Video: Joseph Natoli Performs His Newest Composition “Alone” 4/13/2020

Accordionist Joseph Natoli presents his newest composition (April 13, 2020), “Alone”. Joe commented, “I was compelled to write this piece tonight because of the overwhelming sadness related to those who have had to suffer the tragedy of leaving this earth alone because of this pandemic. May God give them and their families comfort. This In memory of those who lost their lives in the 2020 pandemic and left this world alone.”

Joseph Natoli, is not only a professional accordionist and composer, but also President of ATG and organizer of the IDEAS Symposium held in November 2019. Joseph Natoli has been a performer and advocate of the accordion since the age of seven. Joe’s education includes Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in music theory and composition from the University of Toronto Faculty Of Music in Toronto, Canada, where he was the first student accepted there to use the free bass accordion as an applied major instrument, studying with renowned Canadian accordionist, Joseph Macerollo.

Joseph Natoli started his musical career mostly as a performer, but had always been interested in composition, and has focused on his compositional craft even more in recent years. Joe has written many original pieces in all musical styles and genres for standard and free bass accordion, all of which are available by inquiries to janpressmusic@yahoo.com, including his latest pieces, “Child’s Play” (for 2 accordions, cello, & percussion), as well as solo accordion pieces “Sonata in F Major (in the Classical Style)”, “Children’s Suite”, “Kinetic Tango”, and “Smooth” (a Latin jazz piece for solo or accordion quintet). Joe is also founder and co-director with his partner Michael Soloway of the International Digital Electronic Accordion Society (IDEAS).

Notes about the Composition “Alone…”
from the Composer, Joseph Natoli 4/14/20

In “Alone…”, there is much symbolism in the music and in the instruments chosen which besides playing a part in the “orchestra” are also playing a part in this tragical musical theater.
The lone acoustic bass starts the piece on a single note (almost on queue just as the title Alone… appears in the video), really intending to emphasize the concept of the word Alone. The bass then provides all the musical material in solo but animated, almost anxious style in the beginning. After that approximately one-minute bass soliloquy, it then melts into a very eerie and uncomfortable (other-worldly) electronic pulsating sound. Some have likened this to the sound of the womb or the heart, or even ventilator machines. Those are all possible symbolisms, but as the composer indicates “What was in my head as I composed this piece is that the electronic looping sound represents the unrelenting cadence of Coronavirus itself as it marches through our population, being an ever so uncomfortable, non-human, non-blending sonority, yet ever so pervasive throughout the piece, just as this virus has become in our lives.”

But when this electronic sound enters so do these delicate and beautiful strings simultaneously, very softly at first, but by the end of the piece, overtaking the structure of the piece in both volume and density until the video displays the heart-shaped tree of hope and love. These strings represent our hopes of combating the virus, and some of the tools, medicines, and therapies that we might use to accomplish that. They also represent the selfless health care heroes that work non-stop to help get people well. On top of these strings however a lone oboe comes in, really trying to capture the sadness and tragedy of those who must be isolated, or worse yet, those who are dying and not able to be with their loved ones when they pass. The oboe tries to capture that pathos, all the while that the pervasive electronic sound (the virus) tries to interfere and overcome these sentiments and sonorities.

Then the hero of this play enters… the accordion. Why the accordion? Because its bellows are symbolic lungs, providing life-sustaining air and oxygen to life and to this composition. The accordion melody takes charge and leads the way to the future in a very poignant, empathetically sad, but very hopeful soliloquy, very different from the bass soliloquy. This is the only time that the electronic looping sound (the virus) becomes silent, because it has met its match with the hero who will find solutions and a way out. The accordion carries us through to the end of the piece as the beautiful and hopeful strings enter again, becoming denser in tandem with the accordion carrying the piece to a loving and hopeful conclusion, even overcoming the re-entry of the looping electronic sounds, while never forgetting the sadness created by this pervasive entity. The oboe reminisces one more time before the finish, almost like an antibody that was formed in the blood to help protect the victim without forgetting how it got there.

Finally, the piece ends as it started, with the bass ending on several thump-thumps, like a heartbeat expiring and memorializing those who did not make it through this onslaught, and tragically succumbed Alone… Notably, the virus sound evaporates simultaneously, signaling its end with hopes that these lives were not lost in vain.

For further information: josephnatoli@ymail.com