1979, a few months later inexperience and difficulties to face every little obstacle began to spread out. Feelings of discouragement among the new singers, often wondering if they should continue when, thanks to unexpected connections, a tall, distinguished gentleman, with the smile of confidence, comes in. He is introduced to the choir before starting the singing class. He is Piero Andreose, Lieutenant Colonel of the Alpini, military invalid living in Milan and a renown choirs conductor (including very important  ones such as Stella Alpina of Treviso etc ...). He makes us sing a song (so to speak !!!), leans desperate his hands in his short hair and stops the execution. One senses immediately from the first words Piero’s tenacity, sincerity and firmness.

"I will never direct you, one of you will!”  says with a confident and almost intimidating voice. "Who knows music among you?" And Raffaele, former principal trumpet of the brass band and with a basic music knowledge, takes a small step forward (or maybe the others moved backwards!). "You will conduct the choir!" exclaims Andreose "and I will be your teacher!". From that evening on the choir begins the harder and most challenging climb that a group of friends would never imagined. The Amici della Montagna Choir was born. From these few lines you can understand the fundamental role that Andreose played in our choir. Piero was not simply a music teacher; he was indeed able to give confidence to the choristers, make the best of the ability of each of us, as the great master he was. He also left us some harmonizations that many choirs still sing. Among these songs, "Ciant de Jegher" is the most beloved one not only from choirs, but also from the public.

The text is in "Ladino", a dialect from the upper Val Badia, written by an anonymous and sung in different harmonizations, including Piero Andreose’s one, dating back to 1948, shortly before he became director of the Stella Alpina Choir from Treviso.

The delicacy and simplicity of this song is represented by the unfolding of a forest’s nightlife apparently voiceless, but actually full of sounds, feelings, situations that make it beautiful; and even the hunter leaving home in the night after the first bellring, to kill the peace of the forest, witnesses in disbelief and amazement the  expressiveness of nature.

The song of the cuckoo, the peep of the birds in their nests and the background of the cricket become poetry and fascinate anyone who hears these simple, but at the same time magic melodies. 

It has been many years since the loss of our friend Piero, "the poet of birds" as Bepi de Marzi liked to call him; in this time the choir has decided to always sing his song, adopting it as his spiritual testament. As a matter of fact, behind the figure of a rude and severe "Lieutenant Colonel" of the mountain, of a great war invalid, as Piero Andreose was, there hided a good and mild man who has been able to give so much with little, particularly to our choir. Thank you Piero.

Our teachers

1977 is the year of the first steps when Felice Ceriani, at the time conductor of the Brass Band S. Marco in Origgio, president of the Parish Choir and music teacher at  the junior high scool of our village, commits to musically shape the new choir. He has not only the great merit to have given the basis and the first musical knowledge to the inexperienced folksongs lovers, but also the ability to have created the group of Amici that soon, in 1979, will officially become the “Amici della Montagna Choir”. For reasons of work and time, he has never conducted the choir since its official birth. We cannot, however, forget Felice and thank him for what he has been able to give.

Maestro dal 1979 al 2020,

Come si possono spiegare 40 anni di direzione in poche righe? Raffaele Ceriani è stato uno dei fondatori del nostro Coro e lo ha diretto fin dalla nascita, grazie all’intuito dell’allora consulente musicale Piero Andreose che lo scelse per guidare la nuova formazione corale appena formatasi (Giugno 1979).

Raffaele, ex prima tromba della banda nonché conoscitore delle basi musicali, scala ben presto le tappe per diventare uno dei direttori più apprezzati di Cori di Ispirazione Popolare non solo nella nostra provincia, dove partecipa a numerosi corsi di direzione, ma anche fuori regione e all’estero per la sua spiccata volontà alla ricerca della precisione, delle dinamiche e dell’armonia musicale.

Come alcuni Maestri di altri cori, intraprende costantemente lo studio del repertorio di Bepi De Marzi, che spesso amava chiamarlo “Raffaele il mite!”, il quale lo annovera come suo “Allievo”, collaborando fattivamente alla crescita sia musicale sia personale.

Per il suo trascorso Alpino, nella Divisione Julia, dal 2008 viene chiamato a dirige il Coro A.N.A. della Sez. di Varese.

 

Scrive di lui Bepi De Marzi (20/10/2022)

 

Raffaele, per me, è stato sempre un Cuore di Brughiera, un Mistero delle Pianure che si allargano a Ponente di Milano, quella che si chiamava L’Insùbria.
Raffaele Ceriani, apparentemente duro e silenzioso, ma profumato di robinie lombarde, quei grappoli bianchi, oppure appena dorati, che dicono della
buona stagione. La robinia, si sa, è capace di solitudini, ma apparenti, perché intorno a sé dissemina germogli e organizza il suo Bosco Armonioso,
pur se difficile da percorrere nel buio della non conoscenza, della poca pazienza.
Raffaele che mi ha cantato subito, che si è addolcito alle mie storie, che le ha comunicate ai suoi cantori con l’autorità del sapiente che racconta la vita
cercando pensieri di poesia, ma non invadenti, non inutili, non sperduti dopo l'affettuosa confidenza.
Grazie, Raffaele, grazie per quanto hai donato a questi slarghi di pianura, alle montagne che si innalzano sopra i laghi e i fiumi, ai boschi di quella

che chiamano La Brughiera, ma che è come il tuo carattere forte e un poco misterioso. Ti abbraccio con affetto fraterno e immensa riconoscenza, Bepi De Marzi.