Stefano believed that I would have stopped in Cegni for half a day, just the time of an interview and some recordings... I have stopped here for two weeks.After all the bright green painted valleys, the atmosphere of peace, the hospitality of friends I met and the unique music of these places, they challenge even the most apathetic person to refuse a prolonged stay
We are in Cegni and surroundings, in the province of Pavia, in the area known as the "Four Provinces"(Genoa, Pavia, Alessandria, Piacenza), where the cultural territory goes beyond affiliation administrations. This Appenine area has maintained an history linked to music itself.
The first opportunity for me to listen this music it is offered byStefano Valla & Daniele Scurati, inseparable sound companions, who perform for the Cammino della Musica in the big blue kitchen of Stefano’s house. The impact is devastating: a strong, resolute, complete block of sound that pierces the soul.
They seem ten people playing but they are just two; pipe and accordion, this is the typical formation of the area where, according to Stefano, " people have never stopped playing." Stefano is a person with two big shoulders, on one of them he brings seriousness and professionalism, on the other he has an overwhelming irony. His head is capable to wisely measure the two powers. His friends say he is a parties professional.
Stefano & Daniele are musicians and this is their job, they say they are "players".
"We are not and do not want to be the reconstruction of a recovery isolated from the social context in which we grew up," Stefano says: "We have grown in this area, where we have been listening the pipe since we were childs."
The strength of these two musicians and others of this area, is having been able to translate the behavior inherited from the old players for the current times, without temporal swings, but in an uninterrupted way without sacrificing innovation that represents the tradition continuation.
"The tradition is alive when it can evolve remaining preserved at the same time. We must know what it has been done in the past to afford innovation. According to me tradition is knowledge "
A proof of this thesis is what the old players of the area have done when, at the beginning of'900 they decided to replace the bagpipe (old companion of the pipe) with the accordion, " the new lover of the pipe”, adjusting and reforming the "traditional” repertoire. Thus, what is tradition? Or rather, when it is tradition? These are questions as much absurd as ineffective because it doesn’t make sense to fix space-time standards to a form of art and culture on the move.
Stefano tells me that he had a great artistic and humane relationship with his masters Ernesto Sala and Andrea Domenichetti, he is transmitting this values also to his students. He says, when his last teacher died, he realized he lost his reference points, and that the ball was passed to him. He remembers that the same teacher who lived in a village of a few people 1100 meters far away said: "This is local and European music" and now Stefano and Daniele say: "We play like 100 years ago players, but we are also the ones that today are turning to Europe playing this music. " And the music played by the Four Provinces musicians shall operate both in the ritual of a local wedding, than on the stage of an European theatre. “Playing in a qualitative deserving way. " The music of the Four Provinces requires a lot of study and dedication, above all, awareness.
Here, the parties are a “serious” matter and I have had the luck and opportunity to participate in a marriage.
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PART TWO:
Here, the parties are a “serious” matter and I have had, among others, the luck and opportunity to participate in a marriage. The newlywed Stefano and Serena tell me that It doesn’t happen very often to celebrate it like once, but sometimes it happens, and then the players go to pick up the bride at home and dedicate to her a song that tells about the detachment from family to go in the couple world. There are other music dedicated to various moments of the ritual, and it ends, as usual, with the final ball, which is open to the whole community and not only to the wedding attendants.
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The stage of the parties is usually a table. It is the party organizer that must be sure it will hold up the weight of the players. The party consists of codes and rules that musicians, dancers and participants generally know and respect since long time. I remember that at a certain point of the dance during the wedding, someone pointed out to a player he has taken too long a mazurka making the dancers loosing the sense of dance. Stefano explains to me that not always where there is a dance there is a party: it depends on player’s skill, his intuition and above all his experience. It is the player that has the role of the priest of the parties, he must be able to satisfy his followers-dancers with the right musical prayers made of alessandrine, monferrine, valtz, mazurkas and polkas.It is not eccesive to declare that in these feasts there is something spiritual. Otherwise how could it be explained a physical resistance that allows musicians to play without stopping for hours and hours? Stefano talks about a kind of beneficial, healthy and pure trance, which gives to the time passing a relative meaning : "Sometimes we play for ten hours without even realizing it."
During these long hours that you don’t like to be finished, the melodic intertwining of the pipe and the accordion creates a hypnotic sound. They are definitely a winning pair, seductive, indivisible, unique and a symbol of a musical culture that has been able to model the time to find wise solutions and ingenious innovations.
Thanks to: Stefano Valla and Daniele Scurati, Massimo Perelli, Matteo Burrone, Renata Tommasella, Roberto Cariotti and Romana, Bernard Blanc and Philippe, Adriano Angiati and the newlywed, Anna, Loredana, Laura, Ettore and Carla, Cleto Marini, Helen, Giorgio Carraro, Martina Catella.
Attilio Rocca (called Tilion) is accordion player. He is a short and tough man who lives in Ozzola, Val Trebbia (PC). At our arrival, he is outside cutting wood with a machine I have never seen before. He says hallo and with an automatism attitude he heads to his cellar and comes out with a salami and a bottle of wine
We reach the living room of the old house built by himself and the table becomes soon a banquet. On a kitchen cabinet there is a row of cartridges and a column of packages of cigarettes. Stefano Valla, indicating these elements, tells me "This is Tilion".
