Cataforio (RC), 1st of September 2009; the road to Polsi is really difficult, the camper cannot face it, fortunately some friends from St. Agatha Valley give me a ride. We arrive when it is already dark. Polsi di San Lucais a little village in the province of Reggio Calabria in the very heart of Aspromonte, when you get there you don’t believe to your eyes. The smoke from the grills in the stalls clouds the hole valley, a theatre crowded with believers who listen to the word of God, on the opposite side of the sanctuary a lot of rote blend the sounds of their drums beaten heatedly, the couples of dancers, chosen by the indisputable mastru du ballu, alternate one another; someone will dance all night long because of a vow to Our Lady. Faces of every kind, funny faces. Sometimes they are all men. Inhuman screams telling numbers echo through the valley, they are the morra players. It is a real show that, at first, puzzles and scares, but behind those striking and choked screams used to intimidate the opponent, a smile or a more human expression emerges as soon as the game ends and everything is back to normal. .. if the word “normal” can be associate to Polsi! Inside the sanctuary the song of the elderly women in veneration to Our Lady breaks the repeated sound of the non stopping tarantella;people sleep on the ground piled up in the corners, someone eat, someone despairs or cheers up, someone kneels and proceeds towards Our Lady crossing themselves and kissing the Virgin.
In the meantime the rote keep on turning and the megaphone on the outside of the sanctuary tries to challenge that sound in the total unconcern of musicians and dancers who never stop. It is a duel between the sacred and profane, it is a beautiful madness. At 5 am exhausted I decide to go to sleep, my mind is heavy and I’m so tired I cannot even see, I choose a stone less angular than the others, I borrow a dirty towel to protect me from the cold and I fall into a deep and humid sleep. I have nightmares caused by the uninterrupted morra players cries; at this time of the night, their voices are broken and strident, in an unreal falsetto, but they continue to echo everywhere. When I wake up with a start at 8 am with the sun in my face, nothing has changed apart from the light. Morra and tarantella everywhere and the megaphone of the church declaring the start of the procession. Then the silence ... and Polsi is back to its quite sleep that will last one year.
Cataforio (RC) 4 am on Saturday September the 12th; the camper of the Cammino della Musica is parked in the only place available for cumbersome means, that is the big curve of the only road passing through the village of Sant'Agata Valley. I’m inside resting before leaving for the pilgrimage that will lead me to the Basilica of the Hermitage where there is the picture of Our Lady of Consolation patroness of Reggio Calabria city; a journey of 10 kilometers. The meeting is fixed at Cataforio church where devotees and non devotees rumour gleefully before the departure. I like very much the idea of sharing this experience with the group: to walk all together to achieve a common goal in the middle of the night listening to the songs for Our Lady alternated by the last gossip of Cataforio blabbed by the women of the village. We are many, most are women. Agata, the friend who convinced me to face the very early rising is deeply moved, she is away from her native village since a lot of time and in the last years she has never managed to join this Day. She is the one supporting the songs intonation. We get there when it is dawn, I had the unfortunate idea of walking with slippers, on the arrival I find myself barefoot...the square of the Hermitage is already crowded of people, some of them arrived the night before and they have been playing and danced the tarantella until now.
There is no way to enter in the basilica, so I stay in the churchyard trying to make good shots. When the heavy painting comes out, the people scream his admiration to Our Lady; someone says it weighs 12 quintals, the men who raise it, the carriers, are 114. Thus began a procession of 9 kilometres that will bring the painting of Our Lady to the Cathedral of Reggio Calabria, where it will be kept until the next November 21st and then will be back to the Hermitage. The priest leading the procession implores the crowd to make way, someone could seriously get hurt. When the painting will reach its destination, the pagan celebration will begin, the rota of the tarantella will create a magic circle in the middle of the square of the cathedral and all around there will be a celebration for other two days.
