P eppino
D’A gostino
GDP: Buongiorno!
PD: Buongiorno!
Thanks for taking some time to visit with
us. You released a new recording last
year, Made in Italy, and I read in the press
release that you were lamenting that
Americans don’t get to hear real Italian
music very much. What are the flavors
that make up Italian music, so we can
start seeking that out and hearing more
of the real deal?
Well, Italian music is very melodic. It’s a
very rich tradition that starts with the opera,
with classical music, and so melody is really
emphasized. Some of the melodies are so
memorable. For instance, on the CD I chose
classical music, but also movie soundtracks
and Italian singer-songwriter music. In this
country, you’re right—most of the Italian
songs that are known are very old Neopolitan
songs, like “O Sole Mio,” but there are a lot
of singer-songwriters that are comparable to
Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan. They write in
Italian, so of course their music is not sold in
the US. But they have poetry and beautiful
melodies, and I think that they deserve to be
exposed. I also recorded classical composers such as Rossini—and also from movie
soundtracks by Ennio Morricone, I recorded
some of his music on this CD, Made in Italy.
And when you are thinking about arranging
traditional music for solo guitar, or movie
sound track music or orchestral music, what
is your thought process? How do you bring
all that music to six strings and ten fingers?
Well, first of all I try to be respectful of the
melodies. Maybe I’ll change the key, because
there are certain keys that are easier for the
guitar. Sometimes I change the tuning so it
makes it easier to translate those melodies
to the fretboard. The first thing that I do,
I really find where the melodies are on the
fretboard, and then I try to come up with the
right fingering, and then I add bass line and
then chords. I just use those basic elements:
melodies, chords and bass. If I can, sometimes I also add some percussion as a fourth
element, but only if I can. The guitar is a
rhythmical instrument as well as melodic, but
adding percussion, to play percussion on the
body of the guitar… I just like to make my
life complicated, basically. [Laughs]
I’m sure our readers would be very interested to hear about the Peppino D’Agostino
Signature Seagull guitar. Can you talk a
little about how that process began and
what you went through?
Well first of all, my collaboration with Robert
Godin goes back a long way. I’ve been doing
clinics for them since 1997. At one point
Robert approached me and said, “We would
like to build a guitar with your name.” That
was very nice; it felt very good. When they
build a guitar, they have to think in terms of
a very wide market, because he has to sell
D’Agostino with his Signature Seagull.