Stefano is at home here, Tilion is like a father for him and it is him who goes to take the accordion and that makes him wear it. They play together a piece of the huge repertoire for pipeand accordion, the authentic formation of the musical culture of these places. Once it was pipe- bagpipe, then the accordion has replaced the accompaniment instrument, but here they still say " they are as pipe and bagpipe " referring to the happy couples. They play with great energy; Attilio lens his chin on the accordion in order to watch his hands, his tired and suffering attitude seems to disappear when he plays the notes of his instrument. Then when he stops he is breathless and coughs.
He is self-taught, and he boasts of a man who once said "The other accordionists are better than you, but I like you more than them." Before he used to play the bagpipe, but he has always desired the accordion and when he has been able to have one, he learned while working as pastor risking, many times, to lose the sheeps as he was absorbed by the sound of the first song that he was trying to learn "The little boat in the middle of the sea. " Then his player career began "until the good old days have finished, when you played all the times taking home two pounds”. Thus he moved to Milan to work as scrapper but a few years later, a piper (Ettore Losini) convinced him to return and resume its true activity.
Attilio is a natural born musician who has never been without music. Stefano tells me that in the absence of instruments he created an harp inside a closet that acted as sounding board. "I had perfect pitch and I hated playing in DO, but then I had a "musical ischemia" and I was no longer the same player then once." Stefano, who is a professional and has listen to several accordionists, assures him telling that his style is certainly not lost, and he encourages him inviting to play another piece together.
This nice meeting brings me back two months ago, when in Friuli, in one of the first stages of the il cammino della musica, I met, with Andrea del Favero, Eliseo Lussa(see post: The traditional sound of Friuli). People like Attilio and Eliseo, are evidences of a musical past that is still present and that won’t be certainly forgotten, but from which we must draw and learn to carry on a tradition that could be shaped to the current times, conscious of the values that created it.
Who could ever think that from those heavy bells, producing unpleasant messy sounds, disturbing with arrogance the quiet of the surroundings from the belfry, remembering that it is late, can get out a melody able to gladden the most sensitive ear? That's what happens in the valleys of Bergamo, where a walk can often be accompanied by the eco of the concerts from the various bell towers around the area.
It is evening when the camper peeps out in Nembro, a village of the Bergamo province located in the middle of Val Seriana. A boy indicates me to park in the middle of the parking, then without even introducing himself he informs me he needs a shower because the bell tower, from where he arrives, was dirty and full of dead pigeons, one of which has inevitably fallen on the head of another bell player. Thus, Nicola Persico, vice President of the Bells Players Federation of Bergamo, gives me his welcome and he announces me that the day after we must wake up early to go and ring the bells in the nearby Zanica.
The journey to get to the concert is accompanied by Nicola’s estimations about the detailed heights of the various bell towers that we find along the way: "this is 23 meters high, but inside there are only 5 bells”, “ our bell tower has eight bells "Then he introduces some future projects," within two years we will have to buy two more bells for the tower of... "I ask about the cost of a bell and I prefer not to write it!
In a village near Nembro a missionary priest back from Bolivia, perhaps influenced by Latin American vitality, has naively painted church bells with different colours: in the valley they consider it a sacrilege!
In another village, there is a person who has built in his garden the final part of the bell tower, filling it with concert bells;inside his house you can listen to more than 2500 bells from all over the world.
In Zanica during the concert the clapper of the fourth bell suddenly broke off; the next day it will be taken by emergency to a bells specialized carpenter to be repaired immediately.
In this area there is a parochial way of thinking. Every village has its own bell heritage and its music repertoire and the local community would prefer to renounce to eat instead of not beeing able to contribute to the maintenance and improvement of the village bells..
The bells world can be divided into three groups: "bells”, “bells of joy" and " little bells". The first are those located in the bell tower which are activated by classical strings; the ability of Bell players group is to synchronize the time of the bell clapper toll in order to have a melody with a regular rhythm.
To play of joy, means using a special keyboard located just below the bells whose large keys are connected by iron wires to the bell clappers. The bell player is soloist in this occasion, he uses his fists to make pressure on the key activating the corresponding bell. In this way the bell player shows his musical ability.
The bell player is certainly not obliged to go up to the bell tower when he needs to practice, he would risk to disturb the whole community. He uses a small keypad, called "Campanina"(small bell), a kind of xylophone whose notes are produced by arms with cork stoppers beated on pieces of glass decreasing gradually, so as to form the musical scale.
The small bells allow the bell players repertoire to move from the ecclesiastic canons to embrace the profane ones. In fact, the past practice was to bring the bells in the taverns tolling them at the sound of polkas, mazurkas and scottish, combined with other instruments like the accordion, clarinet, guitar, mandolin, bass and more.