Thanks to: Agata, Marco Bruno (for technical, musical, mechanical assistance , board and lodging!), Demetrio Bruno, Piero Crucitti, Zi' Peppino Serra, the Folk Group of Cataforio, Bruno’s family, Giusi and Simone, Carmelo di Lallo, Mario, the Trattoria Lallo of Cataforio, the whole Cataforio.
The video you can see hereafter is focused on a single instrument for the first time in this progect. It may be considered a work dedicated to professionals in the field but I selected the images and the language using irony in order to involve everybody. The editing is the result of filming done on several occasions during this period of travel between the area of Pollino, Calabria, Basilicata and Campania. Here the bagpipe is very common. It is an instrument that has different characteristics according to the area in which it is built. The interview is focused on the "key" bagpipe characterized by a particular metal mechanism (the key) inserted at the bottom of the longer barrel, which is necessary to close the last hole otherwise unreachable by the finger of the hand. The shortest of the four pipes is called "Sc'kantillo" (in the Pollino area) and the note it emits (the most high-pitch of the four)is useful as intonation for a type of song called "a Sc'kantillo ", which you can listen in the first part of the video.
Sandro Brunacci is a manufacturer of this type of bagpipe and worthy successor ofthe Master Lanza. He explains that in theory the singing should be developped on the same height of the Sc'kantillo and thus be executed in falsetto. What I recorded at Alexandria Carretto (CS) is vocally performed by Alessandro Adduci (see www.idimenticati.splinder.com),Sandro Brunacci on the bagpipe and Vincenzo De Palmisano on the tambourine, inside the damp walls of "The Tavern of the priest", a fantastic wine cellar which carries on the wine business for only three days, staged during the festival of traditional cultures “Radicazioni” (see: Live from Alessandria del Carretto).Alessandro Adduci confesses to me that during the execution he was very excited because his grandfather used to sing this serenade and he had never sang it in front of a public so far and least of all under the unsympathetic eye of a camera. Thanks to the presence of his friends and to the atmosphere of the little tavern, the a Sc'kantillo song has attracted the approval of all the lucky customers. In the text of the serenade, the singer thanks the family members and relatives of the beloved before uttering words of love to the woman. It seems that the tradition of playing this song at weddings is now disused, but in Alexandria the Carretto there are people ready to swear that soon teams of musicians and singers will flood again the courtyard below the balcony, from which will overlook lucky brides.
Thanks to: SandroBrunacci, Alessandro Adduci, Prof. Vincenzo La Vena, Antonio Arvia and boys who play with him of which I do not remember the name but I'll find out, Paolo Napoli.
I am in Alessandria del Carretto(CS)in the middle of the Pollino National Park. Here a growing group of women dedicates part of the year thinking about how to adorn their crowns in honor of the Madonna of Carmine. These are real devotional works of art made following specific construction rules (mostly local rules). There is space for a moderate creativity which is never intrusive and... heavy: in fact the women parade during a dancing procession for six hours taking the crowns on their head.
The procession begins in the evening of 23rd of August, when Margaret tells me to follow her in the house to take the crown. This is the first time for her, she made a beautiful red coloured crown, different from the others: "Those of Plataci (village Arbëreshë CS province) have this squared shape ... for me it was a coincidence, because my father is from Plataci and almost unconsciously I created a mix of the typical shapes of Plataci and Alessandria. "Her mother is waiting for her with the new crown on her head and barefoot: "This year I decided to perform the whole procession barefoot as a sign of devotion". Women, who were looking at her curiously, later told me that once there were many barefoot women; anyone who had a vote walked barefoot and stripped of the wedding dress in front of the Virgin Mary.
We leave from Margherita’s house followed by a small procession of bagpipe and tambourine musicians. In the first part of the festival there is the search of all the crowns present in the streets of the village. After a few meters walking we already see the first one: she is Angela with its crown that represents the dome of a church. The two crowns meet each other and dance together a tarantella, then they continue the way until the group will be completed. This year there are six crowns. They will be kept in the church until the next morning.
