Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

II. Traditional music

1. General features.

2. Narrative singing.

3. Lyrical singing.

4. Other vocal repertories.

5. Music in ritual.

6. Dances and instruments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Italy, §II: Traditional music

1. General features.

Oral musical traditions were first studied in Italy in the 19th century. The earliest scholars to approach this repertory were folklorists (including Costantino Nigra, Alessandro D'Ancona, Antonio Casetti, Vittorio Imbriani and Giuseppe Ferraro) who made extensive collections of song-texts, suggested the first classifications of genres and prevalent metrical forms and occasionally provided some musical examples. The first half of the 20th century saw the appearance of some noteworthy studies of specific musical repertories by Alberto Favara, Giulio Fara, Luigi Colacicchi, Giorgio Nataletti and Alfredo Bonaccorsi, among others, but it was only after World War II that comprehensive documentation of the oral musical tradition got under way. Fieldwork initiated in 1954 by Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella and carried out throughout the entire country by several scholars during the following decades has led to the production of about 200 LPs and CDs since 1954. In the 1950s Ernesto De Martino undertook important research into the rituals of funeral mourning in Lucania and tarantism in Puglia, which marked the establishment of musical anthropology in Italy. But it was only from the 1970s that a body of scientific literature developed in Italy exploring various aspects of the traditional repertory and musical life.

It goes without saying that while the research was being undertaken, profound changes in musical life were taking place in tandem with fundamental changes in the country’s social and economic conditions. Growing industrialization led to the abandoning of many traditional farming and pastoral activities and an increase in urbanization; more recently immigration from other European countries, North Africa and Asia has occurred. Many traditional music practices became obsolete, entire repertories fell into disuse, and where music was preserved, it was often associated with the shoring up of cultural identity in individual communities and the need to hold on to alternatives to mass-produced music. Unlike other European countries, Italy saw the appearance of no broad initiatives, either in the mass media or under state auspices, to promote oral musical traditions, nor is there any folk music genre or idiom that is felt to express national identity. The musical picture is one of great diversity and creative independence; there is a rich variety of types of expression, which generally highlight specific regional quality. In summarizing these conditions it is worth examining the main elements of the various musical practices, keeping in mind that under discussion here are the principal repertories for which there is documentation, regardless of their current state of survival.

First of all, vocal repertories are differentiated in linguistic terms by their texts. Three different linguistic levels are used in songs: Italian (a highly literary, courtly version, far removed from the current spoken language, as evidenced in printed publications from the end of the 15th century), and generally reserved for public repertories, such as canto in ottava rima or the Maggio drammatico; dialect (generally not the local dialect, but an artificial language which draws elements of the regional dialect into the local version), and mainly used for private pieces such as lullabies and dirges; and a mixed Italian-dialect language, used in many repertories. Still on a textual level, many types of metre are in use, with lines of 11 syllables prevalent in central-southern Italy, and the epic-lyric metre (with a variable number of syllables organized in two hemistiches, one plain, and the other truncated) in the northern ballad repertory. Poetic forms are generally strophic, and display a wide variety of different ways of elaborating the text, many of them highly sophisticated, with the occasional inclusion of added elements (refrains, nonsense syllables).

As to the relationship between the verbal and musical text and the processes of production and performance, two different systems can be observed. The first is based on the composition, transmission and performance of poetic-musical entities which can be defined as ‘songs’ in the strictest sense, possessing an identity and completeness that is both verbal and melodic. These ‘songs’ are not tied to a place and a distinct group of performers, but can be found in different areas and among different communities; performers who absorb them into their own repertory can elaborate them and create variant forms. In contrast, the second system does not recognize identifiable poetic-musical entities that can be circulated as such; instead it is based on creative actions that make an impromptu union of text and music, using a ‘way of singing’ specific to a social group or geographical zone, or both, whose realization is based on principles shared by the whole community. A wide variety of texts can be performed according to such ‘ways of singing’, which are improvisatory in character. Neither system is specific to a single song genre, and each can be employed alternately by the same performers, but in general the first is prevalent in the north, the second in the south. As to instrumental music, a further division can be observed between a musical idiom based on closed forms and organized into more or less regular harmonic and melodic phrases (typical of northern Italian violin music, for example), and one based on open, improvisatory forms, where the musical discourse uses a series of processes including repetition, variation and the connection of elements which may have no phrase-like character (as can often be found in southern instrumental music and, in particular, in the repertory of the launneddas).

Several scholars have attempted to classify Italian folk music by area, from the point of view of vocal style and musical idiom (Lomax 1955–6; Leydi 1973, 1980, 1990), but as knowledge has increased of the many vocal styles, instrumental traditions, musical idioms and vocal polyphonic practices to be found in the country, it has become more and more difficult to define areas of substantially similar characteristics. For this reason material is treated here according to genre, stressing the content, use and function of musical practices, with some indications of musical characteristics and geographical location. The distinctive music of Sardinia, however, is treated separately.

Italy, §II: Traditional music

2. Narrative singing.

Several principal narrative repertories can be identified: the ballad in the oral tradition, traditionally a major presence in the north, becoming increasingly rare towards the south; the broadside ballad (found in the north and centre); the narrative song in ottava rima (in central Italy); and the southern storia. Some types of religious songs, like the orazioni and Sicilian orbi songs, are also narrative pieces.

The repertory which has received the most attention, starting with Nigra's classic Canti popolari del Piemonte (1888) is that of the ballad, whose links to the great European repertory extend even to the inclusion of some examples in variant forms. The Italian ballad is cast in epic-lyric metre (unusually, in central to southern Italy, in lines of 11 syllables), it is strophic (using many different forms), specific texts and melodies are closely linked, and there are variant versions. Ballad narratives have the following main features: the action is stripped to its essentials, concentrating only on the most salient episodes with details omitted, the approach is emotionally detached, there is a non-linear presentation of time, action is dramatized (sometimes giving rise to theatrical presentation, in the Pavia Apennines, Canavese and Loranzè), much use is made of dialogue and the focus is on a number of principal themes, dealing with relationships between men and women.

