Mario Giovanoli is a freelance composer, multi instrumentalist and lyricist who was born in Chur. He began his musical education on the recorder at the age of five. Five years later he was playing the transverse flute, after 1966 under the instruction of Brigitte Kronjäger-Bryner. He performed as a percussionist after establishing his own rock band in 1967. Giovanoli was a long-term member and first flutist of the Chur Orchestra Association under Willy Byland. After four years at college he began a thirteen-year long career teaching at various music schools. In 1971 he was employed for the first time as a theatre musician at the city theatre in Chur. In 1975 he taught himself to play the saxophone. In 1977 he began a four semester study at Winterthur Conservatory under Heinrich Keller with his main instrument being the transverse flute. From 1978 until 1983 he was the singing teacher of secondary and high school pupils in Adliswil. He performed intermittently with various chamber music formations, rock, blues and jazz groups (including together with La Lupa, Walter Lietha, Linard Bardill, Paulin Nuotclà, Fritz Trippel and others). He has made diverse LP and CD recordings as well as music for several films. From 1971 until 1991 he produced numerous musical compositions for theatre. He was also responsible for the music for theatres in the German speaking parts of Switzerland and abroad under the direction of Jean Grädel, Johannes Peyer, Franz Weber, Günter Wissemann and others. After 1984 he received various composition commissions for chamber and orchestral works. In 1986 he was awarded a financial prize by the canton of Grison for three chamber musical world premieres. In 1991 he received another financial award from the canton of Grison to help further his musical work. Giovanoli has been a member of the Swiss copyright association SUISA since 1975. Since 1999 he has produced compositions for animation films, internet, advertising, trade fairs, Multivisions-Shows and so on.
Work list
Orcho (1986)
Instrumentation: for string orchestra, congas and cymbals
The congas and cymbals form a delightful yet unusual contrast in this orchestral piece especially produced for amateur musicians.
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
So feurig (1986)
Instrumentation: for tenor, flute, violin and organ
Texts: Maria Lutz-Gantenbein
The expressionistic musicalisation of a poem by the authoress Maria Lutz-Gantenbein. First performed in remembrance at her funeral service.
Duration: 4' 00" Manuscript
Piccola mattinata (1987)
Instrumentation: for soprano, alto and tenor recorders, harpsichord and double-bass
A little morning music to warm up the flutists finger joints. Can also be used to aerate the bronchi before breakfast.
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
Kleines Drei mal Eins (1987)
Instrumentation: for flute (alto flute), piano and double-bass
All trio combinations (flute solo, piano solo, double-bass solo, flute/piano, flute/double-bass, piano/double-bass and trio) are processed into a single, racy piece interspersed with meditative passages.
Duration: 13' 30" Manuscript
Algebro mordeato (1988)
Instrumentation: for clarinet and piano
A peppy duet composed for René Oswald and Anette Weisbrod. Conceived to relax the interpreters as well as the listeners of an arduous duet evening.
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
Advents-Suite (1988)
Instrumentation: for baritone and string orchestra
This adaptation of three Romanic advent songs with their roots in the middle ages. They are homogeneously presented from spherically dense to folksy and merry.
Duration: 10' 00" Manuscript
Saxophonie (1989)
Instrumentation: for saxophone quartet (SATB), string orchestra, electronic bass, electronic guitar, mouth organ and percussion
In the search for a rock/rondo symbiosis a classical string orchestra is interwoven with a partly freely improvising saxophone quartet, an electronically distorted guitar and a mouth organ (Bluesharp).
Duration: 17' 00" Manuscript
Trauermusik (1990)
For Hannes Domenig
Instrumentation: for string quartet
Dedicated to my friend Hannes Domenig and written on the night I received the news of her tragic accidental death. 31 bars symbolise the 31 years of her terribly short musical life.
Duration: 4' 00" Manuscript
Trionferno (1992)
Instrumentation: for flute, bass clarinet and harp
A virtuoso piece with a South American flavour written for the transverse flute. The bass clarinet takes the role of the double-bass and the harp combines the two wind instruments with effervescent arpeggi.
Duration: 8' 00" Manuscript
Quadro stagione (1992-1993)
Instrumentation: for two horns, electronic bass, percussion, kettle drum, vibraphone and chamber orchestra (2.0.2.2/0.0.0.0/str)
This piece appears as a combination of rock music and classical orchestral use garnished with solo instruments rarely applied in traditional serious music. The two horns, electronic bass, kettle drum, vibraphone and jazz percussion fill the majority of the solo roles. The first part (70 bars) functions as an overture in which the whole instrumentarium is introduced. The second part (53 bars) is contested exclusively by the soloists with ephasis on the percussion. The third part (132 bars) lies at the heart of the composition. Short melodic dialogues between the woodwind (oboe, clarinet, bassoon), the strings and the horns develop over a meditative sound cloud produced by the vibraphone. The fourth part (50 bars) rages with brute force towards the end of the composition.