At 9.00 a.m., the women dress the Virgin Mary, they take her on their arms and leave for the long pilgrimage. The village is celebrating, there's the band in front of the procession followed by the group of women dancing with crowns, the group of players, the women carring the Virgin Mary and the whole village behind. In six hours they will be visiting every house in Alessandria. Someone offers refreshments to the tired women, others make generous offerings to the Virgin Mary and recite prayers, others follow the procession from the balcony of their house.
The music alternates between a powerful whole band and a miserable group of bagpipe and tambourine players. Unfortunately a few days ago in Alessandria there was a mourning, and so now the players prefer not to play. In this trip I have lost a lot of opportunities due to the mournings, I cannot bear them anylonger.
The choral performance of the crowns is beautiful, women compete to wear one crown so the "owners" can rest and dance the tarantella more relaxed. This year also Isabella tries. At first she hesitated, perhaps she was afraid to fall and break the crown, or perhaps she was not sure to be ready ... to parade with the crown for the Virgin Mary is an important opportunity full of deep meanings. I watch her when she takes Margherita’s crown, I turn off the camera and I enjoy this scene without filters. Isabella hesitating calibrates the weight in the head and starts, she made it, she is ready and triumphant.
This year there is also a man with the crown on his head; this is an extraordinary fact, the Madonna of Carmine is a purely feminine festival, but that crown is an historical one and belongs to a woman who has always participated in the procession, this year she can not do it because she is ill, he is his nephew. The procession continues, the women seem to be full of energy instead of beeing tired and continue to dance nonstop. It is evening, we reach the church, last spark of joy, then the Virgin Mary is undressed and the crowns put away until next year. Women are betting that there will be many more, and Alessandria goes back to its calm.
MORE PICTURE (those above have been taken by Paolo Napoli)
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Thanks to: the women of the crowns, Paolo Napoli, the City Council of Alessandria del Carretto, Mimma, Andrea the one of the accident and Giusi Duino. The staff of Radicazioni, Sandro Brunacci, Alessandro Adduci, the whole Alessandria.
Naples, Gragnano: the view from up here reminds me Rio de Janeiro: the sea, the city, the mountains in a rapid and spectacular sequence! Instead it is the Gulf of Naples and from here you can see Ischia, Procida, Sorrento and the Vesuvius. I'm in the lab of two of the most popular and feared tammorrari of Lattari mountains and Campania in general: Raffaele Inserra and Catello Gargiulo. The atmosphere is like a far west place with cactus, cow skulls, piles of wood, in reality this so fascinating place is a recreational center for children with social problems who can be educated through the absorption of the cultural lifeblood of this area : the land, its products and tammurriata. Here children learn to build and play tammorra, cultivate the land with local products and breeding animals of various kinds. This is the social project of the two Neapolitan musicians gathered in the cultural assocition "Incanti”.
The sound impact that follows the song a 'Fronna' or more accurately 'fronn' and 'lemon' (lemon frond), together with the striking vision that was in front of my eyes, was devastating. The reiterated vibration of the drum makes this form of accompanied singing both hypnotic and enthralling.You do not feel the need of other sounds, even if often organs, putipù, gypsies trumpet (marranzano) and tricchebballacche enrich the song, but the singing and the drum are the two reigning elements, independent from the rest and indissolubly dependent one to the other. Of course not everyone is capable of such wonders, although according to Raffaele and Catello recently there are tammorra players everywhere, and you could think it is easy beating on a drum while singing, however, some impacts can be reached only with many years of experience, especially of traditional knowledge through the observation of previous generations and sharing with them. Without these elements, you are not doing Tammurriata, but one thing from the scratch, with no precise meaning, without an identity and very bad for the true tradition. "This is a thousand years tradition but the origin is always very clear," Catello said "and when you hear an old man singing it is not just that he can sing but he sings with the experience of all those that came before him, and this can be recognized in the richness of the sound in the performance ... when you create something new without respecting the past, all this is lost.