In Italy ballads have been documented as an essentially female repertory, and the very circulation of ballads and creation of variants can be linked to the mobility of women under the virilocal system found in the north, the fact that women lived together within multiple family households in the old peasant society, and the practice of singing during women's collective work. Ballads can thus be considered the product of a totally female way of representing and interpreting reality, expressing women's perceptions of themselves and how they relate to the world. In peasant society in the past, ballads both had a strong educational role in transmitting models of values and behaviour, and helped to develop imaginative activity. Italian ballads essentially present women's stories, and through these symbolic tales they represent the woman's world view in past peasant society, which stresses female weakness in the face of strength, violence and authority of men, honour as the main socially recognized value of women, death as the likely consequence of legal and moral transgressions. The narratives concentrate on a small number of principal themes: 1. Violence done by a man to a woman (e.g. Gli anelli, Nigra 6); 2. Women betrayed by men (e.g. Cecilia, Nigra 3); 3. Forbidden love (e.g. Fior di tomba, Nigra 19); 4. Virtuous girls (e.g. La prova, Nigra 54); 5. Women who break the law (e.g. Donna lombarda, Nigra 1, the most famous of all Italian ballads).

Musical analysis suggests that in the past the ballad repertory was dominated by the practice of two-voice singing; the music examples given by Nigra in 1888 suggest that this was already commonplace in the 19th century. Not only have ballads sung by two voices in parallel 3rds been documented (ex.1), but a large repertory exists of melodies that derive from singing in 3rds where only the lower part, ending on the tonic, or the upper part, ending on the third degree of a major scale, has been retained. As well as this repertory, linked to collective performing practice, there are also ballads that are clearly monodic, often based on a minor scale, or, in rare cases, on a different mode (ex.2). Monodic and polyphonic ballads also differ in vocal style. Monodic ballads use a contained delivery in the central register and a declamatory style of singing that focusses on communicating the text; in polyphonic ballads the voice is louder, the melody often moves in a higher register, and the performers are clearly more interested in singing in itself. In both cases, however, the ballad retains its character as an identifiable poetic and musical entity, belonging to the first system of music production and transmission outlined above.

From the 1950s, women's ballads saw a progressive decline in the wake of massive migration from the countryside into cities and the disintegration of multiple families into scattered families; this marked the end of collective occasions for singing and exchanges among women. Moreover, from the end of the 19th century, peasant women in the north became increasingly involved in the new form of seasonal work as rice-weeders. This brought profound changes as much to their lives and the imagery they commanded – they were living apart from their families for the first time, had freer relations with men and could earn an income of their own – as to their repertory of songs and style of singing (linked to choral performance, tense and high-pitched). A repertory of rice-weeders' songs came into existence, preserving only a few of the old ballads (sometimes in altered versions), but giving rise to new songs that bore directly on the women's work experience.

A male song practice, which shares points of contact and exchange with the female practice of ballad singing, has also been documented. Men's songs are predominantly choral and associated with musical entertainment in the classic male gathering-places, chiefly the inn. The male choral repertory is mixed, and may include social, Alpine, comic and risqué songs, as well as some ballads. The unifying element of this repertory is the style of singing, a two-voice, parallel third structure, enriched by octave doublings, drones or additional harmony notes. Generally there is a solo opening before the entry of the chorus, which is loud, emphatic and slow (ex.3). Since this style is very taxing, men often tend to shorten ballad texts, preferring to focus on the cohesion of the group and the musical activity itself rather than the narrative. This may be related to the different function that singing has for a male chorus: as an event it has a looser connection with the textual content of the songs and is more directed towards emphasizing the social and cohesive value of the simple act of singing together. There are interesting examples of this type of male choral singing in the Po valley and the Ligurian hinterland.

Broadside ballads are quite different from the ballads of the oral tradition, both in terms of the way they are produced and their content. They are the creation of folk-music professionals, cantastorie (street singers), active in northern and central Italy, and form part of the performances they give in town piazzas, where instrumental pieces and other types of songs are also heard. The songs are a part of the show which is sold to the audience and paid for by the acquisition of various objects, including broadsheets with the song texts (in the past) or pre-recorded cassettes (today). The narrative songs that ballad singers produce are quite different in character from ballads belonging to the oral tradition: they use a variety of poetic metres, different from epic-lyric verse, employ recurrent musical motifs (as in ex.4) and often have an instrumental accompaniment. With topics drawn mainly from recent crime stories, dealt with in a sensationalist manner, their highly detailed narrative style is directed towards the emotional involvement of the spectators. These songs have also entered the repertory of the oral tradition, but they are easy to distinguish from traditional ballads. The exchange has not been one way: ballad singers have also taken over traditional ballads, re-elaborated in the style of broadside ballads, like Donna lombarda or Cecilia.

As well as the broadside ballads, the storie of southern cantastorie are worthy of note. Traditionally, the storia is quite a long piece, with a particularly elaborate narrative and a wealth of detail, employing a strict strophic form, with a preference for 11-syllable lines. Lengthy storie, concerned with matters of honour and blood, have been documented by folklorists in the past, the most famous being La baronessa di Carini, but there are also storie concerned with political events, such as La storia di Muratti (ex.5), which recounts the historical tale of Gioacchino Murat, the former King of Naples who was shot dead in 1815. In the 20th century Sicilian ballad singers have often collaborated with poets (including Ignazio Buttitta) for their texts. Their performances in town piazzas, accompanied by guitar, use the traditional visual aid of the cartellone, a placard depicting the key events of the tale.

The long storie in ottava rima found in central Italy are also narrative in content, and are traditionally sung at veglie, social gatherings with music; a famous example is the storia of Pia de' Tolomei, which exists in different popular printed versions. More typical of the work of poets in ottava rima, who, in contrast to the cantastorie, are not professionals, but specialist interpreters of a song tradition, are re-elaborations of narratives mainly drawn from published classical and Renaissance epic literature. These are heard at competitions in which two performers confront one another, improvising verses according to a specific musical practice, which allows for subjective elaboration of the melodies (as happens in lyrical singing).