Today in the Bergamo valleys dozens of boys attend small bells courses in order to be able to play the sound of joy and even to lift up with the rope the 25 hundred kilos of the largest bell of the bell tower. A good example is the Roncobello school, directed by Luca Fiocchi, president of the Bergamo Bell Players Federation. Watch the video to believe.
Thanks to:Luca Fiocchi and the boys of Roncobello school, Valter Biella and his family, Nicola Persico, Giorgio Persico, organ player, who allowed me to park the camper in his laboratory, his assistant, for the beer and good advices, the mayor of Casnigo, the musicians: Giuseppe Signori (from Albino, son of Mario, bell ringer in Albino), Lucio Mariani, Teresa Villa, Giampietro Crotti, Renata Tomasella.
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The song below is titled "Salzburg", and is played with small bells, bass, guitar, accordion, ocarina, baghèt. The bell tradition was about to disappear because of the inevitable social and cultural changes, the substitution of bells activated by the rope with the electrically activated ones, and the restrictions induced by SIAE to control the repertoires, but “by a hair” as he says, the great Valter Biella, almost miraculously, discovered a book in which an old bell player wrote out the music performed in the bell tower (this is rare because normally the bells players learned their repertoire by ear and even they didn’t give a title to the songs, perhaps a number). Thanks to this discovery and the recovery work of Valter, the bell player material could be popularized and even strengthened by the new generation of bell players that, with pride, has taken possession of their grandparents music, giving it new meanings, as in this piece.
The stay in Comelico (see post below) was not the first visit in the Cadore area of Veneto. A few days ago the camper had stopped here before reaching the Trentino Alto Adige (see post: Music among the clouds). The pretext was to know Andrea da Cortà who I knew only by phone so far (I have dozens of contacts throughout the Italian territory that provide me valuable information on our musical heritage but I know only their voice, I can only imagine their face).
Andrea did not like the idea that my visit was unsuccessful in terms of documentation. He didn’t want me to leave without a recording of a musician from Veneto. I remember one day he warned me that a stranger with a recorder is not really welcomed in this area. I told him that I’m also from Veneto Region. His answer was blunt as much as surprising : “This is even worse”.
Against any expectations, Andrea manages to get a positive answer from a gentleman who plays the mandolin in Foppa di Forno di Zoldo. He cannot even believe. It is a very cold Monday and the snow is at least a meter and a half along roadsides.
At our arrival Arnoldo Alessio is waiting outside ... he is also waiting for two of his musicians friends, an accordionist and a guitarist. He warned me informing that absolutely the guitarist doesn’t want to be recorded or filmed. I think that this is not a problem “at least I can listen to him”.We kill the time with a good wine served with cheese. ... he speaks in dialect and even if I’m from Veneto region I cannot understand a word. Andrea, who lives a few kilometres away (Pieve di Cadore) understands but not everything. It's amazing how in Italy the dialects are so radically different between villages that are so close one to the other.
When the group is complete and the ice is broken, we move to the lower floors and the three musicians show all their repertoire ranging from traditional Venetian song to the Italian more nationalized one. Andrea, with his organ, and me start playing with them. I dare to take out the recording tools. I look at the guitarist like a dog looks at his owner after committing a damage. He thinks for a while and then says "All right then!, No problem, let’s make an exception to the rule."
When we finish it is late in the night. Andrea and me we are super satisfied, the three musicians friends also. We leave each other with great mutual admiration and with the certainty that the good intentions and humility, sealed by making music, are able to standardize the multitudes and break down any mental preconceptions.
Andrea da Cortà warned me: "If you don’t come to listen to them during carnival it will be difficult to do it after". Unfortunately, I can reach Comelico Superiorejust a month after that time and the only two violinists in the village do not want to play again. We have to wait another year to listen to them. In this village located in the Belluno Dolomites it is celebrated a typical carnival with the masks Matazìn and Matazina (among others) and a procession of accordion, guitar, bass and... violin players. The opportunity to visit Comelico and to know its people and the Polka Saltata has been offered to me by the Association “Gruppo Candide” (www.gruppocandide.it) and the “Union ladina dal Comelgo”. Thanks to the initiative of the multi instruments player Andrea da Cortà(in the center; see picture www.altei.it), they invite me for my “Video show”, thus this is the right opportunity for a syncretic exchange of Italian / Latin American / Comelico musical views.
The idea to organize a "video show" has the purpose to flush out the violinists, to sensitize them and try to make them play with the pretext of the invitation. Unfortunately in the village they say that without the accordionist the violinists do not play, thus the organizers take the phone and start looking for the accordion.
The sun sets and so do the lights of the theatre and the show begins. I must say that the participation of Comelico audience was one of the warmest (and they say that the inhabitants of the mountains are cold!), everybody knows each other and the atmosphere is very intimate. I play the last piece and the musicians start being itching to play, they take out their instruments and….the dancing is opened .... What about the violinists? I will find them next year.
