Italian folk music
Encyclopedia
Italian folk music has a deep and complex history. National unification
came quite late to the Italian peninsula
, so its many hundreds of separate cultures remained un-homogenized until quite recently compared to many other European countries. Moreover, Italian folk music reflects Italy's geographic position at the south of Europe
and in the center of the Mediterranean Sea
: Arabic
, African, Celtic
, Persian, Venetian
, Roma
, and Slavic
influences are readily apparent in the musical styles of the Italian regions. Italy's rough geography and the historic dominance of small city states
has allowed quite diverse musical styles to coexist in close proximity.
Today, Italy's folk music is often divided into several spheres of geographic influence, a classification system proposed by Alan Lomax
in 1956 and often repeated since. The Celtic and Slavic influences on the group and open-voice choral works of the north contrast with the Arabic, Greek, and African influenced strident monody
of the south. In central Italy these influences combine, while indigenous traditions like narrative and ballad singing remain. The music of the island of Sardinia
is distinct from that of the rest of Italy, and is best known for the polyphonic chanting of the tenores.
in the 1940s and 1950s and in the resurgence of regionalism
in Italy at the time. The Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare
(CNSMP), now part of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
, was started in 1948 to study and archive the various musical styles throughout Italy. In the 1950s, a number of important field recordings were conducted by American Alan Lomax and Italians Diego Carpitella
, Franco Coggiola, Roberto Leydi
among others. Toward the end of the decade, a special effort was made to capture the folk traditions of the Meridione (southern Italy), including an important study by Carpitella and anthropologist Ernesto de Martino
of the tarantella
.
The early 1960s saw the rise of social and political popular music, including a vast number of releases by the I Dischi del Sole label. Several important groups had their birth around the same time, including Cantacronache
in 1958 and the Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano
(NCI) in 1962. The NCI was an assemblage of musicians and composers including Giovanna Marini
that made its first major public appearance at the 1964 Spoleto
Festival dei Due Mondi and generated a large number of records and concerts.
The Italian folk revival was accelerating by 1966, when the Istituto Ernesto de Martino was founded by Gianni Bosio in Milan
to document Italian oral culture and traditional music. With the emergence of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare in 1970, the notion of a musical group organized to promote the music of a particular region (in this case, Campania
) was clearly gaining momentum. Many of the best known Italian folk revival bands got their start in the following decade, including La Lionetta
(1977), La Ciapa Rusa (1978), Re Niliu (1979), Calicanto (1981), and Baraban
(1983).
ists have revived traditional songs, though, from Piedmont (La Ciapa Rusa), Lombardy
(Barabàn
, Pandemonio
) and Veneto
(Calicanto).
The Genoese
docks are the home of trallalero
, a polyphonic vocal style with five voices, one of which imitates a guitar. It arose in the 1920s and includes modern groups like La Squadra -- Compagnia del Trallalero and Laura Parodi.
The highly urban provinces of northern and central Italy are also known for the medieval sung poetry ottava rima
, especially in Tuscany
, Lazio and Abruzzo
. Ottava rima is performed by the poeti contadini (peasant poets) who use the poems of Homer
or Dante
, as well as more modern lyrics which address political or social issues. It is often completely improvised, and sometimes competitive in nature. Tuscan folk poetry is closer in form and style to high-culture poetry than is typical elsewhere in Italy.
The saltarello
dance is also popular throughout the region. Canzoniere del Lazio is one of the biggest names from central Italy during the 1970s roots revival
. With socially aware lyrics, this new wave of Italian roots revivalists often played entirely acoustic songs with influences from jazz
and others. More modern musicians in the same field include Lucilla Galeazzi
, La Piazza
and La Macina.
is still sometimes performed. It was performed to cure the bite of Lycosa tarentula, usually with female victims dancing until exhaustion. Performers used varying rhythms according to the exact kind of spider.
Antonio Infantino has explored the percussion-based tarantolati healing rituals since 1975, when he formed the group Tarantolati di Tricarico.
Puglia is also home to brass bands like Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia
; this tradition has led to collaborations with jazz musicians like Matteo Salvatore, Battista Lena, Eugenio Colombo
and Enrico Rava
.
Another culturally unique musical tradition in Southern Italy is the zampogna
, a form of bagpipe originally played by the shepherd class and is still prevalent in the mountainous regions of Southern Italy and Sicily. The Zampogna, in addition to secular use is associated with the annunciation of Christ and it is still not uncommon to see a zampogna player at a nativity scene during the Christmas season. The zampogna is most likely a direct descendant of the Greek
aulos
.