Lastly, mention should be made of religious narrative compositions, the orazioni that recount Christ's Passion or the lives of saints. Often performed in the past by mendicants, the religious narrative song in Sicily has been the prerogative of the orbi, a congregation of blind musicians in existence since 1600 in Palermo, who are the trustees of a wealth of novene and triunfi, songs commissioned by a believer in honour of a saint who has bestowed a grace.

Italy, §II: Traditional music

3. Lyrical singing.

This term refers to a system of improvised music-making prevalent in southern and central Italy, but also to be found in the north. The basis of lyrical singing is a creative act, whereby words and music are combined extemporarily. A variety of musical practices are used, by men and women, individually or together. They form an essential part of local culture, often being taken as a potent symbol of local identity. The texts do not recount stories, but express feelings (in most cases addressed to an imaginary female figure), and are subjective in character. They are widely circulated and have given rise to innumerable variants, but are not tied to specific melodies. The principal metre is the 11-syllable line, organized into different poetic forms, and variously elaborated in the course of the song, even with fragmentations and the insertion of verses in contrasting metres. The singing practices are normally local in character and adopt a ‘way of singing’ peculiar to the community which each interpreter is free to elaborate on individually. There are also specific ways of elaborating the text and organizing a group of performers to participate in the singing and the various forms of accompaniment. Since these singing practices are highly diversified, this overview is limited to the observation of some of the elements that differentiate them.

In some traditions the performance is based on a single, consistent text, a ‘continuous discourse’ performed as a solo (such as Sicilian carters' songs) or by a group of performers who follow strict rules of alternation. For example, the first performer may sing a couplet, repeated by the others in turn, and elaborated in a particular manner, as in songs alla verbicarese or alla lonnuvucchisa, or else the singers will alternate, taking single verses and using a technique of fragmentation and repetition which has echoes in 14th-century Italian music. An example of this type is provided by songs ‘alla mageraiota’ (ex.6). In other traditions, the performance will use several song texts (either complete or in part) in sequence, possibly adding verses of contrasting character or nonsense. Such pieces are generally performed by several singers in turn, and the performance is characterized by the notion of ‘interrupted discourse’, in that texts on different themes follow on from each other. Lastly, the performance can be organized as a dialogue between two singers alternately using a precise musico-poetic form for each entry (contrasti, stornelli, dispetti, etc.).

The types of lyrical singing discussed so far are all monodic and are performed employing either purely vocal melodies or dance tunes. In the former case, the rhythm is free, the vocal style is often very tense, the singer uses a high register, and the melody is organized in descending segments, frequently moving by step; there is a great deal of melismatic decoration, the melody is often modal, sometimes characterized by modal mobility, and there may be instrumental accompaniment. When a song is performed to an instrumental dance-tune, the singers can still use the same ‘gestural’ style, or they may adopt less articulated melodies, with a fixed rhythm and a less emphatic vocal style more concerned with communicating the often very dense text. They may even mix the two singing styles as in ex.7. At any rate, making music within the system of lyrical singing provides ways for participants to test their own creative skill and degree of competence in giving a musical performance, within shared guidelines that determine the possibility of reciprocal communication, interaction and exchange between performers.

Lyrical singing serves many functions. One practice of great interest which has now disappeared is the serenata which a man addresses to his beloved; this fulfilled the social function of monitoring pre-marital relations, and in some parts of southern Italy could take the forms of a ‘song of love’ and ‘song of contempt’. The performance of ‘songs of love’ publicly announced the relationship, while ‘songs of contempt’ either informed the community that an engagement had been broken off, or else provoked the break by directing highly offensive comments to the woman. The same repertory can be sung today as a form of entertainment within a male group; the function here is to socialize certain subject-matter of an emotional nature, and realize particular models of interpersonal interaction. In some traditions, the performance of lyrical songs may be part of devotional behaviour during religious festivals. In the past there was also frequent recourse to lyrical singing during agricultural work, at social occasions or competitions, where verbal communication and competitive improvisation predominated.

Agricultural work and entertainment are also associated with polyphonic renditions of lyrical songs, and while these are to be found in many regions of Italy, different regional traditions generally display no connections. In the north, the villotta (a type of lyrical song in verses of 8 or 11 syllables, now rare in either monodic or polyphonic performance) can be sung in parallel 3rds, while in the Italian communities of Istria it gives way to various types of two-voice, non-parallel discant known as canto a pera or a la longa in Gallesano, basso in Dignano, mantignada in Sissano and butunada in Rovigno. In central Italy the most significant form is the vatoccu, found in Umbria, the Marches and the Abruzzi. This type of discant performed by two voices (either both male or mixed), used to perform lyrical satirical songs with verses of 11-syllable lines, whose chief point of interest lies in the non-parallel movement of the lines(ex.8). Other forms of two-part singing in central Italy, in many respects similar to the vatoccu, are known locally by names such as canto a coppia, a recchia, alla metitora, alla pennese.

There are also traditions of polyphonic singing in the extreme south accompanied by a drone (ex.9). In Sardinia forms of lyrical singing show individual aspects when compared to those on mainland Italy, including the monodic ‘song with guitar’, and the polyphonic tenore singing. Mention should lastly be made of the vjersh of the Albanian communities in Calabria, a form of great contrapuntal interest, where a brief sequence of verses is interpreted by two and three voices according to a variety of polyphonic models.

Italy, §II: Traditional music

4. Other vocal repertories.

(i) Children's songs.

The best-known songs for children are lullabies, an enormous repertory with great variations throughout Italy. This repertory is identified not by form or poetic metre nor by a given musical idiom, but uniquely by the occasion for the song – an important moment in the relationship between mother and child. Different functions can be expressed inside this relationship, beyond the mere inducement to sleep through repeated, rocking melodies. Lullabies display a wide range of imagery, with references to everyday life or religion, and as some of them derive from lyrical songs, they make up a repertory in which women create a world of fantasy that goes beyond the dimension of the relationship with the baby. The very melodic articulation of the song and the loud nature of the vocal style are evidence that the lullaby has often been the instrument for women to express themselves musically, and that has developed beyond the traits generally associated with the occasion of its use.

