There’s a centuries-old love story between Venice and music. The city has always been a haven for musicians from all over the world, and was considered a true capital of music between the 16th and 18th centuries. How much do we really know about this relationship, and what has emerged in the context of contemporary music today?

The third episode of Nowtilus, “Great music, Venice! "La biona in gondoeta", Luigi Nono and other sounds”, not only investigates the importance of music during the Serenissima, but also its contemporary identities, from experiments in electronic music, to reggae, and right up to the Venetian and Veneto popular repertoire in the 60s by musicians such as Luisa Ronchini, Alberto D’Amico, and many others.

An audio tour de force in the company of Veniero Rizzardi, who tells us about everything from the spectacular Renaissance musical landscape to date, to contemporary music and the Venetian composer and musician Luigi Nono, who in 1984 presented his work “Prometeo” at the Church of San Lorenzo, now home to Ocean Space. We also speak to researcher and singer Maria Bergamo, who explores the multifaceted and vast reality of Venetian folk music, both historical and contemporary, and its extraordinary flexibility.

An in-depth study on the topic is available with Nowtilus Plus in which you will also find a playlist of classical and popular music recommended by Enrico Bettinello, dedicated to our beloved city of Venice.

The episode is available on Ocean-Archive.org and on TBA21–Academy Radio on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

“Nowtilus. Stories from an urban lagoon in the 21st century” is a podcast produced by Ocean Space, Venice, for TBA21–Academy Radio. Music by Enrico Coniglio.

Each episode of the second season of Nowtilus. Stories from an urban lagoon in the 21st century! is accompanied by Nowtilus Plus, a document with a bibliography, related images, and an in-depth analysis of the content discussed by the guests aboard.

Check out the material from the third episode:

Veniero Rizzardi carries out research in the fields of musicology, the history of music technology and the social history of sound. He has edited critical editions of scores (Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna), and published books and articles on various contemporary repertoires. He is also active as curator of concert series and discographic publications, and currently teaches at Ca' Foscari University in Venice and at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague (NL).

Maria Bergamo is one of the voices of popular music in the lagoon. Born in Venice, an art historian and university researcher, she began singing as a soloist in the city's most important gospel choirs, but her encounter with ethnic sounds and popular music marked a decisive change in her passions and vocal research: she studied with great voices of Italian popular music, such as Elena Ledda and Sandra Mangini. For years she has been the voice of the group "Galere di Fiandra e di Siria" with whom she has recorded two albums, "Rotte musicali and Verso Sud". He is part of Giovanni Dell'Olivo's "Collettivo Lagunaria" with whom he recorded "Addio a Ulisse" and created various shows. She conceived and directed the youth choir Non nobis; with the vocal group D'altrocanto Duo, Elida Bellon and Giulia Prete she contributes to the Singing Workshop of the Circolo Arci Trentin Baratto; she is the 'maestro' of the Coro delle Lamentele in Venice.