The piece of the movie is aPolka Saltata. Andrea da Cortà tells me that this type of dance is present only in Comelico Superiore, in Dosoledo, Candide and Padula. Then there is another conservative oasis in the Four Provinces (Genoa, Alessandria, Pavia and
Piacenza ). In all these places the dance is the same, but the steps are slightly different. The people present at the show are able to recognize the origin of the couple by the way they dance. The violin, formerly used for this type of music, seems to be doomed to disappear. In Comelico Superiore, a part from the two "ghost" violinists there is nobody ready to continue the tradition. Moreover, the introduction and wide dissemination of the accordion in popular repertoire have substituted the use of the strings due to the technical easiness an the timbre possibilities.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thanks to: Andrea da Cortà, Lucio Eiche Clere, Ass. "Gruppo Candide", Manuela da Cortà, il pubblico di Comelico, Union ladina dal Comelgo.
Bolzano;I am with Robert Schwaerzer, a musician and researcher of Referat-Volksmusik, he is speaking at the phone looking for an opportunity to discover the music of Alto Adige.He talks to everyone in German and get good hopes, but suddenly his face enlightens; he takes the phone and calls Otto Dellago. While discussing he looks at me making a victory sign: on Saturday his friend will make the usual annual sleigh performance with his "Trio donne Gardena" in one of the valleys of the Dolomites and .. he invites me to follow them.
This is the perfect occasion to learn about a music culture strictly connected to the surrounding mountain environment. The “Trio d’ëiles de Gherdëina cun Otto Dellago” is a group formed by Ladins, an ethnic-linguistic minority of about 30.000 people, divided into the geographical region called ladinia located between Trentino Alto Adige and Northern Veneto.
Even if these people are established in the Italian territory, they have their own culture, language and customs that have been often jeopardized by events in the history of our country. Now they enjoy protection and enhancement.
The meeting has been fixed early in the morning in a mountain dew of Val di Funes that the camper try to reach climbing through steep snow-covered ways. I arrive a little in late, I cannot see anyone and I start worrying but, from the car parking gentle voices of women perfectly in tun echo accompanied by a guitar; I hope to have found them. I rush on the ice with the risk to fall, but the anxiety of the haste is soon cancelled by the harmony of these notes and the landscape. It is peace.
Since many years Monika, Claudia, Petra, and Otto perform a repertoire of religious and profane songs which are exclusively traditional of the alpine area. Between them they speak Ladino or German, but today they try to speak Italian because of me, even if they say " they do not feel really Italians”.Otto plays many instruments. In the custody of his guitar you can find small instruments he is testing, such as the ocarina, or the marranzano (Jew's harp), but he also plays the zither, an instrument widely used in this area in the past. He says that these songs were sang in the family occasions but now they do not sing often. They do it not for recovery or maintenance purposes but just for the pleasure of sharing some moments together.
Among the repertoire of the group there are also some Yodel (see the first part of the movie). This is surely the most northern music of Italy; so northern that seems to be among the clouds. It will be certainly curious to get to Sicily and to compare the two sound landscapes at the opposite sides of our beautiful country. Meanwhile, from up here, I look towards the south, lulled by these notes, daydreaming on the adventure that I expect.
The title of the piece you find here below isCiantia d’amor - Sciche na berca zënza vënt”(Love poetry - Like a boat without wind). It has been composed by Otto Dellago and interpreted by the "Trio de Eilës Gherdëina". It is not a traditional piece like the ones you can listen in the movie. It draws from the tradition but it has definitely a present-day flavor .
Sciche na berca zënza vënt, - like a boat without wind
o n cheder nia depënt, - or a not painted painting
sciche n ciof zënza pavël, - like a flower without butterfly
I have driven for 350 km all in one go to get back to
Friuli and arrive in timeto the resiano carnival. I can just park the camper in Spilimbergo and straight after Andrea del Favero(see post: Music friulana) arrives to take me to Resia. In a short time we leave behind the “Italian Friuli "and suddenly, delighted by the landscape, we enter the resiana valley that seems to be one thousand miles away from home.
Once in San Giorgio di Resia, we see colourful and strange phantoms placed in different positions. There are two "making love" in front of the church of the village. They are "babaz", the inanimate protagonists of resiano carnival. In a few hours one of them will be burned on the stake, after being mistreated, beaten and insulted by the impetuosity of the people.
All around there is a total silence, nobody in the street, no sign of celebration. We open the doors of the only tavern in the neighbourhoods and we are overlooked by a wave of cries and garbled words that break with decision the outward peace; Andrea makes me a sign with the eyes and says: "It begins". In the background some string instruments scream in the rhythm of feet beating on the ground. It is the typical resiana music played with a violin named cïtira with strings pulled to the limits of endurance, a bass called Bünkula, similar to a cello, with two metal strings and one of animal fiber, the third instrument are the feet whose beat accompanies all the music. The cïtira players alternate them using the left foot for the acute part of the piece and the right one for the low part. The Bünkula is played with empty strings and the left hand is used only to rotate the instrument in order to match the strings with the bow; a madness of beautiful music.
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This music is hypnotic, pressing, frantic, apparently it seems always the same, but listening carefully you understand that the melody of each piece, which plays on a scheme of two chords, is different, and musicians who play "by ear" can distinguish it with very specific names. The fact that this music is not written but handed down from memory, means that it is constantly evolving and renewing. Some transcripts of '800 and several recordings of '50 and'60, are completely different from what we listen today, a sign that the tradition in Resia is now! On the contrary the dance is always the same, simple and minimal. There is not physical contact in the couple demonstrating that this is a very ancient dance.