There is also a rich repertory of rhymes and counting songs for children, often using simple melodies and linked to games which, together with tongue-twisters and riddles, traditionally constitute instruments of the child's physical and mental training. Less well known are the songs that children use for their own games, and which may include pieces from adult repertories, like ballads, or, as in Brianza, the medieval Visitatio Sepulchri, reworked as children's games.

(ii) Work songs.

It has already been observed that there are multiple song traditions, many of them lyrical, that performers relate to agricultural work. They take on a variety of names in different locations: canti alla mietitora (harvesting songs), boare, canti alla falciatora (scything songs), carters' or waggoners' songs, canto alla monnarella, vatoccu, canto a pennese, etc. In most cases the singing style is quite taxing, both in terms of vocal production and, for polyphony, in the coordination of voices, a style traditionally sung not while working but during breaks or after the work was done. Other repertories more closely related to work have now generally disappeared, like that of tuna fishers in Sicily, who used sound to coordinate various points in the work of fishing. For salt-workers the principal element lay in counting the boxes of salt transported, while pedlars sang to attract clients and advertise their wares(ex.10). The piledrivers of the Venetian lagoon had work songs, and work was also the context of the repertory of rice-weeders (songs recounting moments of life in the rice-fields or expressing social protest), spinners (working in silk mills) and with other songs of social protest associated, among other things, with labouring and emigration.

(iii) Other polyphonic practices.

Besides the polyphonic practices described above, which are associated with specific occasions (such as work or ritual) or repertories (ballads, lyrical singing), the main function of some other singing practices is collective entertainment. Such practices are characterized more by style than by repertory. Among these are several styles of male polyphony in the north of Italy (including that of the Alpine chorus, which is partly connected to folk repertories), which vary in their particular musical choices. In urban Genoa a complex type of five-voice polyphony has developed, known as trallalero: its characteristics are the use of a falsetto voice (cuntrètu), and a voice that imitates a guitar and takes that name (chitarra), with the addition of a tenor voice (the soloist who begins the song), a baritone and a bass, the last part being taken by at least three singers (ex.11). Trallalero was already documented in the 19th century, but it started to develop from the 1920s particularly. Its musical structure is solidly tonal, most of the texts are very short, it offers no particular message and often resembles nonsense. A singing practice that is similar in many respects is the bei-bei of Monte Amiata in Tuscany. This is characterized by a solo voice (tenor), who sings the song text to the accompaniment of the bei (a voice that performs a kind of yodel moving in intervals of a 3rd or 6th) and the corda (a bass who sings the fundamental notes of the harmony), and sometimes an intermediate voice which fills out the harmonic texture or provides a rhythmic support (ex.12).

A further form of polyphonic song in which voices imitate an instrumental accompaniment (like the trallalero and the bei) is found in Rovigno in Istria. This is the bitinada, a singing style for three male voices: the upper voice takes the melody and sings the text, while the two lower voices perform an accompaniment of nonsense syllables (lulu, tin tin, etc.), based respectively on an arpeggio and a rhythmic motif on a repeated pitch. Another category of polyphonic song in Rovigno is the aria da nuoto, night song. This is for three voices in choral style (ex.13); as in the other examples, the texts are of varied provenance and are no more than a pretext for collective singing. A further style is the tiir of Premana in the province of Como, which aims for maximum socialization during the singing, with no distinction between singers and audience. Men and women together create a complex musical texture where there are no predetermined roles and great harmonic richness is achieved spontaneously.

Italy, §II: Traditional music

5. Music in ritual.

Of the principal life-cycle events, birth is not connected in Italy to any specific musical repertory, but marriage was often accompanied by songs and music for the bridal pair. Among the different traditions is the sonata per la sposa performed in the pastoral communities of Alta Sabina. This includes three pieces played on the ciaramella (here a bagpipe with two chanters and no drone): the piagnereccia, played while waiting for the bride outside her father's house, and expressing in music the bride's grief at leaving her family (ex.14), the camminareccia, which accompanies the bride's journey to the church, and the crellareccia, a dance performed by the newly-weds as they leave the church. Death has traditionally been an occasion of ritual mourning (ex.15) in the south and in Sardinia. Ernesto De Martino devoted one of his greatest works to this practice (D1958), examining the rites connected with death in Lucania and, for comparison, in other Mediterranean areas of Europe. He describes ritual mourning as ‘protected speech’ (D1958, pp.89–103), that is, a cultural model that offers the protection of organized behaviour for the expression of grief. He thus interprets the lament as a technique for weeping (including particular verbal, musical and gestural behaviour) established in order to control and overcome the psychological risks connected to the experience of death, undergone by individuals and the community as a whole.

De Martino devoted his most famous work (D1961) to another rite, therapeutic in character, which is found in Puglia. His analysis again concerns a situation of physical and psychological crisis, called tarantism. Traditional culture in Puglia considered tarantism to be poisoning caused by a tarantula bite, which could be cured only through a symbolic rite, featuring music, dance and colour. According to De Martino's interpretation, tarantism aims at symbolically representing and acting out a critical situation (a psychological struggle that cannot be remembered, thus leading to neurosis) that affects all women during the age of sexual development. His study (including an article by the ethnomusicologist Diego Carpitella) reveals the large part played by music during the therapy of tarantism, since music represents the only instrument that can provoke a reaction to the state of complete apathy of those affected, inviting them to dance and thus to represent and overcome the conflict. Towards the end of his life De Martino began studying a phenomenon parallel to tarantism, the Sardinian argia.