(Puglia) and Calabria have their own distinct dialects (Griko and Grecanico, respectively). They have lived in the area for an undetermined amount of time, possibly as early as Ancient Greece
or as late as the Middle Ages
. The community has been largely assimilated by the Italian nation, but there remain speakers of the dialects and other aspects of the culture. There was a roots revival
in the 1970s in this area, paralleling similar developments across continental Europe, including Brittany and Catalonia.
Folk musical traditions in the area include a religious piece, Passiuna tu Christù, which recounts the Passion of Christ. The Passion is performed by street accordionists with two singers. An example of a pizzica
song from Salento
region is Kali Nifta (Good night). The lyrics were written in Griko by Vito Domenico Palumbo (1856–1918).
, including a cappella
devotional songs from Montedoro
and many brass band
s like Banda Ionica
, who play songs from a diverse repertoire. Harvest
songs and work song
s are also indigenous to the agricultural
island, known as "Italy's granary". Franco Battiato
, Fratelli Mancuso
, Luciano Maio, Taberna Mylaensis and Ciccio Busacca
are among the most popular musicians from Sicily. Busacca has worked with Dario Fo, like many Italian musicians, but is perhaps best-known for his setting the poems of Ignazio Buttitta
, a Sicilian dialect poet.
Fratelli Mancuso
(brothers Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso) have fused traditional Sicilian peasant songs (lamentazioni), monodic chants (alla carrettiera) and other indigenous forms to create a uniquely Sicilian modern song style.
' polyphonic
chant, sacred songs called gozo
s, and launeddas
, a woodwind instrument similar to the Greek aulos
. Launeddas are used to play a complex style of music that has achieved some international attention, especially Dionigi Burranca, Antonio Lara, Luigi Lai
and Efisio Melis
; Burranca, like many of the most famous launedda musicians, is from Samatzai
in Cagliari
. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances (su ballu). Distinctively, they are played using extensive variations on a few melodic phrases, and a single song can last over an hour.
The otava, or eight-line stanza, is a common lyrical form in Sardinia, one which allows the performer a certain amount of improvisation and is not unlike the stornello of south-central mainland Italy.
Rural polyphonic chanting of the tenores is related to Corsican music
and is sung with four vocal parts. They are bassu (bass), mesa boghe (middle), contra (counter) and boghe (leader and soloist). The most popular group is Tenores di Bitti
.
Sacred gozo
s, or sacred songs, can be heard during religious celebrations, sung by choruses like Su Cuncordu 'e su Rosariu.
Other influential Sardinian musicians include Totore Chessa (organetto
), Maria Carta
(singer), Mauro Palmas, Elena Ledda
and Suonofficina, Cordas et Cannas, Paolo Fresu
(trumpet
), Gesuino Deiana (guitar
), Tazenda
, Marisa Sannia
.
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
came quite late to the Italian peninsula
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
, so its many hundreds of separate cultures remained un-homogenized until quite recently compared to many other European countries. Moreover, Italian folk music reflects Italy's geographic position at the south of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in the center of the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
: Arabic
Arab music
Arabic music or Arab music is the music of the Arab World, including several genres and styles of music ranging from Arabic classical to Arabic pop music and from secular to sacred music....
, African, Celtic
Celtic music
Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe...
, Persian, Venetian
Music of Venice
The city of Venice in Italy has played an important role in the development of the music of Italy. The Venetian state—i.e. the medieval Maritime Republic of Venice—was often popularly called the "Republic of Music", and an anonymous Frenchman of the 17th century is said to have remarked that "In...
, Roma
Roma music
Romani music is the music of the Romani people, who have their origins in Northern India, but today live mostly in Europe....
, and Slavic
Music of Southeastern Europe
The music of Southeastern Europe or Balkan music is a type of music distinct from others in Europe. This is mainly because it was influenced by traditional music of Southeastern European ethnic groups and mutual music influences of these ethnic groups in the period of the Ottoman Empire...
influences are readily apparent in the musical styles of the Italian regions. Italy's rough geography and the historic dominance of small city states
Italian city-states
The Italian city-states were a political phenomenon of small independent states mostly in the central and northern Italian peninsula between the 10th and 15th centuries....
has allowed quite diverse musical styles to coexist in close proximity.