The Resiano Carnival ends today on the Ash Wednesday, after a period of celebration started several days before, through Sunday with the parade of lipe bile maškire (beautiful white masks) and the madness of Shrove Tuesday. Tomorrow, the beginning of Lent will mark the end of revelries and music.
I sit down at a table with two old men who drink wine and talk in resiano, a dialect of Slovenian roots incomprehensible to me.They tell me that once the carnival was a great feast to which they devoted a very large period of time, “when Resia counted 4,000 inhabitants there was serious noise. Now, due to the fact that people are just about 1000 and the young people leave the village to find work, the carnival has lost energy. " One of them tells me that I arrived late but considering what I see, the young people playing and dancing and the energy spreaded all around I can be verysatisfied.
The night falls and some screams attract the attention. The babaz sitting on the toilet and placed as a trophy at the end of the room, was dragged outside and beaten by the people. Thus it begins the procession that will lead it to the centre of the square to be burned. A parade of musicians and masks of all kinds, without any logic, made of cloths pieces and accessories collected together, accompanies the screams in the streets of the village that is full of people eager to light the fire. The ritual foresees a sort of funeral for the poor predestined babaz, which now seems to show, behind his straw face, a soul in pain who cannot do nothing but smile. The resiano people gather around it, some words spoken in a whisper for the few intimate closer to the gallows, then the flames rise to heaven. The people triumphantly praise and dances begin.
That night the few foreigners were around the fire trying to decipher the funny codes of this carnival. Nothing to do with the sophisticated carnivals of Venice or Bagolino (see post: The two sides of the bagosso carnival) this is the carnival of the people who show themselves in their whole damn soul, spontaneously and honestly. If you can "go inside" and let yourself go, fun is guaranteed and the resiano people, apparently closed and isolated, are ready to share their culture with everybody. I would say that in the centuries this closure has made the resiano character so spontaneous and over the top. The resiano people are not interested so much in the presence of tourists, but if there are, they will be more than welcome.
Gigino di Biasio (see movie) is the owner of the tavern "Alla speranza", where I am. Himself and his tavern are the centerpiece of the resiano carnival. He tells me that he left his land, but then he returned due to blood ties, in fact in the village they say that without him the resiano carnival and the culture in general would have been already lost long ago. Thanks to a few days spent with Gigino I’m able to understand the distinctive features and problems emerging from this community. He says that the preservation of music and dance does not run great risks because young people still love this trend because they identify with it. In fact I personally think that resiana music is very young with its reiterated and schematic "hammering". It creates attraction and, in the long run, a sort of trance (like pizzica to understand). However, the aspect in danger seems to be the resiana language that, as Gigino says, "it is the determinant of the three peculiarities of the resiana minority: language, music and dance"
Matòci, paiaci, arlechini, sonadori and sposi a colourful procession on the road that connect the villages of the valley
It’s ten o’clock in the morning when the Valfloriana is awakened by the sounds of bells. This is not a liturgical signal, no priest is preparing for the ceremony; the matòcio, from the top of the mountain, waving his bell located in the pelvic area, warns the villages of the valley of its imminent and irrepressible arrival and he prepares himself for his mission. The Carnival of Valfloriana has begun.
The road to get here was long and arduous, but the landscape that I enjoyed by the camper windows wiped out the concerns and provided strong emotions. I am in Sicina, the highest village of Valfloriana where I should meet Graziano Lozzer the mayor of the village at the "Agritur Fior di Bosco". Upon my arrival, the noise of the camper motor attracts Vasile, a Romanian who works in the dairy of the agriturism. "Is there Graziano?" "No, he is not. He will be back tonight". I take a walk while it is getting dark. The weather is freezing and the surroundings are white deserts; there is an unreal peace. Vasile calls me and asks me if I like ricotta (kind of cottage cheese) and he gives me one he just made
Graziano Lozzer, is one of the main protagonists of this carnival. He remembers when his grandparents used to take part to this event that has gradually weakened until disappearing almost entirely around the 80s. Now thanks to the work of the entire community of Valfloriana it has become one of the most important traditional carnivals among the Italian ones.
They represent the story of a wedding procession which ritual is repeated in all the municipality villages, from the higher Sicina until Casatta in the valley. It is performed by five main characters: at first the matòciorbarbirepresented with typical wood masks, distorted voice and disrespect. Their assignment is to obtain the admittance permits from the residents of communities that stop them in front of every village main entrance. The elegant and quite arlechini follow them dancing with the sound of sonadori’s accordion that accompany with the typical carnival marcet. Then we have the married couple (he is dressed as a bride, she, the bela, is dressed as bridegroom); the easy-going shameless and burlesque arlechini performing sarcastic mute comedies inspired by the more chatting vicissitudes happened in the village during the year. Each stage ends with the offer of a delicious banquet for the characters and the public. Whereas the stages are 10 or more in a 6 kilometres journey, at dusk you will have your belly well-filled ... but without guilt feelings.