Music plays an important role in a large number of rites that may be either religious or seasonal, or both, varying by region. The cycle of festivals of the winter solstice is the occasion for instrumental performances (the pastorale performed on the bagpipe is common in the south), narrative songs relating to Christmas, lullabies for the baby Jesus, songs for Epiphany (such as the Pasquella in Romagna and the Stella in the eastern Alps) and Christmas novenas. Strictly speaking, the term novena signifies a narrative song in nine sections, corresponding to the nine days preceding the feast day: a widely known piece in Sicily is the Viaggiu dulurusu, a narration in nine parts traditionally performed by the orbi, that begins at the point where Joseph learns of the imperial decree ordering the census and ends with the Nativity. Carnival was traditionally the period for veglie (when songs would be sung and stories told), dances (Bagolino in the province of Brescia has a particularly famous repertory) and rites which are widely found in many parts of Italy. Often the subject is the death and resurrection of a symbolic figure (the Carnevale, the Vecchia) or the representation of ‘the world turned upside-down’, and there may be an element of dressing-up (a famous example being the masked mamutones of Mamoiada in Sardinia, who form a procession, playing cow-bells and rattles). Sometimes the rites take on an explicitly theatrical dimension (for example, the Zeza and the representation of the months in Campania, and the Befanate in Tuscany).

In many parts of the country Easter is the occasion for ritual and representational events which culminate in the rites of Good Friday, and many important song traditions are connected to these. In addition to the numerous songs narrating the Passion found in many regions, mention should also be made of polyphonic songs, often liturgical in character and sung in Latin, traditionally sung by groups of men (although recently women's voices have been introduced in some cases) who belong to lay confraternities. There are particularly interesting examples in Emilia, Liguria, Umbria, Campania (ex.16), Sicily and Sardinia. Particularly in the south, spring and summer see numerous festivals dedicated to the Virgin Mary or to saints, each of which calls for ritual behaviour and involves much singing and dancing. Roberto De Simone's recordings of religious festivals in Campania, issued in 1977, are an important piece of documentation.

In many central and northern regions the arrival of summer is celebrated in the May (Maggio) festival, which, in Emilia and Tuscany takes the form of a proper music-theatre performance, whose origins seem to be traceable to the late 18th century. The Maggio drammatico is one of the most important expressions of folk music-theatre in Europe, and while it retains an explicit connection with a seasonal theme (the triumph of summer over winter), it has developed into a complex piece of work, all of it sung. The subject matter is freely drawn from medieval and Renaissance literature, the Bible and other sources, and elaborated by local writers who adapt the material to a recurring dramatic scheme: through a series of adventures a group of heroes (generally Christians) is formed, and they fight an enemy group (generally pagans), until the eventual triumph of the heroes. The dramatic composition is framed by the procession of the maggerini (or maggianti) followed by a prologue (a series of opening verses often referring to the seasonal theme and introducing the subject-matter), and the final chorus (ex.17), the only polyphonic piece in the presentation, which signals the return to the stage of all the characters who have appeared in the action, representing a communal concluding rite. The drama presented between the prologue and final chorus often has a cyclical structure and is frequently characterized by a number of synchronized actions. The acting style is ‘alienated’ and in some traditions gestures are used to explain particular words of the text. The musical and poetic structures are closely linked: four lines (or sometimes five in Tuscany) of eight syllables – the dominant metre, related to the flowing action – are intoned on a fluid melodic pattern, articulated in four sections, similar to local forms of lyrical singing. An eight-line stanza (ottava) of 11 syllables, intoned on a melody repeated with variations at every couplet, is reserved for the key moments in the drama (death, imprisonment, separation); the sonetto (four lines of seven syllables) is used mainly for lyrical scenes and for the final chorus. As well as the singing there are short instrumental episodes (fragments of liscio dance tunes performed by violin, guitar and accordion) whose principal role is to divide the scenes and underline dramatic moments. The Maggio drammatico is still found in local variants in the Emilian Apennines and in Tuscany.

Italy, §II: Traditional music

6. Dances and instruments.

The principal instrumental music traditions found in Italy are mostly of dance music. Both in terms of dance and of music, the repertories are often profoundly different in the northern and central-southern regions. In northern Italy, the most important dance repertories, prominent in Emilia, Bagolino and Resia, are played by a small instrumental group, based around the violin (whose playing technique retains many elements from Baroque practice). In Emilia these concertini have often changed in composition depending on the availability of players, but the classic formation in the early 20th century was two violins (the first having a solo function while the second provided a rhythmic-harmonic accompaniment), guitar (accompanying), a bowed bass instrument (such as a violone, three-string bassett, cello or bass) and whatever other instruments might be available to double the melody and in some cases perform a counter-melody (such as another violin or a viola). The repertory consisted of skipping dances (ruggero, saltarello, ballo di Mantova, roncastalda, monferrina, etc.), dances with ritual aspects (ballo di baraben) and waltzes, polkas and mazurkas, known as liscio (‘smooth’) to differentiate them from skipping dances.

In contrast, the repertory of instrumental groups in Bagolino is tied exclusively to Carnival. These groups consist of two violins, playing the main melody and a doubling or a counter-melody, two guitars (for accompaniment), a bass and a mandolin. The dances (ariosa, bal frances, bas de tach, muleta, pas in amur, rose e fiori, etc.), reserved for the last Monday and Tuesday of Carnival, are complex and sophisticated, and are performed by specially trained dancers from the village. Instrumental groups of the Val di Resia in Istria are made up of a violin (citira) which performs the melody alternately in two keys a fifth apart, an optional second violin doubling the melody in 3rds, a cello (bunkula) which holds the alternating tonics as a drone, and the stamping of the players, providing rhythmic support (ex.18). The dance repertory (such as the ta palacowa, ta matianowa, ta panawa, rezianka zagatina) is performed for the departure of conscripts (young conscripted soldiers), at Carnival or for festivals, and sometimes has vocal accompaniment.

Although the violin is predominant in the north, it is also used in Puglia in the context of tarantism rites: accompanied by a tambourine (taking the rhythmic function essential to the rite), guitar and sometimes accordion, the violin plays an essential role in the music and dance therapy of tarantism. Still in the north, in the Oltrepò pavese region around Pavia a further repertory of skipping dances can be found; examples are alessandrina, monferrina, piana, giga, perigurdino, sposina (dance for a bride), and povera donna, a Carnival dance that represents a rite of death and resurrection. The latter repertory is played by a piffero, a double-reed instrument belonging to the oboe family, and formerly accompanied by the müsa (a bagpipe with a single chanter for the melody and a one single-reed drone), now replaced by the accordion. Today besides the traditional dances many such groups perform a more recent repertory of liscio dances, also used by band groups (the Concerto Cantoni band in Emilia is famous for its repertory).