To live a tradition means to be able to interpret the sounds of the past and give them a consistent meaning in the present.This is why the middle class, who was born under different standards compared to the peasant society, can never play the tradition if they do not try to understand the codes that have created it.
All this can be also applied to the tammurriate dance that today got forms and codes certainly different than the past when it was not socially accepted a "provocative" physical contact between the dancers. Today these tabu have obviously disapperead, the risk is once again to create a new form of dance, free from the "purity" of the past. Only with wisdom and respect you can adjust a movement mainly related to traditional rural codes to a modern social dimension that admits new behavior without popularizing the value.
Raffaella Coppola and Maurizio Graziano Pollicino know it very well. They are the dancers I met in the past days in Campania (see photo and video below). Raffaella told me that during a party an old lady dancer of the village has proclaimed her the worthy successor.
So if you will have the opportunity to spend some time in these areas and attend a country event where they dance and play until late at night, enjoy the feast and be carried from the energy of tammurriata and the hospitality of the players , dancers, singers, but try also to understand between them who is celebrating a tradition or just venting some personal repressions through the imitation of something that did not belong to him at all. You don’t need to be ethnomusicology experts or Napolitain ... this feeling is clearly felt and comes straight to the heart, it is not explainable in words, it is simply in the vibration of the drum that is accorded to the voice and translated into movement.
It was a must the meeting of the il cammino dell musica with one of the key symbols of the Sardinian culture:the launeddas. It is an instrument as simple in its structure as complicated in its execution technique. Its origins were lost in the ancient nuraghic period; the discovery of the famous Sardinian small bronze representing a man playing the launeddas certifies the origin. In order to learn more about this ancient instrument that still fascinates generations with its hypnotic sound, I went to San Vito (CA) to meet one of the most talented and popular launeddas living players: the great Luigi Lai.
Thanks to him this tradition is still alive. When he returned to Sardinia from a long emigration period in Switzerland, he began to reintroduce the instrument that disappeared during the holidays. "I recommended it instead of the accordion that had taken its place, but people gave me the cold sholders and they even didn’t give me advice, then I started to propose the launeddas on my own initiative, and so people began to realize that it was worth to listen to this instrument and to take it into account. " Nowadays Luigi travels all around the most prestigious theaters and festivals in the world collaborating with internationally renowned artists from the most different musical trainings (Angelo Branduardi, Paolo Fresu ...). Among his many students he says there is certainly someone who will inherit the responsibility to continue the tradition: "The launeddas are an instrument that steals your life, only dedicating much of your time you can reach good levels. Today there are people who think to become launeddas players after a few lessons, just because they can manage to play a song, but in reality they are just destroying a tradition. If my students want to stay with me, they must do what I tell them to do and trust me, only then they can become real players, with great dedication and sacrifice.”
I know that once this instrument was used at the parties for people to dance, as it was for the Tenor in the area of Nuoro and I ask Luigi what is left today of this custom. To this question the master loses his gaze towards the sea, which can be seen from his house in Portocorallo (where I was invited for lunch during another meeting) and his face puts on a nostalgic expression. "Once there was nothing, there was no television and the player was the theater. He had an important role in the society because he made people dancing during parties and the dance was the only opportunity to get closer to a girl. The campidanese dance was very complicated, and everyone could interprete it wisely and with respect towards tradition. Today, unfortunately, it seems that the Sardinian dance, in all its styles, is often relegated to just folk phenomena and that during the time it has been so schematized to become acrobatic and "spectacular" certainly suitable to be performed in front of an audience or a group of tourists, but emptied of its true sense of ritual celebration and of "introspective sharing." (This is a leitmotiv that I've experienced in many areas of Italy: from my experience during these months of research in Italy I found that often the traditional dance unlike music seems no longer part of a present and spontaneous social shared expression, but it is comparable to an museum piece exhumed and schematized following supposable remote techniques, but at the same time adapted to the present days with purely performative show oriented techniques).