The abundant snowfall during the last season seems to have caused little troubles in public management, these are the main sources of inspiration for the paiaci tales. One of the paiacio, with a demijohn and a big sign tied on his shoulders, announces the closure of winery for bankruptcy. In reality it is self-mockery of the man hidden by the mask who promised to stop drinking
Graziano plays with familiarity the role of one of the main Valfloriana carnival matòci. He runs shaking his bell (bronzin), with his son Emil young promising matòcio, towards the next village where he faces, with the typical speech of this area, the verbal duel created with the people who are waiting him to get the admittance permits
He tells me that originally the matòcio had to become unrecognizable, for this reason he wears always the mask and speaks with the peculiar falsetto voice. Once the Valfloriana villages during the entire carnival period organized parades "against" their neighbours and the matòci instigated people with the contrest, trying to hide their identity. The day after the village, victim of matòcio derision, could "revenge" organizing the same ritual. These challenges were paid with money and women could not participate.
Today the matòci are still wearing masks and changing their voice, but they are certainly recognized by all the inhabitants of the village. Try to imagine the nice plays that can be created when everybody knows the mask hides the mayor’s face. Fortunately in Valfloriana Graziano is highly respected by his fellow citizens Due to his work and his enthusiasm and sarcasm he is adopted and accepted ironically and spontaneously.
But the matòci are many and everyone knows that in every stage they will face a challenge prepared with care. For example in Montalbano they have placed two tree trunks on the street in order to ask to an ex-woodcutter matòcio to prove if he is still able to do this job as he boasts ..
When the tests are passed and the matòci were able to demonstrate their abilities, the gates opened and the dancing wedding procession, arriving from the previous village, is welcomed.
Thanks to the explanations of the inhabitants of the place I can understand the meaning of this ritual. Ivano, a veteran of the carnival, plays with me along some stages before the matòcio arrival. Together with the inhabitants of the village, currently engaged in preparing dams and banquets, he tells me some curious anecdotes of everyday life in Valfloriana that help me to interpret the contrest.
Around 7 pm we arrive to Casatta, the last stage of this very special day. I am tired and I try to imagine the conditions of matòci, arlechini, paiaci, drides and sonadori that for all the day long contributed to preserve the significance of this characteristic Carnival. The paiaci dress as workers accompanying the matòcio Graziano to overcome a difficult path in a snowy area specially prepared and arlechini do their last round of dancing with the final embrace of the couple. Everybody is certainly tired, Graziano has left the voice inside the mask, but once again they are happy of having kept their promise to maintain this tradition combining cold Valfloriana with its warm heart inhabitants.
Thanks to: the mayor Graziano Lozzer and his wife Isabella, Vasile, Emil (the young promising matòcio), Agnes and staff of the Agriturismo Fior di Bosco, all the inhabitants of Valfloriana who have welcomed me telling and helping.
It is evening when the camper successfully passes the steep ascents of Trentino mountains to arrive to the north-eastern Alps of Lombardy. I was passing through the bridge that marks the border between the two regions when suddenly suspect people, covered with coats and black hats, slink everywhere as a sign of fervent excitement. They are the màscher with the traditional clothes ceviöl. I risk they open the camper door throwing me an handful of confetti but fifty years ago it would have been a bucket of dead fish...
I’m in Ponte Caffaro in the province of Brescia (Lombardy). Since ancient times in this valley they celebrate one of the most characteristic carnivals of the Italian Alps, the bagosso carnival. My reference person is called Gigi Bonomelli, virtuous violinist of the "Compagnia dei Sonadùr", the leaders of this carnival. They inform me he is movig around the city playing in bars, so I look for him but everybody tells me the same thing "just left". The options are two: in this place everybody’s name is Gigi and everybody plays the violin, or Gigi is very fast and at least undecided. I find him late in a tavern with all his fellow musicians.
The Bagosso carnival takes place mainly in the days of Monday and the last Tuesday before Lent, but the musicians have already begun to play the notes of the festival starting from the first Thursday after the Epiphany.In these final two days there is the Balarì show, a corps de ballet of about 50 members who wear the fine and precious customs of the ritual: the eye-catching hat is a peculiarity of this dress, made of precious silk and adorned with the gold of dancer family . We start at dawn on Monday at the church of S. James with a Mass dedicated to the carnival performers, then the procession of two entire days begins. It consists in performing in the house of each dancer, other people of the public or who has in some way contributed to the carnival implementation. Lorenzo Pelizzari, one of the most active violinists of the group, tells me that once the balls were committed and handsomely paid, while today this economic system is obsolescent and the family, to which the dance is dedicated, offers a feast consumed at the end of the three pieces.
