Giovanna Marini

Giovanna Marini (born Giovanna Salviucci; 19 January 1937 – 8 May 2024) was an Italian singer, songwriter, researcher and ethnomusicologist.

Biography
Marini was born in Rome in a family of musicians. Her father, Giovanni Salviucci (1907-1937), was a composer who studied with Ottorino Respighi. Her mother, Ida Parpagliolo (1904-1994), was a pianist. Marini studied classic guitar with Andrés Segovia and in 1959 she graduated at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.

In the early 1960s she befriended artists and writers who were passionate about Italian popular traditions, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Dario Fo, Italo Calvino and Roberto Leydi. In the mid-1960s she married Pino Marini, a nuclear physicist. The couple relocated for a few years in Boston, an experience that will later inform Giovanna Marini's 1966 album Vi parlo dell'America (Let me tell you about America). An ardent communist, Marini identified in contemporary folk music the perfect vehicle to express her political ideas. Over the course of her career Marini wrote many protest song lyrics (many of them sung by fellow musician Paolo Pietrangeli), embracing the themes of social justice that characterized the Italian '68 period and other political issues.

From 1991 to 2002 she taught ethnomusicology at the University of Vincennes (Paris-VIII).

Marini died in Rome on 8 May 2024, at the age of 87.

Awards

 * 1999 – Targa Tenco: best singer (with Francesco De Gregori) for Il fischio del vapore

EP and singles

 * 1963: Lu picurare - canzoni popolari abruzzesi (45 rpm)
 * 1965: La disispirata - canzoni popolari sarde (45 rpm)
 * 1967: Ciò che voi non-dite/La linea rossa (EP, with I.Della Mea)
 * 1977: Ho bisogno di te/Se si sa di volare (EP)

Albums

 * 1965: Le canzoni di Bella ciao
 * 1966: Vi parlo dell'America
 * 1967: Chiesa Chiesa
 * 1968: Lunga vita allo spettacolo. Viva Voltaire e Montesquieu
 * 1971: Controcanale '70
 * 1972: La Nave. La Creatora
 * 1969: La vivazione
 * 1974: L'eroe (ballata nuova)
 * 1975: I treni per Reggio Calabria
 * 1978: Correvano coi carri
 * 1979: La grande madre impazzita 1
 * 1979: La grande madre impazzita 2
 * 1980: Cantate de tous les jours
 * 1982: Cantate de tous les jours vol. 2
 * 1983: Quatuor vocal
 * 1984: Le cadeau de l'empereur
 * 1985: Pour Pier Paolo
 * 1986: Requiem.Cantata delle cinque stanze
 * 1996: Oresteia Aischylos (Igloo)
 * 1998: Musiche di scena
 * 1999: Si bemolle
 * 2002: Il fischio del vapore (with Francesco De Gregori)
 * 2003: Buongiorno e buonasera
 * 2004: Passioni
 * 2005: Nostra patria è il mondo intero
 * 2006: Antologia