The title of the piece is to be understood ironically. As with the pizza bearing a similar name, widely varying ingredients cavort on an orchestral pastry and become a feast for the ears, both for the interpreters and the listeners. The piece has, at the highest, the number four in common with Vivaldi's Four Seasons; it has four parts and occupies four solists.
Duration: 9' 00" Manuscript
Klariolosonett (1993-1994)
Instrumentation: for Eb clarinet
A solo showpiece for my fellow musician René Oswald. This piece consists of various new playing techniques including glissandi, double-tonguing, quarter and eighth tones, polyphonics and circular breathing.
Duration: 7' 00" Manuscript
Durch die Ufertüre zum Orchodom (1996)
Suite
Instrumentation: for string, wind instruments (fl.ob.cl.bn) and drummers
A musical safari adventure in cooperation with the orchestral association of Domat/Ems for their 60th anniversary.
The wind instruments churn and the strings hiss. Prepare those who enter through the UFERTÜRE (entrance) to leave reality. KAPRIKORN guards the WARTSAAL (waiting room) as often rigidly as waveringly with ears of Argus. Here the powers are clustered in order to undertake the journey to ORKOPOL. Hardly has the ramble through this charming island paradise ended before a fierce DURCHZUG (draught) shakes the calm. The courageous warriors twirl exhausted and confusedly into a somnambulous ELEGIE. Crippling frost takes posession of limbs yet a driving drum roll prevents them from freezing. In a frantic ABFAHRT (descent) the heros roar toward the object of their vision: harmoniously radient, through spume and mist, appears the ORCHODOM upon the horizon.
Duration: 50' 00" Manuscript
Ballettmusik zu "Fatima und der Traumdieb" (ballet music to "Fatima und der Traumdieb") (2006)
5 orientally inspired pieces
Instrumentation: for child/youth orchestra (string orchestra, flute, clarinet, percussion)
Duration: 15' 00" Manuscript
Elegie (2006-2008)
7 poems by Maria Lutz-Gantenbein in memory of Esther Sasson-Giovanoli
Instrumentation: for solo soprano, solo tenor, mixed choir and chamber orchestra (string orchestra, oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon)
Texts: Maria Lutz-Gantenbein
1. Vergänglichkeit (5'30'')
A canon-like opening by the strings culminating in the tormented scream "Warum?" (Why?) is followed by a pulsating melody by the cellos surrounded by the phrases of the oboe, the traverse flute, the clarinet and the bassoon. A thunderbolt strikes from the clear sky and puts an abrupt end to the light-hearted scene. The choir invites the audience: "Komm mit in meine dunklen Träume…" (Enter my dark dreams...). The themes develop in an interaction between choir and orchestra and culminate in the fearful question "Wo darf die Blume Blüte bleiben wenn Früchte früh im Fallen sind?" (Where are the flower blossoms when the fruit is falling early).
2. Im Dämmergrau der Trauer (3'40'')
Four variations on a theme consisting mainly of whole tone scales which are interpreted by the choir with dynamic nuances.
3. Melancholie (3'30'')
Solo violins shimmer tenderly over the strings floating 6/8 rhythms interwoven by weepy wind solos. A male voice penetrates this ethereal atmosphere and evokes the dull experience of a rainy day in 3/4 time.
4. Resignation (5'30'')
Tenor and bass accompany the text sung by soprano and alto in an onomatopoetic manner while the strings symbolise rise and fall in wave-like patterns. The dialogues between the wind section accentuate the irreversibility of the situation in short recapitulations of the sung melodies.
5. Verlorenheit (4'30'')
Interplay between solo voices and choir within an impressionistic atmosphere.
6. Herbstgefühl (3'30'')
An orchestral storm is roaring over the land and a female voice, supported by the bassoon, is calming and weakening the wild elements.
7. Mond (2'30'')
The repetitive and continuously changing chords of the wind quartet build the harmonic base for the choir to emerge and introduce some sparkles of hope and bring the work to a reconciliatory end.
Manuscript
Solosuite (2008)
Instrumentation: for flute
Duration: 15' 00" Manuscript
Gemeinsam (2017)
Instrumentation: Gemischter Chor und Gambenquartett (optional)
Texts: Rose Ausländer
Expressionistische Vertonung des gleichnamigen Gedichtes von Rose Ausländer.
Duration: 7' 30" Manuscript
Feuer, Erde, Luft und Silber (2018)
Instrumentation: 2 Hörner, 2 Oboen, Kontrabass (solistisch) und Streichorchester
Die Auftragskomposition zum 25-Jahr-Jubiläum (Silber) der Churer «orchestrina» für 2 Hörner (Feuer), 2 Oboen, Kontrabass (Erde) und Streichorchester (Luft) gliedert sich in drei je ca. 5-minütige Sätze: Einer majestätischen Eröffnung folgt der verträumt-meditative Mittelteil und mündet in das dahinpreschende Finale