CONTIGIT IOCULATOREM EX LANGOBARDORUM GENTE AD KAROLUM VENIRE, ET CANTIUNCULAM A SE COMPOSITAM DE EADEM RE ROTANDO IN CONSPECTU SUORUM CANTARE
It happened that a Langobard jongleur came to Charlemagne and sang a little song composed by himself about this matter within view of his own people
Chronicon Novaliciense, book III V.10 – 11th century
What would probably scandalize the jongleurs, if they lived today, would not be seeing their lyrics performed, but witnessing a show without Love.
This belief generates the original expressiveness that characterizes the engaging concerts of the Murmur Mori ensemble where the audience often finds itself having an active role during the performance.
Inspired by the popular Muse and the realities in which she still survives, since 2015 Mirkò Virginio Volpe and Silvia Kuro have been investigating jongleurs poetry and music from the 8th to the 13th century, working directly on the original sources, bringing the earliest lyrics and melodies from Italy back to life.
In 2022 the French version of the musical program "Poetesses, Poets and Jongleurs of Italy" was presented at the prestigious "Festes Baroques" festival. In the same year, “Dançando La Fressca Rosa” was published: a mini-album resulting from Mirkò and Silvia's research on the Bologna Memoriali of the 13th century, carried out with the Alma Mater Studiorum of Bologna, MemoBo project; also in 2022 they released the single "Aiuta De', vera lus et garçat", a musical reconstruction of a troubadour Alba survived in a single manuscript written in a Piedmontese vernacular from the 13th century.
In 2023 they release the album "Canzoneta, va!" concerning the connection between Provençal and Italian poetry In the 12th and 13th centuries, in the same year they were contacted by the Italian Cultural Institute of Bratislava for two concerts included in the cultural events for the "Week of the Italian Language in the World", a success also replicated at the IIC in Cologne. Murmur Mori won the historical "Premio Italia Medievale 2023" (Medieval Italy Award) ranking first in the "entertainment" category.
In 2024 after a serie of concerts in Europe, ended in France at Noirlac Abbey, the program "Canzoneta, va!" has been recorded live at Cantar di Pietre Festival by the Radio Télévision Suisse and RSI. In the same year Forum Musicum Festival (Narodowe Forum Muzyki) commissioned Murmur Mori a program focused on the theme of the crusades. After the success of the event held at the Town Hall of Wrocław, the repertoire was recorded for the album "Make love, not crusades".
The musical instruments used are reproductions based on depictions from medieval sources.
Murmur Mori ensemble has never used electricity or amplification during its shows, a choice that is not only aesthetic but determined by the desire to offer a more authentic listening experience, since ignoring or modifying the sound of the place would be a failure towards the music that Murmur Mori wants to reconstruct. Music resonates within historical environments that for centuries have returned it to our ears enriched with their personality. Furthermore, for this very reason, all the audio recordings of the Murmur Mori ensemble have been filmed and are available in the section "video section".
SILVIA KURO
She studies and practices folk singing and Gregorian chant; she is part of the choir of the Schola Gregoriana directed by Giovanni Conti. She is an archivist and the musical paleographer for Murmur Mori. She plays the portative organ and percussions. She sings and composes.
MIRKÒ VIRGINIO VOLPE
Artistic director of the ensemble. After having lived and studied for six years in Bologna, since 2017 he has completely abandoned any city reality, preferring to lead a life of bohème, and moved to a small village in the Piedmontese Alps where, thanks to contact with wild nature, he can devote himself with greater dedication only to musical practice and historical research for the ensemble.
MATTEO BRUSA
Folk music and Lombard traditions researcher, he collaborates with the ensemble from 2019 as musician and technician for the recording process of the music.
ALESSANDRA LAZZARINI
Fascinated by music since she was a child, Alessandra began her musical studies on the piano and practicing choral singing at the "Santa Cecilia" school in Rovigo. In search of musical inspiration, she continues her classical studies, specializing at the Conservatory on the transverse flute and perfectiong her tecnique in chamber music and didactic under the guidance of various masters, all along this path she had the opportunity to explore the expanding universe which the music is through different genres. She teach flute in secondary schools and she collaborated with Murmur Mori since 2015.
NICOLÒ GUGLIUZZA
The first theatrical experiences began at the age of 16. "Tra ciliegi e robot" (2020) is his first collection of poems, published by Edizioni del Faro. He currently lives in Brussels where he is a performer and poet in Italian, French and English. He has collaborated with Murmur Mori since 2022 as a narrator during the live performances of the ensemble.