The launeddas continue to be played in processions, such as San Vito one, which I had the opportunity to follow during my stay in Sardinia. Rocco Melis and Sandro Frau told me the stories about this festival. They are two former students of Luigi Lai who participated to San Remo Festival with their group "Isola Song”showing to the public sound integrations of tradition and pop music. They also think that the dance has lost its importance, in fact the tradition would require,after the procession, everybody meet outside the church to dance, but the times are changing ... the important thing is that launeddas remain!
Thanks to: Luigi Lai Maistu, his wife, Vittorio, Tatiana and the little Riccardo (the future launeddas heir of his grand father Luigi), Rocco Melis, Sandro Frau, Fabrizio Ledda, Isola Song.
Huddling around the tenors in a circle is an emotion that few people can feel, but if you ever have the luck to meet "Populos Tenore Nugoresu" and you will be able to gently approach their art, surely they will allow you and then your voice (hoping to be able to sing in tune) will merge into a harmony that will make your soul vibrating. Only then you will understand the value of this tradition and the magic of the circle.
One evening this happened to me. I was invited by the " Populos Tenore Nugoresu " to document a "rehearsal" in which the four members of the group shared the singing experience with different friends who, in turn, got into the circle bringing special tone nuances or dancing following the rhythm of the choir.
Bobore misu boche ( half voice) of the group, told me the peculiarity of this art, among the most representative of Sardinia, during the collection of organic apricots for his market.
We could be talking and writing for decades on this type of song "whose origins are likely lost among the stones of the nuraghi" [1], but they are proud to say that this singing custom is more alive than ever. A young blood growing number huddle round educating the vocal cords to emit the typical guttural sound and the mind to interpret texts with an high poetic content.
The feature that makes the tenor song always up-to-date is its informative function. Before the media arrival the tenor had the task to inform people because they could tell the events of the village in a socially acceptable way and shared by everybody.
This function has not totally disappeared even if the majority of the groups prefer to use “repertoire” songs. However any text suitable to be interpreted in "tenor” can get a typical Sardinian taste, even songs or poetic texts belonging to the modern and international repertoire, as for example the verses written by French poet Paul Eluard reinterpreted by " Populos Tenore Nugoresu". They are inspired by ideals of liberty and fraternity, universal issues that unfortunately still needto be encouraged by the convincing tenor singing.
The song you can listen here after is an original " Populos Tenore Nugoresu " interpretation of the poetic text“Libertade” written by Paul Eluard. The song includes the“canto a sa seria” and “ballu tundu”: this second part, easily decipherable by a sudden change of time, is necessary to accompany the dance done in circle, the "round dance". The first part is freer of rhythmic patterns and characterized by the personal interpretation of the lead singer. The text is translated in Sardinian.
Abruzzo and Sardinia are certainly the most romantic regions I've found so far. The route of Il Cammino della Musica has crossed two similar episodes in these two regions that are not so similar. Moreover it was known that the entire Italy is inhabited by a nation of romantics, but in the province of Teramo and Nuoro, a few days before celebrating the wedding, the couple enlists a group of musicians of the area to have their serenade, as per tradition. A sort of bachelor party that has anything to do with striptease, transgressions, stay up all night, even if in reality, after the serenade, it is usual to feast until late hours. The first opportunity is dated 21st of May when, just arrived in Abruzzo land with the camper that was nearly dashing a roofing, I’m welcomed by Gianfranco Spitilli(www.bambun.webnode.com) who once again gives me a wonderful opportunity to learn about the traditions of Abruzzo. The meeting is at the house of Valentino, an historical cantorofPoggio delle Rose, who is preparing his voice before reaching the house of the bride and perform the ritual together with the rest of the "partenzisti" (people departing). Here the serenade is called "departure", as the wife who leaves the family home for the wedding nest. This is a song whose words are those of a mother going back in the memories of all the moments spent together with her daughter until the time of "leaving" her to a life as wife.
