The well in the renaissance castle of Montefiore
was first pointed out to me by fellow jazz musicians while on tour in the
Marche district of Italy. More than a well it is an enormous, cavernous reservoir
of water where the opening of the well acts as a mouthpiece connected to a
vast underground sound chamber. When I heard the unique effects produced in
the well chamber I thought they should be recorded. The mayor of Montefiore
generously provided us with the key to the castle and, together with sound
engineer Carlo Simoncelli, we began recording at sunset and continued through
the night. Two DAT microphones were lowered into the depths of the cistern
and the flutes were played into the opening of the well. The
natural echo has a remarkably long 'tail' of around 8 seconds, so a piece
of music had to be chosen where the notes of the melody blend with each other
diatonically or chordally. A beautiful, haunting melody such as the jazz evergreen
'Stardust'
seemed like a natural choice.
The splashes that can be heard in this recording are drops of water seeping
through the stone and dripping into the cavern below. The bass frequencies
of the well are extraordinary, as can be heard on 'De Profundis' (Out of the
Depths), an improvised piece performed on the bass flute where key clicks
and tongue stops are used to make the lower frequencies of the well resonate.
The castle at Montefiore, Italy
Peter Guidi and sound engineer Carlo Simoncelli
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EIGHTY
SEVEN prizes won by bands led by Peter Guid