Many instruments are used in folk traditions, often deriving from art music. Idiophones include castanets, bells and cow-bells, crotales, cymbals, rattles, Jew's harps, setaccio, traccola and triangle. Of the membranophones, tambourines of different sizes are played (which may incorporate various types of idiophones, like small cymbals or bells), as well as double-sided drums and friction drums. Aerophones include end-blown, transverse or vessel flutes, panpipes, clarinets, oboes with or without pirouettes, shells, mouth organs, accordions and band instruments. Apart from the chordophones already mentioned, guitar and mandolin are common, and in the past the harp was found in Viggiano, Basilicata, and the zither in the Tyrol.

Formerly one of the most widely found instruments in various forms throughout Italy was the zampogna or Bagpipe. In the north, where apart from the müsa mentioned above, types such as the Alpine and Apennine piva were formerly played, today it has completely died out except for the Istrian piva, which has two single-reed chanters and no drone. The piva was once used to accompany singing as well as to play dance tunes (furlana, balùn, liscio dances) to the accompaniment of a tambourine, simbalo. The zampogna is now most widely found in central-southern Italy and Sicily. The instruments found in this area share a common structural characteristic: they have two chanters played with separate hands, and the drone pipes are mounted together with the chanters in a single block of wood, placed in a goatskin bag. In other respects, the central-southern bagpipes display profound differences. Some have chanters of equal length (the surdulina of Basilicata and northern Calabria, the Calabrian and Sicilian zampogna a paro, which generally has single reeds and two or three drone pipes), some have chanters of unequal length (zampogna zoppa with one, two or no drone pipes, mainly with double reeds, found in central Italy). Some have a key mechanism for the longest pipe to facilitate access to the complete system, presumably taken from the Renaissance Shawm, such as the zampogna a chiave found from Lazio down to Sicily, generally with two drone pipes and double reeds. There is also the Calabrian ‘a’moderna’ bagpipe, with chanters of unequal length, three drone pipes and single reeds.

Given the widespread presence of the bagpipe in Italy, its repertories are naturally diverse, using different musical idioms which have yet to be examined in depth. The instrument is used in ritual performance (processions, music for a saint, novenas), for dance (in southern Italy and Sicily the tarantella predominates, displaying a variety of choreographic and musical aspects) and to accompany singing. In many cases the bagpipe is accompanied by other instruments, especially the tambourine, different forms of which are found wherever the bagpipe appears in central-southern Italy, and the ciaramella (shawm; fig.22). The bagpipe is absent from Sardinia, but a triple clarinet of reed pipes called launeddas (played using circular breathing) is found throughout the southern area of the island.

The music played by the launeddas is the most refined example of the open, improvisatory forms mentioned earlier and is widespread in the instrumental music of southern Italy. The general structure of the dances (ballo tondo) played by professional musicians is completely dominated by the aesthetic notion of thematic continuity (sonai a iskala). In practice, the dance is made up of a series of nodas or pikkiades (short elements endowed with a characteristic tripartite form), each of which is developed in a series of variants that together form a group. The passage from a group based on one noda to a new noda has to be effected without a perceptible modification in the musical discourse, something that is achieved through a sophisticated variation technique. Similarly, techniques of improvisation based on the connection and variation of short musical elements may be found, for instance in the repertory of the southern bagpipes and diatonic accordion.

The instruments mentioned above are the most important to be found in the panorama of Italian music, both in terms of diffusion and size of repertory. But the country also has many other instrumental traditions, often limited but nevertheless of great interest, such as that of the chitarra battente (in Puglia, Campania and Calabria), the lyra (found almost uniquely among the Greek-descended communities of southern Calabria), the double flute (in Campania, Calabria and Sicily: ex.19), and simple, double and triple clarinets (such as the Sardinian benas).

Italy, §II: Traditional music

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See also Sardinia

a: bibliographies, reviews, surveys

b: general studies

c: regional and local studies

d: anthropological studies

e: vocal music, general

f: vocal repertories

g: instruments and instrumental music

h: dance and theatre

i: folk and art music

j: historical sources

k: minority groups

l: discographies

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

a: bibliographies, reviews, surveys

D. Carpitella: ‘Rassegna bibliografica degli studi di etnomusicologia in Italia dal 1945 ad oggi’, AcM, xxxii (1960), 109–113

T. Magrini: ‘Vent'anni di musicologia in Italia: IV. Etnomusicologia’, AcM, liv (1982), 80–83

S. Biagiola, G. Giuriati and M. Macedonio: ‘Primo contributo ad una bibliografia etnomusicologica italiana con esempi musicali’, Culture musicali, iii (1983), 121–80; ix (1988), 103–34

L. Colombo, P. Staro and A. Zanon: ‘Bibliografia sulla danza popolare italiana’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 147–94

F. Giannattasio: ‘Pour une musicologie unitaire: l'ethnomusicologie en Italie’, Ethnologie Française, xxiv (1994), 587–600

G. Giuriati: ‘Country report: Italian Ethnomusicology’, YTM, xxvii (1995), 104–31

See also the website of Music & Anthropology 〈http://www.muspe.unibo.it/M&A〉.

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

b: general studies

MGG1 (‘Italien’, §C; T. Magrini)

F.B. Pratella: Saggio di gridi, canzoni, cori e danze del popolo italiano (Bologna, 1919/R)

C. Caravaglios: Il folklore musicale in Italia (Naples, 1936)

F.B. Pratella: Primo documentario per la storia dell'etnofonia in Italia (Udine, 1941)

D. Carpitella and G. Nataletti: Studi e ricerche del Centro nazionale studi di musica popolare: dal 1948 al 1960 (Rome, n.d.)