After the "trials", miraculously intercepted by the live call ofRadio Ciromathat offered this moment to its listeners, we move to the house of the lucky bride who is waiting on the balcony of the family home. A group of friends and relatives invited to the wedding is waiting for the arrival of the musicians in a great silence. This waiting time is really exciting, all around you can hear just the steps of musicians and song of the crickets. So the departure begins and it will last for more than 25 minutes. On the balcony the bride moves and on the “stalls” some of her friends laps into a flood of tears.
When the ritual ends, the bride goes down, then the bridegroom and parents appear and some specific songs are dedicated also to them, then the feast begins. Valentino tells me that usually the departure should be done the day before marriage as he did with his two daughters, but many people prefer to keep this day for final preparations not risking to get too tired at the altar. So they do it the Thursday before the marriage, because they say Friday is an unlucky day.
A few days after my arrival in Sardinia it comes the second opportunity to take part in a beautiful serenade. This time I am in Nuoro and the group "Sos Canarjos" (www.soscanarjos.it) was called to pay homage to a young married couple. The ritual is more or less the same, but the location unlike the one in Abruzzo is the concrete courtyard of a district of Nuoro, in the very center of the city. It is quite difficult to see the bride overlooking from the balcony of a very high palace. The song you can listen in the video is called “Non potho reposare” (Sini–Rachel). Bobore, the director of the historical group, tells me that this song is the emblem of the serenade, they are the words dedicated by the lover to the damsel. It would consist of fourty strophes but the singers prefer to use only the most significant and then have fun with other songs. Even in Nuoro, there were tears and emotions but then a lot of dancing and fun. Thus my trip to Sardinia begins...
Thanks to: Gianfranco Spitilli, Valentino, Roberto Spennak and the partenzisti, Radio Ciroma, Paolo and Bobore of Sos Canarjos and the Sos Canarjos all, the two married couples to whom I whish an happy and prosperous life together.
She is known as Giannina, she’s all black, her eyes are dark with deep blue shades, she is a storyteller. When she sings she seems transforming into another creature and the drama of her voice comes straight inside and moves the soul.
Giannina is perhaps the last survived among a group of wandering musicians who, years ago, traveled to the houses in the province of Teramo and Ascoli to sing stories. They were stories especially about Saints, Sant Antonio, Sant Gabriele and Saint Lucia, drawn from the holy cards, images sold in the markets of her area, then diesille (prayers for dead beloved) and "party" songs drawn from the traditional national folk repertoire. She was not alone, she travelled and sang with her husband who, before the marriage, was a storyteller with a friend. Then the choice to follow him and to start a life as storyteller. They were five hundred people moving, by bus or by bicycle, and they have been doing this job for over 40 years, alternating it with occasional works but keeping it as a main activity or at least as the primary preference.
I can get in touch with this treasure of a woman thanks to Gianfranco Spitilli (www.bambun.webnode.com), an anthropologist of Teramo that during my stay in Abruzzo provided valuable and interesting meetings. Since a while Giannina is among his favorite area of “study”. This term may be considered cool, but for this kind of jobs it is necessary to have much love for the" subjects of study. " When Giannina sings Gianfranco always closes his eyes and moves.
We stay with Giannina a whole morning in the house of her family in Garrufo di Campli: it rains and her stories cool and warm the heart in a rapid alternation. Her husband's death, which occurred a few years ago, seems to have discouraged a lot Giannina, and her attitude towards life has certainly changed.
"If my husband was still alive we would have been certainly still around singing," she says without hesitation, but then everything ends ...
She claims a better past, made of simple things that no longer exist, she especially speaks about welcome that once was more hearty, she tells about when she went singing in the houses: "The fact of being a woman provided me more attention" she says, and so also for her husband who used to travel always with men, thanks to her everything became easier.
When I explain to her the reason of my visit and what I'm doing, somehow she feels close to me because I tell travel stories and it comforts her the fact that, unlike her, I have a house with wheels that allows me to be independent from people hospitality, while she had to obtain accommodation in other people houses. My natural reaction was comforting her telling that it seems the times haven’t changed so much at least under this aspect because I have found a lot of hospitality but, maybe, it is a different kind of hospitality, or just times are different.