Today, Italy's folk music is often divided into several spheres of geographic influence, a classification system proposed by Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
in 1956 and often repeated since. The Celtic and Slavic influences on the group and open-voice choral works of the north contrast with the Arabic, Greek, and African influenced strident monody
Monody
In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
of the south. In central Italy these influences combine, while indigenous traditions like narrative and ballad singing remain. The music of the island of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
is distinct from that of the rest of Italy, and is best known for the polyphonic chanting of the tenores.
Italian folk revival
The modern understanding of Italian folk music has its roots in the growth of ethnomusicologyEthnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
in the 1940s and 1950s and in the resurgence of regionalism
Regions of Italy
The regions of Italy are the first-level administrative divisions of the state, constituting its first NUTS administrative level. There are twenty regions, of which five are constitutionally given a broader amount of autonomy granted by special statutes....
in Italy at the time. The Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare
Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare
The Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare was founded in 1948 by Giorgio Nataletti to document and preserve traditional folk music. The CNSMP was organized under the auspices of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and in collaboration with RAI.-See also:* Folk Music of Italy...
(CNSMP), now part of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, based in Italy.It is based at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and was founded by the papal bull, Ratione congruit, issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western...
, was started in 1948 to study and archive the various musical styles throughout Italy. In the 1950s, a number of important field recordings were conducted by American Alan Lomax and Italians Diego Carpitella
Diego Carpitella
Diego Carpitella Italian professor of ethnomusicology at La Sapienza University in Rome. He is considered one of the greatest scholars of Italian folk music. Published extensively between 1949 and 1989. He collaborated with the Centro Nazionale Studi di Musica Popolare from 1952-58, collecting...
, Franco Coggiola, Roberto Leydi
Roberto Leydi
Roberto Leydi is an Italian ethnomusicologist-Biography:He started his career in the field of contemporary music and jazz, and in the 1950s started his research into the social significance of folk and popular music...
among others. Toward the end of the decade, a special effort was made to capture the folk traditions of the Meridione (southern Italy), including an important study by Carpitella and anthropologist Ernesto de Martino
Ernesto de Martino
Ernesto de Martino was an Italian philosopher and anthropologist and historian of religions. He studied with Benedetto Croce and Adolfo Omodeo, and did field research with Diego Carpitella into the funeral rituals of Lucania and the tarantella.Ernesto de Martino was born in Naples, Italy, where...
of the tarantella
Tarantella
The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
.
The early 1960s saw the rise of social and political popular music, including a vast number of releases by the I Dischi del Sole label. Several important groups had their birth around the same time, including Cantacronache
Cantacronache
Cantacronache is a popular Italian band formed in Turin in 1958 by Fausto Amodei, Michele Straniero, Giorgio De Maria, Emilio Jona, Sergio Liberovici, and Margot....
in 1958 and the Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano
Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano
Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano, was a music magazine created in 1964 in Milan by a group of musicians linked to the same left ideological political-cultural movement of the late sixties...
(NCI) in 1962. The NCI was an assemblage of musicians and composers including Giovanna Marini
Giovanna Marini
Giovanna Marini, anagraphically Giovanna Salviucci in Marini , is an Italian singer-songwriter and researcher of ethnomusicology.-Biography:...
that made its first major public appearance at the 1964 Spoleto
Spoleto
Spoleto is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome.-History:...
Festival dei Due Mondi and generated a large number of records and concerts.
The Italian folk revival was accelerating by 1966, when the Istituto Ernesto de Martino was founded by Gianni Bosio in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
to document Italian oral culture and traditional music. With the emergence of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare in 1970, the notion of a musical group organized to promote the music of a particular region (in this case, Campania
Campania
Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...
) was clearly gaining momentum. Many of the best known Italian folk revival bands got their start in the following decade, including La Lionetta
La Lionetta
La Lionetta is an acoustic band of Turin . The group was started in 1977 as a folk group. After the two first LPs, "Danze e ballate dell'area celtica italiana" and "Il gioco del Diavolo", La Lionetta played in the Principal Folk Festival in Europe The group broke up in 1987...
(1977), La Ciapa Rusa (1978), Re Niliu (1979), Calicanto (1981), and Baraban
Baraban
Barabàn is an Italian folk group focused on the musical traditions of northern Italy, especially that of the Po River valley. Barabàn interprets the musical traditions of Liguria, Lombardia, and Piemonte for the modern audience...
(1983).