R. Leydi and S. Mantovani: Dizionario della musica popolare europea (Milan, 1970)

D. Carpitella, ed.: Musica e tradizione orale (Palermo, 1973)

D. Carpitella, ed.: L'etnomusicologia in Italia (Palermo, 1975)

D. Carpitella: Folklore e analisi differenziale di cultura: materiali per lo studio delle tradizioni popolari (Rome, 1976)

L. Fayet and others: Ethnomusicologie: l'expérience italienne (Paris, 1981)

B. Pianta: Cultura popolare (Milan, 1982)

G. Giuriati, ed.: Forme e comportamenti della musica folklorica italiana: etnomusicologia e didattica (Milan, 1985)

S. Biagiola, ed.: Etnomusica: catalogo della musica di tradizione orale nelle registrazioni dell' Archivio etnico linguistico musicale della Discoteca di stato (Rome, 1986)

M. Agamennone: ‘I suoni della tradizione’, Storia sociale e culturale d'Italia, vi: La cultura folklorica, ed. F. Cardini (Varese, 1988), 437–522

P.G. Arcangeli, ed.: Musica e liturgia nella cultura mediterranea (Florence, 1988)

D. Carpitella: Etnomusicologica: seminari internazionali di etnomusicologia 1977–1989 (Siena, 1989)

Le polifonie primitive in Cividale: Cividale del Friuli 1980

R. Leydi, ed.: Le tradizioni popolari in Italia: canti e musiche popolari (Milan, 1990)

M. Agamennone and others: Grammatica della musica etnica (Rome, 1991)

R. Leydi: L'altra musica (Milan, 1991)

D. Carpitella: Conversazioni sulla musica (1955–1990) lezioni, conferenze, trasmissioni radiofoniche, ed. Società italiana di etnomusicologia (Florence, 1992)

F. Giannattasio: Il concetto di musica: contributi e prospettive della ricerca etnomusicologica (Rome, 1992)

Ethnomusicologica II: Siena 1989

T. Magrini, ed.: Antropologia della musica e culture mediterranee (Bologna, 1993)

R. Leydi, ed.: La musica popolare in Italia (Lucca, 1996)

I. Macchiarella: Voix d'Italie (Paris, 1999) [with CD]

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

c: regional and local studies

F.B. Pratella: Etnofonia di Romagna (Udine, 1938)

A. Favara: Corpus di musiche popolari siciliane, ed. O. Tiby (Palermo, 1957)

A. Cornoldi: Ande, bali e cante del Veneto (Padua, 1968)

R. Leydi, ed.: Le trasformazioni socio-economiche e la cultura tradizionale in Lombardia (Milan, 1972)

M. Conati: Canti popolari della Val d'Enza e della Val Cedra (Parma, 1973–5)

E. Guggino: ‘Canti di lavoro in Sicilia’, Demologia e folklore: studi in memoria di Giuseppe Cochiara (Palermo, 1974), 317–36

A. Vigliermo: Cantie tradizioni popolari: indagine sul Canavese (Ivrea, 1974)

M. Conati: ‘La musica di tradizione orale nella provincia di Verona’, La musica a Verona, ed. P. Brugnoli (Verona, 1976), 573–648

R. Leydi: ‘Appunti per lo studio della ballata popolare in Piemonte’, Ricerche musicali, i (1977), 82–118

P.E. Carapezza: ‘Canzoni popolari alla siciliana cioè alla catanese e alla palermitana’, RIM, xiii (1978), 118–41

E. Guggino: I carrettieri (Palermo, 1978)

R. De Simone: Canti e tradizioni popolari in Campania (Rome, 1979)

P. Collaer: Musique traditionelle sicilienne (Tervuren, 1980)

E. Guggino: I canti degli orbi (Palermo, 1980–88)

R. Leydi and T. Magrini, eds.: Guida allo studio della cultura del mondo popolare in Emilia e in Romagna (Bologna, 1982–6)

G. Adamo: ‘Sullo studio di un repertorio monodico della Basilicata’, Culture musicali, ii (1982), 95–154

P. Collaer: ‘I modi della musica tradizionale siciliana’, Culture musicali, ii (1982), 3–18

T. Magrini and G. Bellosi: Vi do la buonasera: studi sul canto popolare in Romagna: il repertorio lirico (Bologna, 1982)

R. Morelli and others: Cantie cultura tradizionale nel Tesino (Milan, 1983)

A. Sparagna: La tradizione musicale a Maranola: materiali di ricerca etnomusicologica nel Basso Lazio (Rome, 1983)

M. Agamennone: Due laudate meridionali: le ‘carresi’ di Larino e San Martino in Pensilis (Campobasso, 1984)

E. Lagnier: Enquête sur le chant populaire en Vallée d'Aoste (Aosta, 1984)

M. Sorce Keller: ‘Folk Music in Trentino: Oral Transmission and the Use of Vernacular Languages’, EthM, xxviii (1984), 75–89

A. Colzani, ed.: Musica, dialetti e tradizioni popolari nell'arco alpino (Lugano, 1987)

N. Iannone: Ballate della raccolta Nigra note nella provincia di Piacenza (Bologna, 1989)

A. Sparagna and R. Tucci: La musica popolare nel Lazio (Rome, 1990)

A. Ricci: ‘Polivocalità tradizionale di Torano Castello e Sartano (Cosenza)’, Studi Musicali, xx (1991), 3–38

P. Sassu, ed.: Romagna, le voci: ricerca sul folklore di Sant'Alberto di Ravenna (Ravenna, 1991)

M. Sorce Keller: Tradizione orale e canto corale: ricerca musicologica in Trentino (Bologna, 1991)

R. Starec: Il repertorio etnomusicale istro-veneto: catalogo delle registrazioni 1983–91(Trieste, 1991)

A. Ricci and R. Tucci: I ‘canti’ di Raffaele Lombardi Satriani: la poesia cantata nella tradizione popolare calabrese (Lamezia Terme, 1997) [CDs enclosed]

