di Stefano Prinzivalli
The Electric Sound Village is opening in Cremona, a space that connects with a tradition spanning five centuries. How do you, Franco Mussida, see this meeting of tradition and innovation?
“I see it as completely natural. Cremona is not just a city that loves music, but the soundboard of a region that has made music its identity. The traditions linked to violin making are not only historically represented by the ingenuity with which stringed instruments were built, but more generally by the work on stringed instruments. I use a prepared classical guitar, whose sound I am deeply in love with, and I know what research means. The search for a beautiful sound, the search for artistic identity and in training. The word innovation goes hand in hand with research. In Cremona and around here, I don’t think research and innovation have ever been dormant… I see innovation not only as linked to technology, as important as it is, but also to the creative work of the craftsman.
Today, more than ever, we must address the quality of sound, making ourselves and the public aware of the difference between quality and quantity. Seeking and offering beauty.
Can the book you’ll present at CREMONAMUSICA, at the Electric Sound Village on September 28th, be considered the book of your life?
“It’s certainly part of my life. Il Bimbo del Carillon, published by Salani, is an autobiographical novel. But with over 60 years of career as a musician, more than 40 of which with PFM. Another 40 spent teaching, training, and creating didactics for an organization I helped found with a group of pioneers, the CPM Music Institute, of which I am still President. And another 40 years of experience in the social field, between prisons and communities, plus about fifteen dedicated to visual art and literature, summarizing it all in a book would have been a Herculean undertaking. So I decided not to exhaust readers by selecting and describing, from what I’ve lived, some of the most significant experiences. The things that have inspired wonder in me. Encounters of music and friendship, all told through the eyes of memory and the ears of the heart. Ultimately, the book is a collective praise, a collective thanks, first and foremost to Music.”
Music and instruments: what are the optimal conditions for creating and playing at your best?
Creativity and expressiveness cannot exist without the identity of those who create and those who perform. And an artist’s identity lies in their ability to avoid getting lost in the sea of constantly evolving time, that is, to always observe their personal North Star from many different perspectives. What we are as children is not lost as adults. But if we remain children, we miss the beauty of observing reality in a way that is consistent with the Heart of an adult and an elderly person. I want to continue to be amazed, not just by remembering what I have been, and then sharing it. I believe that the optimal conditions for creating and performing at our best today are those of focusing on the dissemination and growth of individual emotional intelligence. This is not an abstract thought. I experiment with new solutions for myself and for the children who choose to experience CPM. For listeners and guests of prisons and communities. Buon futuro a tutti.”
