerecorded sounds of the marimba itself, multiplying it, deforming it creating the illusion of a percussionist with ten hands.his device can just as easily be heard like all kinds of sound games: voice, firecrackers, shouting, accentuating some comic or poetic traits, transforming the marimba into a kind of little showbox, a traveling theater space, which is not not unlike the “Sandouk el-Ferjé” (magic box or box wonders) that was found in Lebanon and its surroundings at the beginning of the last century and of which there were some traces in my childhood of the seventies.
It was a box of marimba length with holes.

As its name suggests, Zanni Zanni is inspired by the world of Commedia dell’arte. This first character from Veneto from the 16th century, as well as the various comrades who followed him – Arlecchino, Pantalone, Brighella, Capitano and the others – give birth here to burlesque and fantastic skits which have as imaginary and theatrical space the marimba.
Speakers hidden in the belly of the instrument broadcast pre-recorded sounds of the marimba itself, multiplying it, deforming it creating the illusion of a percussionist with ten hands. This device can just as easily be heard all kinds of sound games: voice, firecrackers, shouting, accentuating some comic or poetic traits, transforming the marimba into a kind of little show box, a traveling theater space, which is not not unlike the “Sandouk el-Ferjé” (magic box or box wonders) that was found in Lebanon and its surroundings at the beginning of the last century and of which there were some traces in my childhood of the seventies.
It was a box of the length of the marimba with holes through which one could witness, for fifty piastres, all kinds of still or moving images reminiscent of a sort of archaic cinema or theater in miniature.

I Ouverture
II-Arlecchino
III-Pantalone
IV-Capitano
V-Brighella….e Pantalone
VI-Pantalone picchia Brighella
interludio
VII-Dottore
VIII-Innamorati
IX-Gilles da Mulino detto pedrolino -il sogno-