Northern & central Italy
The northern regions of Italy historically exhibited Celtic and Slavic influences in their cultures. Roots revivalRoots revival
A roots revival is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly-composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound.After an...
ists have revived traditional songs, though, from Piedmont (La Ciapa Rusa), Lombardy
Lombardy
Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...
(Barabàn
Baraban
Barabàn is an Italian folk group focused on the musical traditions of northern Italy, especially that of the Po River valley. Barabàn interprets the musical traditions of Liguria, Lombardia, and Piemonte for the modern audience...
, Pandemonio
Pandemonio
Pandemonio is a Lombardian folk band. Since the year 2000 they have been recovering and rearranging traditional Italian folk songs with elements from other sonorous worlds such as bluegrass, country and Irish music...
) and Veneto
Veneto
Veneto is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 5 million, ranking 5th in Italy.Veneto had been for more than a millennium an independent state, the Republic of Venice, until it was eventually annexed by Italy in 1866 after brief Austrian and French rule...
(Calicanto).
The Genoese
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
docks are the home of trallalero
Trallalero
Trallalero is a kind of polyphonic folk music from the Ligurian region of Genoa, in the north of Italy. It is traditionally performed by men, though there are some female performers in the modern era...
, a polyphonic vocal style with five voices, one of which imitates a guitar. It arose in the 1920s and includes modern groups like La Squadra -- Compagnia del Trallalero and Laura Parodi.
The highly urban provinces of northern and central Italy are also known for the medieval sung poetry ottava rima
Ottava rima
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio....
, especially in Tuscany
Tuscany
Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....
, Lazio and Abruzzo
Abruzzo
Abruzzo is a region in Italy, its western border lying less than due east of Rome. Abruzzo borders the region of Marche to the north, Lazio to the west and south-west, Molise to the south-east, and the Adriatic Sea to the east...
. Ottava rima is performed by the poeti contadini (peasant poets) who use the poems of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
or Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
, as well as more modern lyrics which address political or social issues. It is often completely improvised, and sometimes competitive in nature. Tuscan folk poetry is closer in form and style to high-culture poetry than is typical elsewhere in Italy.
The saltarello
Saltarello
The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
dance is also popular throughout the region. Canzoniere del Lazio is one of the biggest names from central Italy during the 1970s roots revival
Roots revival
A roots revival is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly-composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound.After an...
. With socially aware lyrics, this new wave of Italian roots revivalists often played entirely acoustic songs with influences from jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and others. More modern musicians in the same field include Lucilla Galeazzi
Lucilla Galeazzi
Lucilla Galeazzi is an Italian folk singer. She performs modern versions of traditional Italian folk music. She has also performed in operas.- References :...
, La Piazza
La Piazza
La Piazza is an Italian folk music group that records and performs arrangements considered to be of traditional Latium inspiration. They have released two albums on the Waterfront Records label...
and La Macina.
Southern Italy
A folk dance called the tarantellaTarantella
The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
is still sometimes performed. It was performed to cure the bite of Lycosa tarentula, usually with female victims dancing until exhaustion. Performers used varying rhythms according to the exact kind of spider.
Antonio Infantino has explored the percussion-based tarantolati healing rituals since 1975, when he formed the group Tarantolati di Tricarico.
Puglia is also home to brass bands like Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia
Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia
Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia is an Italian folk group focused on the brass band traditions of Apulia. The banda tradition originated during the 19th century as a way to bring operatic and classical music to the rural poor and evolved into a form of music played primarily during Holy Week and funeral...
; this tradition has led to collaborations with jazz musicians like Matteo Salvatore, Battista Lena, Eugenio Colombo
Eugenio Colombo
Eugenio Colombo is an Italian saxophonist and flautist most associated with avant-garde jazz. A founding member of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, Colombo has worked with such musicians as Mario Schiano, Giorgio Gaslini, Steve Lacy, Bruno Tommaso, Maurizio Giammarco, Giancarlo Schiaffini and the...
and Enrico Rava
Enrico Rava
Enrico Rava , is a prolific jazz trumpeter and arguably one of the best known Italian jazz musicians. He originally played trombone, changing to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. His first commercial work was as a member of Gato Barbieri's Italian quintet in the mid-1960s; in the late 1960s...
.
Another culturally unique musical tradition in Southern Italy is the zampogna
Zampogna
Zampogna is a generic term for a number of Italian double chantered pipes that can be found as far north as the southern part of the Marche, throughout areas in Abruzzo, Latium, Molise, Basilicata, Campania, Calabria, and Sicily...