It is very cold outside, the sky is dark and air misty. The colours of Balari create a strong chromatic quite paradoxical impact with the surroundings. The hands of the musicians are frozen and I wonder how they can resist for a whole day, the dancers at least have the body wrapped in thick clothes, elegant white gloves, plastic and paper masks. Dancing they can also drive the cold. The musicians warm themselves with their love for the carnival. The show, although replicated for two days, is always exciting and high-level. The repertoire is composed by 24 dances, full of complicated choreographies conveying ancient symbols of challenges, courtship, erotic acts, court dances. Therefore It is necessary a long period of rehearsals before the carnival. The alternation of the dances is determined by the "chief dancer" who is the only unmasked using horn trumpet to gather the group and call to order. Certainly in the ballet there are military elements. Women are not allowed to dance and men can do it only when they are fourteen years old. There is another corps de ballet composed by women and children but they never perform in these two days.
The music of bagossi violins are passed down orally from generation to generation and create one of the most important Italian popular violin repertoire. Lorenzo explains to me that probably, before the violin appearance (around ‘500 year), these songs were performed with wind instruments.
At dusk, when the air cools further they decide to perform in front of the last family before leaving for the deserved rest. I have pain in feet and legs because we walked a lot. Some houses were far from the center and I can not believe that the Balari were able to dance all day. Despite the effort there is still a lot of energy among the participants of the carnival and after an hour break we fix the appointment for the usual dinner in one of the near taverns. Against all rational prediction musicians bring their instruments with them and after the banquet they play once again. The other side of the bagosso carnival begins: the rigor and attention demonstrated to Balari during the parade, became now spontaneous musical carelessness that gives to the music a new overwhelming energy. The songs are the same, but the public is different and the violinists seem to forget flowerings and embellishments to give themselves up to a rough music played for Ponte Caffaro people. Now even Balari, "in civilian dresses", put aside the elegant ritual of the day to sing at the top of their voice dialect texts full of irony and double meanings. I think that these verses of which they could not even give me the exact source, are the musical testimony of contamination from different social levels as the folks and the court. The feeling that during the time they contaminated each other is clear. The bagosso style was adjusted to a special dimension where the commonly used terms to indicate "tradition" and "popular" lose their meaning and can not be settled in standards of time. Lorenzo is perhaps the most traditional of the group, he complains about this attitude and he would prefer to remain in the standards learnt from his grandparents. Instead other violinists support a more "free"performance. This musical behaviour duality perhaps is creating the right balance between the two sides of the bagosso carnival. They go to bed very late. Their hands are marked by metal ropes, tomorrow is the last Tuesday before Lent, the most awaited day. After this sort of ritual the carnival finishes with the Ariosa end, an exciting show experienced by all the folks of Ponte Caffaro. Here I saw a lot of people crying.
Thanks to: Sunadùr Company of Ponte Caffaro, the bassist's wife, Mrs. Mary, the Camping of Ponte Caffaro
Hereafter a piece of carnival recorded in a tavern after the day ritual. The title is Bosolù and the text says: “La caren de galina l'é buna fés col pa e chèla dèle lgiale a tocala co le ma. Dighèl de sé dighèl de no sèra la porte stanghèl de fò. Dighèl de no dighèl de sé sèra la porte stanghèl de tré. Scampì scampì potele ch'èl ria 'l bordonàl el gà le breghe rote el mossa la canàl.”
Stefano believed that I would have stopped in Cegni for half a day, just the time of an interview and some recordings... 
The first opportunity for me to listen this music it is offered by
"We are not and do not want to be the reconstruction of a recovery isolated from the social context in which we grew up," Stefano says:
A proof of this thesis is what the old players of the area have done when
Here, the parties are a “serious” matter
The stage of the parties is usually a table
(p)Link
Commenti
Storico
Stampa
Attilio Rocca (called Tilion) is accordion player
Stefano is at home here, Tilion is like a father for him and it is him who goes to take the accordion and that makes him wear it. They play together a piece of the huge repertoire for pipeand accordion, the 
He is self-taught, and he boasts of a man who once said 
Who could ever think that from those heavy bells, producing unpleasant messy sounds, disturbing with arrogance the quiet of the surroundings from the belfry, remembering that it is late, can get out a melody able to gladden the most sensitive ear? That's what happens in the valleys of Bergamo, 
The journey to get to the concert is accompanied by Nicola’s estimations about the detailed heights of the various bell towers that we find along the way
The bells world can be divided into three groups: "bells”, “bells of joy" and " little bells". The first are those located in the bell tower which are activated by classical strings; 
The small bells allow the bell players repertoire to move from the ecclesiastic canons to embrace the profane ones
The stay in Comelico
Against any expectations, Andrea manages to get a positive answer from a gentleman who plays the mandolin in 
We kill the time with a good wine served with cheese. ... he speaks in dialect and even if I’m from Veneto region I cannot understand a word. Andrea, who lives a few kilometres away (Pieve di Cadore) understands but not everything. It's amazing how in Italy the dialects are so radically different between villages that are so close one to the other.
Andrea da Cortà warned me: "If you don’t come to listen to them during carnival it will be difficult to do it after". Unfortunately, I can reach 
The idea to organize a "video show" has the purpose to flush out the violinists, to sensitize them and try to make them play with the pretext of the invitation. Unfortunately in the village they say that without the accordionist the violinists do not play, thus the organizers take the phone and start looking for the accordion. 
