Musica Fiorita, Baroque Music ensemble from Switzerland performed in Goa recently. Dr Luis Dias spoke to the founder and director of Musica Fiorita, Daniela Dolci.

NT BUZZ

Tell us about Musica Fiorita, and the rationale behind its creation?

Musica Fiorita is 21-year-old. I founded it in the year 1990. It is an ensemble that specialises in ‘ancient’ music played on ‘historic’ or period instruments. We have all trained at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (the education and research centre for Early Music in Basle, Switzerland). The members come from all over the world; I am Italian; there are musicians from Brazil, Japan, France, Germany, etc, ten nationalities in all.

How did you get interested in Early Music?

As a child, I began with the recorder (Blockflöte). I come from Sicily. My father was not financially well off, as he was a social worker. But he had many children (laughs). The recorder was the ideal instrument, as it was not very expensive. The whole family played it. Of course, the instrument was suited mainly for Baroque music. So that’s how I got introduced to Baroque music. I gradually outgrew the recorder and I began to look for an alternative. And I found it in the cembalo (harpsichord).   

What happened then?

So I went to Basle to study harpsichord. I then specialised further in Amsterdam.  I played for a decade as harpsichordist, as soloist. But that was also too limiting. So I began to work in an ensemble setting to develop more colours in Baroque music.  The harpsichord is a wonderful instrument but limited in its possibilities of sound. However, from the harpsichord I can direct quite easily to give harmonic or rhythmic impulse to the music and thus lead the group. And this is how it was in the Baroque period. You had the Maestro al Cembalo.

You’ve brought a harpsichord with you on tour...

-Yes, it has been purpose-built especially for the India tour. It is lightweight, a ‘travel’ harpsichord. These existed in Baroque times too. As you know, a regular harpsichord is big, heavy, and cumbersome. There still aren’t any harpsichords in India.

Your concert features several composers that are not very well-known: Marini, Negri, Merula, Uccellini...

True.   But our ensemble is renowned also for bringing long-forgotten composers and their music back into the limelight. I go to libraries and archives and search for old compositions which have faded into oblivion. We play them, record them to disc, and bring them back into the public domain. I have been doing this for twenty years now.

The music you played in Goa was danced to not only by Il Ballarino but also a couple of Bharatnatyam dancers...

Yes! Our India tour last year was very well-received. So I thought: “I want to showcase not only Musica Fiorito and Il Ballarino, I want more of an exchange, a dialogue with Indian culture”. And so we included two female Indian dancers, and the mutual exchange we have achieved has been wonderful! It is truly a coming-together of two cultures, which instead of clashing on the contrary had many meeting-points... the instruments, the dancing gestures. We have this time with us the theorbo, and on our last tour we brought along a psaltery, which shares similarities with the Indian santoor. This is a fantastic synthesis of the two cultures that I am absolutely passionate about.