Even though she was a woman with a great energy, her attitude is pessimistic and nostalgic. When she tells about her past she makes long silent pauses and with her hands she takes his head as a sign of desolation. But at her side there is Francesco, her adored nephew who, not by chance, plays the accordion, knows the repertoire of storyteller, sings like his grandfather and even has an old Fiat 500 ... when Giannina looks at him, the face changes expression and a wriggle of madness and love makes her dreaming a story, and so she continues to sing.
Thanks to: Giannina Malaspina and her family, Francesco Di Carlo, nephew of Giannina (the CD of his group "A'SSALTARELLA"there are two tracks dedicated to grandparents);Gianfranco Spitilli who, thanks to Francesco, "discovered" Giannina, and now I could “discover” her also.
Dear Gentlemen, I greet you all ... I sing you two ditties and also the facts of May that brings us the flowers and fruits, we will reap them after they become rope...if you pass though the Marche in May, you won’t be able to leave the country without having in your head this tune. Also the camper of the il cammino della musica was hit by the irony of Marche ditties, and nowit continues its march with a cat leather resting on the seat and engraved with a ditty dedicated to the cammino. (vedi "Farewell to Marche with saltarello")
I am in Morro d'Alba (AN), where the third Sunday of May they celebrate a feast that collects very ancient customs and traditions connected with the spring season and the renewal of life: it is the Cantamaggio. Originally it was celebrated the night of the 30th of April and the first day of May with teams of musicians called "maggianti", with organ, triangle, tambourine, voices and imagination that go in the houses of the village, bringing joy to people through a song ritual of collection that wishes prosperity for the harvest and the work. The symbol of Cantamaggio is a large tree that is planted at the end of the feast in the central square of the village with the purpose to wish the fertility of the earth and women.
Interpreters of this ritual, which has its roots in very remote times, is a whole people, that since years has decided to re-propose and interpret, in a current way, this tradition that otherwise would have risked to fall out of use totally, due to the economical - social upheavals of recent times.
Today, the "May" has nothing to do with the artificial reconstruction of an old memory, but with its music and its dancing, is still rooted, and lives in the DNA of people who lives it; this is not either a phenomenon linked to a single annual occurrence: here you sing and dance during every occasion of celebration and sharing, young and old people joined together by a single language.
Walking through the Marche villages, it may happen to attend a performance of singing, which sometimes becomes a real competition; quick repartee between skilful singers who catch rapidly the most effective words from their fantastic vocabulary, creating funny and provocative ditties in rhyme. In the ditties there are often explicit sexual references, and they are accompanied by the sound of lively saltarelli and by the steps of tireless dancing couples.
Each tragic or comic episode, every type of character or person, every situation can be inspiration for new improvised ditties. But people must not take offence, it would be a further incentive to the creation of new ditties and to the mockery shared between singers, players and audience.
Mario Amici is one of the veterans among ditties singer of Marche, but also one of the most active, the night of Cantamaggio was the last to come back home after having spent the whole day to sing his ditties and play an instrument that it seems it has been invented by him. It is called "segone" or "violin of the poor" a piece of wood shaped as a violin and rubbed with a wooden bow. He told jokes and sang ditties to an audience of young people sitting on the square of Morro d'Alba, until late at night. Everyone listened to him with great admiration, his wife with great resignation, incredulous of what his imagination was able to invent. He learned to sing by his ancestors, now his son Stefano is a skilful builder of tambourines, he has also invented a 10 meters long organ which needs 5 people to be played and his nephew Marco, five years old, starts beating the first shots on the tambourine
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MORE PICTURES (those published on this page are pictures of JESSE)
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THANKS TO: Mario Amici, Danilo Donninelli, Stefano Amici, La Damigiana, Gianni Donnini, Paolo Polverini, Gastone Petrucci Ass. Cult. La Macina, il Bar di Morro d'Alba, all the people of May, the City of Morro d'Alba, Ilaria Fava, the martinicchia, brothers Samuel and Sauro Accattoli, Nardino Beldomenico, Primo Pirani, Il cielo in una danza, Stefania Giuliani ...