(see post: Music friulana) arrives to take me to Resia. In a short time we leave behind the “Italian Friuli "and suddenly, delighted by the landscape, we enter the resiana valley that seems to be one thousand miles away from home. 
strings pulled to the limits of endurance, a bass called Bünkula, similar to a cello, with two metal strings and one of animal fiber, the third instrument are the feet whose beat accompanies all the music. The cïtira players alternate them using the left foot for the acute part of the piece and the right one for the low part. The Bünkula is played with empty strings and the left hand is used only to rotate the instrument in order to match the strings with the bow; a madness of beautiful music. 
what we listen today, a sign that the tradition in Resia is now! 
hout him the resiano carnival and the culture in general would have been already lost long ago. Thanks to a few days spent with Gigino I’m able to understand the distinctive features and problems emerging from this community. 
It’s ten o’clock in the morning when the Valfloriana is awakened by the sounds of bells. This is not a liturgical signal, no priest is preparing for the ceremony; the 
Valfloriana where I should meet Graziano Lozzer the mayor of the village at the "Agritur Fior di Bosco". Upon my arrival, the noise of the camper motor attracts Vasile, a Romanian who works in the dairy of the agriturism. "Is there Graziano?" "No, he is not. He will be back tonight". I take a walk while it is getting dark. The weather is freezing and the surroundings are white deserts; there is an unreal peace. Vasile calls me and asks me if I like ricotta (kind of cottage cheese) and he gives me one he just made
Their assignment is to obtain the admittance permits from the residents of communities that stop them in front of every village main entrance. The elegant and quite arlechini follow them dancing with the sound of sonadori’s accordion that accompany with the typical carnival marcet. Then we have the married couple (he is dressed as a bride, she, the bela, is dressed as bridegroom); the easy-going shameless and burlesque arlechini performing sarcastic mute comedies inspired by the more chatting vicissitudes happened in the village during the year. Each stage ends with the offer of a delicious banquet for the characters and the public. Whereas the stages are 10 or more in a 6 kilometres journey, at dusk you will have your belly well-filled ... but without guilt feelings.
The abundant snowfall during the last season seems to have caused little troubles in public management, these are the main sources of inspiration for the paiaci tales. 
their neighbours and the matòci instigated people with the contrest, trying to hide their identity. The day after the village, victim of matòcio derision, could "revenge" organizing the same ritual. These challenges were paid with money and women could not participate.
Thanks to the explanations of the inhabitants of the place I can understand the meaning of this ritual. 
covered with coats and black hats, slink everywhere as a sign of fervent excitement. They are the màscher with the traditional clothes ceviöl. I risk they open the camper door throwing me an handful of confetti but fifty years ago it would have been a bucket of dead fish... 
In these final two days there is the Balarì show, a corps de ballet of about 50 members who wear the fine and precious customs of the ritual: the eye-catching hat is a peculiarity of this dress, made of precious silk and adorned with the gold of dancer family . We start at dawn on Monday at the church of S. James with a Mass dedicated to the carnival performers, then the procession of two entire days begins. It consists in performing in the house of each dancer, other people of the public or who has in some way contributed to the carnival implementation. Lorenzo Pelizzari, one of the most active violinists of the group, tells me that once the balls were committed and handsomely paid, while today this economic system is obsolescent and the family, to which the dance is dedicated, offers a feast consumed at the end of the three pieces. 
at least have the body wrapped in thick clothes, elegant white gloves, plastic and paper masks. Dancing they can also drive the cold. The musicians warm themselves with their love for the carnival. The show, although replicated for two days, is always exciting and high-level. The repertoire is composed by 24 dances, full of complicated choreographies conveying ancient symbols of challenges, courtship, erotic acts, court dances. Therefore It is necessary a long period of rehearsals before the carnival. The alternation of the dances is determined by the "chief dancer" who is the only unmasked using horn trumpet to gather the group and call to order. Certainly in the ballet there are military elements. Women are not allowed to dance and men can do it only when they are fourteen years old. There is another corps de ballet composed by women and children but they never perform in these two days. 
but the public is different and the violinists seem to forget flowerings and embellishments to give themselves up to a rough music played for Ponte Caffaro people. Now even Balari, "in civilian dresses", put aside the elegant ritual of the day to sing at the top of their voice dialect texts full of irony and double meanings. I think that these verses of which they could not even give me the exact source, are the musical testimony of contamination from different social levels as the folks and the court. The feeling that during the time they contaminated each other is clear. The bagosso style was adjusted to a special dimension where the commonly used terms to indicate "tradition" and "popular" lose their meaning and can not be settled in standards of time. Lorenzo is perhaps the most traditional of the group, he complains about this attitude and he would prefer to remain in the standards learnt from his grandparents. Instead other violinists support a more "free" performance. 
This musical behaviour duality perhaps is creating the right balance between the two sides of the bagosso carnival. They go to bed very late. Their hands are marked by metal ropes, tomorrow is the last Tuesday before Lent, the most awaited day. After this sort of ritual the carnival finishes with the Ariosa end, an exciting show experienced by all the folks of Ponte Caffaro. Here I saw a lot of people crying. 
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