, a form of bagpipe originally played by the shepherd class and is still prevalent in the mountainous regions of Southern Italy and Sicily. The Zampogna, in addition to secular use is associated with the annunciation of Christ and it is still not uncommon to see a zampogna player at a nativity scene during the Christmas season. The zampogna is most likely a direct descendant of the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
aulos
Aulos
An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
.
Ethnic Greeks
The ethnic Greeks living in SalentoSalento
Salento is the south-eastern extremity of the Apulia region of Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the main Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot"...
(Puglia) and Calabria have their own distinct dialects (Griko and Grecanico, respectively). They have lived in the area for an undetermined amount of time, possibly as early as Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
or as late as the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. The community has been largely assimilated by the Italian nation, but there remain speakers of the dialects and other aspects of the culture. There was a roots revival
Roots revival
A roots revival is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly-composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound.After an...
in the 1970s in this area, paralleling similar developments across continental Europe, including Brittany and Catalonia.
Folk musical traditions in the area include a religious piece, Passiuna tu Christù, which recounts the Passion of Christ. The Passion is performed by street accordionists with two singers. An example of a pizzica
Pizzica
Pizzica is a popular Italian folk dance, originally from the Salento peninsula and later spreading throughout all the Puglia region, the Corsica region and eastern Basilicata. It is part of the larger family of tarantella dances.-Dancing the pizzica:The traditional pizzica is danced while...
song from Salento
Salento
Salento is the south-eastern extremity of the Apulia region of Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the main Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot"...
region is Kali Nifta (Good night). The lyrics were written in Griko by Vito Domenico Palumbo (1856–1918).
Sicily
Sicily is home to a great variety of Religious musicReligious music
Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
, including a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
devotional songs from Montedoro
Montedoro
Montedoro is a comune in the Province of Caltanissetta in the Italian region Sicily, located about 80 km southeast of Palermo and about 20 km west of Caltanissetta...
and many brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s like Banda Ionica
Banda Ionica
Banda Ionica is an Italian folk group focused on the brass band traditions of Sicily. The roots of the music played by the band can be traced to Holy Week and funeral marches...
, who play songs from a diverse repertoire. Harvest
Harvest
Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...
songs and work song
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
s are also indigenous to the agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
island, known as "Italy's granary". Franco Battiato
Franco Battiato
Francesco Battiato is an Italian singer-songwriter, composer, filmmaker and, under the pseudonym Süphan Barzani, also a painter. Battiato's songs contain esoteric, philosophical and religious themes...
, Fratelli Mancuso
Fratelli Mancuso
The Fratelli Mancuso, the brothers Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso, are musicians who were born in Sutera in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. They moved to London in the 1970s and have been based in Città della Pieve, Umbria since 1981....
, Luciano Maio, Taberna Mylaensis and Ciccio Busacca
Ciccio Busacca
Ciccio Busacca , born in Paternò, Province of Catania,was one of the best known Sicilian ballad singers.Playwright and composer Dario Fo wrote "Ci ragiono e canto N.3" for him.- References :* at nobelprize.org* at worlddiscoveries.net...
are among the most popular musicians from Sicily. Busacca has worked with Dario Fo, like many Italian musicians, but is perhaps best-known for his setting the poems of Ignazio Buttitta
Ignazio Buttitta
Ignazio Buttitta was a Sicilian dialectal poet.-Biography:Born at Bagheria into a poor family, after having taken part in World War I Buttitta joined the Italian Socialist Party and around this time started to write poetry in Sicilian. His first volume of poetry published was Sintimintali ,...
, a Sicilian dialect poet.
Fratelli Mancuso
Fratelli Mancuso
The Fratelli Mancuso, the brothers Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso, are musicians who were born in Sutera in the province of Caltanissetta, Sicily. They moved to London in the 1970s and have been based in Città della Pieve, Umbria since 1981....
(brothers Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso) have fused traditional Sicilian peasant songs (lamentazioni), monodic chants (alla carrettiera) and other indigenous forms to create a uniquely Sicilian modern song style.
Sardinia
Probably the most culturally distinct of all the nations in Italy, Sardinia is an isolated island known for the tenoresTenores
Cantu a tenore is a style of polyphonic folk singing characteristic of the Barbagia region of the island of Sardinia , even though some other Sardinian sub-regions bear examples of such tradition....
' polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
chant, sacred songs called gozo
Gozo
Gozo is a small island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Southern European country of Malta; after the island of Malta itself, it is the second-largest island in the archipelago...
s, and launeddas
Launeddas
The launeddas is a typical Sardinian woodwind instrument, consisting of three pipes. It is polyphonic and played using circular breathing. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances...
, a woodwind instrument similar to the Greek aulos
Aulos
An aulos or tibia was an ancient Greek wind instrument, depicted often in art and also attested by archaeology.An aulete was the musician who performed on an aulos...
. Launeddas are used to play a complex style of music that has achieved some international attention, especially Dionigi Burranca, Antonio Lara, Luigi Lai
Luigi Lai
Luigi Lai is an Italian musician from Sardinia, and is living heir of the school of Sarrabus players of the launeddas.Lai was born at San Vito, in the province of Cagliari. As a child in nearby Villaputzu, he became a student of one of launeddas player Antonio Lara. For a time he lived in...
and Efisio Melis
Efisio Melis
Efisio Melis was a Sardinian folk musician.He was born in Villaputzu near the southeastern tip of the island of Sardinia. Melis is considered to have been the greatest performer ever on the traditional instrument, the launeddas, which is typically used in the music of southern Sardinia.Melis was a...
; Burranca, like many of the most famous launedda musicians, is from Samatzai
Samatzai
Samatzai is a town in the province of Cagliari, in Sardinia ....
in Cagliari
Cagliari
Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...
. An ancient instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances (su ballu). Distinctively, they are played using extensive variations on a few melodic phrases, and a single song can last over an hour.
The otava, or eight-line stanza, is a common lyrical form in Sardinia, one which allows the performer a certain amount of improvisation and is not unlike the stornello of south-central mainland Italy.
Rural polyphonic chanting of the tenores is related to Corsican music
Music of Corsica
Outside of France, the island of Corsica is perhaps best known musically for its polyphonic choral tradition. The rebirth of this genre was linked with the rise of Corsican nationalism in the 1970s...
and is sung with four vocal parts. They are bassu (bass), mesa boghe (middle), contra (counter) and boghe (leader and soloist). The most popular group is Tenores di Bitti
Tenores di Bitti
The Tenores di Bitti are a traditional folk music group from Bitti, Sardinia who employ a polyphonic vocal style, often described as a type of overtone singing, whose oral tradition dates back to 3000 BC ....
.
Sacred gozo
Gozo
Gozo is a small island of the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Southern European country of Malta; after the island of Malta itself, it is the second-largest island in the archipelago...
s, or sacred songs, can be heard during religious celebrations, sung by choruses like Su Cuncordu 'e su Rosariu.
Other influential Sardinian musicians include Totore Chessa (organetto
Organetto
Organetto refers to two distinct instruments. The medieval organetto was a portable pipe instrument, while the modern organetto is a popular Italian folk instrument allied to the accordion....
), Maria Carta
Maria Carta
Maria Carta was a Rome-based Sardinian folk music singer-songwriter. She also performed in film and theater and, in 1975, she wrote a book of poetry, Ritual Song.She was born in Siligo, Sassari, Sardinia....
(singer), Mauro Palmas, Elena Ledda
Elena Ledda
Elena Ledda is a Sardinian singer.Born near Cagliari, she pursued conservatory studies in oboe and voice. Ledda has a dramatic soprano voice suitable for opera, which she originally performed as an artist, but was attracted by the folk singing of her native Sardinia and has chosen a career...
and Suonofficina, Cordas et Cannas, Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu
Paolo Fresu is a trumpet and flugelhorn jazz player, as well as an arranger of music, and music composer.-Career:Fresu was born in Berchidda, Sardinia. He picked up the trumpet at the age of 11, and played in the band Bernardo de Muro in his home town Berchidda...
(trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
), Gesuino Deiana (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), Tazenda
Tazenda
Tazenda is an Italian ethnic pop-rock band. The group was formed in Sardinia in 1988 by Andrea Parodi, Gigi Camedda and Gino Marielli. The group's music is characterized by the influence from traditional Sardinian music; the lyrics of most of its songs are in the Logudorese dialect of the Sardinian...
, Marisa Sannia
Marisa Sannia
Marisa Sannia was an Italian singer from the island of Sardinia.. She started her career with success in pop music in the sixties. And she later became an interpreter of songs, composer, an actress and then finally an artistic researcher...
.