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San Antonino IV

Date
8 December 2024
Place
Port of Mar del Plata, Argentina
San Antonino IV

San Antonino Music for orchestras, whistles, cars and yellow boats, for the port of Mar del Plata

Martín Virgili

December 8, 2024 – 11 am — Port of Mar del Plata

Special collaboration in developing the project: Mariano Losi

Summary

San Antonino is a piece of music composed for the port of Mar del Plata, making an 80,000-square-meter space audible by working the seascape with a variety of sound sources. This piece belongs to a body of work concerned with art and territory, and can be read at a local, regional and global scale.

The project consists of two ensembles of horns and whistles (positioned on the south and north breakwaters), a car with sirens moving along the south breakwater, four boats fitted with sirens, horns and musicians, and an airplane. In addition, a long-range sound system positioned near “el Cristo” on the south breakwater plays back field recordings of the nautical pilgrimage and the port, along with other allegorical sounds.

San Antonino traces back to the causes behind the construction of a local identity — “the nautical pilgrimage,” “the fishermen’s feast,” “the blessing of the waters” — and to the ways these vernacular rituals appropriate and give meaning to the territory, though its main interest lies in designing a contemporary popular festival.

Deeply local, this music holds in its sights an idea of art understood as social sculpture: an art of agreements among peers, nourished by the joy of building a shared project for the community’s benefit. An art of peace. San Antonino is the sound of a place and of those who live in it.

Motivation

San Antonino is a musical project with a strong heritage imprint. The composition is driven by the deteriorating state of Mar del Plata’s yellow boats and the port’s other tangible and intangible heritage assets. Without losing sight of the festive character of popular music, San Antonino also seeks to turn attention toward the port’s territory and its material circumstances: its sounds, practices, history, social relations and symbols.

Previous editions

Movements

Andante de sirenas con marcato de trompas y silbatos. Vocazioni animate de las escolleras. Proclama emotivo al Puerto de Mar del Plata. Entrata trionfale de los barcos. Passerella a filo de banderas y pañuelos. Danza delle barche con poema a las familias fundadoras. Grande cadenza. Canción del pescador: Madonnina del mare. Homenaje. Omaggio solenne. Amado Mar del Sur, ti ricordiamo con i fiori. Grande finale, maestoso ed esplosivo, con bombas, gritos, coros e luci.

Credits

Press

San Antonino IV