Manlio Sgalambro (9 December 1924 – 6 March 2014) was an Italian philosopher and writer, born in Lentini. He is best known for his collaboration with Franco Battiato.

Biography

Philosophical work

Beginning In 1945, Sgalambro worked jointly with the review magazine Prisma (directed by Leonardo Grassi); his first writing was Paralipomeni all'irrazionalismo. In 1947, he matriculated at the University of Catania with a law degree. From 1959, along with Sebastiano Addamo, he wrote for the magazine Incidenze, with his first article being Crepuscolo e notte (reprinted in 2011). Meanwhile, he wrote for the journal Tempo Presente (directed by Nicola Chiaromonte and Ignazio Silone). In 1963, at the age of 39, he got married. He had five children (Elena, Simona, Riccardo, Irene, Elisa). The income from his citrus orchards, which he inherited from his father, was no longer sufficient, so he chose to supplement it by undertaking a thesis for a degree and teaching. In the late 1970s, Sgalambro began to organize his thoughts into a systematic body of work. Then at the age of 55, he sent his first book La morte del sole, to the editor Adelphi:"And it rested there for two years. But since I am done in this way, I did not ask anything. Then my wife received a call. They asked me to go to Milan, to forge contact with the editor."

• Manlio Sgalambro In the following years with the same editor, he published: Trattato dell'empietà, Anatol, Del pensare breve, Dialogo teologico, Dell'indifferenza in materia di società, La consolazione, Trattato dell'età, De mundo pessimo and La conoscenza del peggio e Del delitto. During the early 1990s with some friends, he established a small editorial activity in Catania: De Martinis. On the inside, Sgalambro managed pamphlets, publishing a pair of works (Dialogo sul comunismo and Contro la musica) and printing some operas by Giulio Cesare Vanini and Julien Benda.

Collaboration with Battiato

In 1993 during the presentation of a common friend's poetry book, he encountered the musician Franco Battiato. After a few days, Battiato asked to meet him to propose the libretto for the opus Il cavaliere dell'intelletto, about Frederik II of Hohenstaufen: "A year ago I didn't know him. Since then we have been worked together. He claims to be just a philosopher, but according to me he is a talent that stimulates and enriches me. It seems impossible to me, today, returning to write the lyrics for my things."

• Franco Battiato From 1994 until his death, he collaborated with Franco Battiato's on many projects including: Starting in 1998 he penned song lyrics for Patty Pravo (Emma), Fiorella Mannoia (Il movimento del dare), Carmen Consoli (Marie ti amiamo) and Milva (Non conosco nessun Patrizio). In 2000, he published the single La mer, containing the cover of the famous song by Charles Trenet. In 2001, he published the album Fun club, produced by Franco Battiato and Saro Cosentino, containing songs including La vie en rose (by Édith Piaf), Moon river (by Henry Mancini) and Me gustas tú (by Manu Chao). In 2007, he lent his voice to the DC-9 airliner in Pippo Pollina's opera Ultimo volo ("Last flight"), about the 1980 loss of Itavia Flight 870 also known as the Ustica massacre. In 2009, he published the single La canzone della galassia, containing a cover of The galaxy song (taken from Monty Python's The meaning of life), sung with the Sardinian-English group Mab.

Discography

Album

Singoli

Videography

Videoclips

Collaborations

Literature

Music

Album

Singles

Songs

Cinema

Movies

Documentaries

Videos

Theater

Television

Curiosities

Music

"This tension lives both nationally and quickly and to everyone, both young and old, but after they have fallen, they are evil again."

• Heraclitus, Fragments "I invite you to the voyage in the land that is like you. The misty sunlights of those cloudy skies have for my spirit the charm of your treacherous eyes, shining brightly. There all is order and beauty, luxury, peace, and pleasure; the world falls asleep in a warm glow of light; see on the canals those vessels sleeping: their mood is adventurous to satisfy your slightest desires."
• Charles Baudelaire, Les fleurs du mal "If, in speaking of my points, I think of some system of things, e.g., the system: love, law, chimney-sweep… and then assume all my axioms as relations between these things, then my propositions, e.g., Pythagoras' theorem, are also valid for these things."
• David Hilbert, Letter to Frege of 29 December 1899 Since 1996, he participates in almost every Franco Battiato's tours: "Bacterium flourescens liquefaciens, Bacterium histolyticum, Bacterium mesentericum, Bacterium sporagenes, Bacterium putrificus…"
• Manlio Sgalambro, Canzone chimica

Cinema

Theater