Il Cammino della Musica 
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Commenti
Storico
Stampa.JPG)
Cataforio
someone will dance all night long because of a vow to Our Lady. Faces of every kind, funny faces. Sometimes they are all men. .JPG)
In the meantime the rote keep on turning and the 
I’m inside resting before leaving for the pilgrimage that will lead me to the Basilica of the Hermitage where there is the picture of Our Lady of Consolation patroness of Reggio Calabria city; a journey of 10 kilometers. The meeting is fixed at Cataforio church where devotees and non devotees rumour gleefully before the departure. I like very much the idea of sharing this experience with the group: .JPG)
The video you can see hereafter is focused on a single instrument for the first time in this progect. 
Sandro Brunacci on the bagpipe and Vincenzo De Palmisano on the tambourine
I am in 
At 
This year there is also a man with the crown on his head; this is an extraordinary fact
Naples, Gragnano
the drum makes this form of accompanied singing both hypnotic and enthralling.
All this can be also applied to the tammurriate dance that today got forms and codes certainly different than the past when it was not socially accepted a "provocative" physical contact between the dancers. 
So if you will have the opportunity to spend some time in these areas and attend a country event where they dance and play until late at night, enjoy the feast and be carried from the energy of tammurriata and the hospitality of the players , dancers, singers, but try also to understand between them who is celebrating a tradition or just venting some personal repressions through the imitation of something that did not belong to him at all. 
Its origins were lost in the ancient nuraghic period; the discovery of the famous Sardinian small bronze representing a man playing the launeddas certifies the origin. In order to learn more about this ancient instrument that still fascinates generations with its hypnotic sound, I went to 
" Nowadays Luigi travels all around the most prestigious theaters and festivals in the world collaborating with internationally renowned artists from the most different musical trainings (Angelo Branduardi, Paolo Fresu ...). Among his many students he says there is certainly someone who will inherit the responsibility to continue the tradition: "
I know that once this instrument was used at the parties for people to dance
of a present and spontaneous social shared expression, but it is comparable to an museum piece exhumed and schematized following supposable remote techniques, but at the same time adapted to the present days with purely performative show oriented techniques).
One evening this happened to me. I was invited by the " Populos Tenore Nugoresu " to document a "rehearsal" in which the four members of the group shared the singing experience with different friends who, in turn, got into the circle bringing special tone nuances or dancing following the rhythm of the choir.
This function has not totally disappeared even if the majority of the groups prefer to use “repertoire” songs. However any text suitable to be interpreted in "tenor” can get a typical Sardinian taste, even songs or poetic texts belonging to the modern and international repertoire, as for example the verses written by French poet Paul Eluard reinterpreted by " Populos Tenore Nugoresu". 
and Nuoro, a few days before celebrating the wedding, the couple enlists a group of musicians of the area to have their serenade, as per tradition
Giannina is perhaps the last survived among a group of wandering musicians who, years ago, traveled to the houses in the province of Teramo and Ascoli to sing stories. They were stories especially about Saints, Sant Antonio, Sant Gabriele and Saint Lucia, drawn from the holy cards, images sold in the markets of her area, then diesille (prayers for dead beloved) and "party" songs drawn from the traditional national folk repertoire. 
She claims a better past, made of simple things that no longer exist, she especially speaks about welcome that once was more hearty, she tells about when she went singing in the houses: 
Interpreters of this ritual, which has its roots in very remote times, is a whole people, that since years has decided to re-propose and interpret, in a current way, this tradition that otherwise would have risked to fall out of use totally, due to the economical - social upheavals of recent times.
Walking through the Marche villages, it may happen to attend a performance of singing, which sometimes becomes a real competition; 
Each tragic or comic episode, every type of character or person, every situation can be inspiration for new improvised ditties. 
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