S. Villani: Canti e strumenti tradizionali di Carpino (Rignano Garganico, 1997)

R. Leydi, ed.: Canzoni popolari del Piemonte: la raccolta inedita di Leone Sinigaglia (Vigevano, 1998)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

d: anthropological studies

E. De Martino: Morte e pianto rituale (Turin, 1958)

E. De Martino: La terra del rimorso: contributo a una storia religiosa del sud (Milan, 1961)

R. De Simone: Chi è devoto: feste popolari in Campania (Naples, 1974)

A. Rossi and R. De Simone: Carnevale si chiamava Vincenzo: rituali di Carnevale in Campania (Rome, 1977)

T. Magrini: Canti d'amore e di sdegno: funzioni e dinamiche psichiche della cultura orale (Milan, 1986)

T. Magrini: ‘The Group Dimension in Traditional Music’, The World of Music, xxxi (1989), 52–79

T. Magrini: ‘The Contribution of Ernesto De Martino to the Anthropology of Italian Music’, YTM, xxvi (1994), 66–80

L. Del Giudice: ‘Ninna-nanna Nonsense?: Fears, Dreams, and Falling in the Italian Lullaby’, Oral Tradition, iii (1988), 270–93

S. Bonanzinga: Forme sonore e spazio simbolico: tradizioni musicali in Sicilia (Palermo, 1992)

T. Magrini: ‘Ballad and Gender: Reconsidering Italian Narrative Singing’, Ethnomusicology Online, i (1995)

T. Magrini: ‘Music and Function: an Open Question’, Musica oral del Sur, iii (1998), 85–92

T. Magrini: ‘Improvisation and Group Interaction in Italian Lyrical Singing’, In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation, ed. B. Nettl and M. Russell (Chicago, 1998), 169–98

T. Magrini: ‘Women's “Work of Pain” in Christian Mediterranean Europe’, Music & Anthropology, iii (1998)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

e: vocal music, general

C. Nigra: Canti popolari del Piemonte (Turin, 1888)

P. Toschi: Fenomenologia del canto popolare (Rome, 1947–9)

A. Lomax: ‘Nuova ipotesi sul canto folkloristico italiano’, Nuovi Argomenti, xvii–xviii (1955–6), 109–35

G.B. Bronzini: La canzone epico-lirica nell'Italia centro-meridionale (Rome, 1956–61)

Le polifonie primitive in Cividale: Cividale del Friuli 1980

G. Sanga: Il linguaggio del canto popolare (Milan-Florence, 1979)

M. Agamennone and S. Facci: ‘La trascrizione delle durate nella polivocalità popolare a due parti in Italia’, Culture musicali, i (1982), 89–106

T. Magrini: ‘Lo studio del comportamento musicale come fondamento del processo analitico: riflessioni sulla musica vocale di tradizione orale’, Analisi, viii (1992), 6–20

Il verso cantato: Rome 1988 (Rome, 1994)

M. Agamennone: Polifonie, procedimenti, tassonomie e forme: una riflessione ‘a più voci’ (Venice, 1996)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

f: vocal repertories

C. Caravaglios: ‘Gridi di venditori napoletani trascritti musicalmente’, Il Folklore Italiano, i (1925), 87–115

R. Leydi: Canti sociali italiani (Milan, 1963)

R. Leydi and A. Rossi: Osservazioni sui canti religiosi nonliturgici, con esempi di ricerca nella Valle Padana (Milan, 1965)

A. Uccello: Carcere e mafia nei canti popolari siciliani (Bari, 1965)

R. Leydi: ‘Spettacolo in piazza oggi: i cantastorie’, Il contributo dei giullari alla drammaturgia italiana delle origini: Viterbo 1977 (Rome, 1978), 295–338

S. Biagiola: ‘Modelli di ninne nanne molisane’, NRMI, xv (1981), 66–94

E. Neill and M. Balma: ‘Il trallalero genovese’, Culture musicali, v–vi (1984), 43–122

C. Oltolina: I salmi di tradizione orale delle Valli Ossolane (Milan, 1984)

A. Ricci and R. Tucci: ‘Il canto “alla lonnuvicchisa”: analisi del testo verbale’, Culture musicali, v–vi (1984), 199–268

G. Pennino: Due repertori musicali tradizionali (Palermo, 1985)

R. Champrétavy and others: Les chansons de Napoléon (Aosta, 1986)

V. Consolo: La pesca del tonno in Sicilia (Palermo, 1986)

G. Kezich: I poeti contadini (Rome, 1986)

L. del Giudice: Cecilia: testi e contesti di un canto narrativo tradizionale (Brescia, 1987/R)

P.G. Arcangeli: ‘Il canto paraliturgico femminile e “volgare” di Tessennano’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 159–68

M. Balma: ‘Il canto delle lezioni nella musica di tradizione orale in Liguria’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 169–79

G. Garofalo: ‘I canti dei carrettieri della provincia di Palermo: per un'analisi formalizzata del repertorio’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 80–105

I. Macchiarella: ‘L'ornamentazione melismatica della canzuna alla carrittera del palermitano’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 106–15

G. Palombini: ‘Il lamento funebre in Alta Sabina’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 116–38

G. Borghi and G. Vezzani: C'era una volta un ‘treppo’: cantastorie e poeti popolari in Italia settentrionale dalla fine dell'Ottocento agli anni ottanta (Sala Bolognese, 1988)

G. Fugazzotto: ‘Analisi della Visilla di Barcellona e di Pozzo di Gotto’, Culture musicali, xv–xvi (1989), 69–89

F. Maltempi: I canti della liturgia funebre ossolana (Bologna and Rome, 1990)

P. Wassermann: I canti popolari narrativi del Friuli (Udine, 1991)

Liturgie e paraliturgia nella tradizione orale: Santu Lussurigu 1991 (Cagliari, 1992)

S. Biagiola: ‘Canti di venditori ambulanti a Roma: la raccolta 9 degli Archivi di etnomusicologia’, EM: Annuario degli Archivi di etnomusicologia dell'Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, ii (1994), 7–26

S. Bonanzinga: ‘Reaping and Threshing Rhythms in Calamònaci (Agrigento-Sicily)’, Música oral del Sur, i (1995), 90–102

G. Garofalo: ‘Traditional Rural Songs in Sicily’, Música oral del Sur, i (1995), 65–89

S. Biagiola: ‘Per uno studio sul lamento funebre in Italia’, EM: Annuario degli Archivi di etnomusicologia dell'Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia, iv (1996), 7–26

S. Villani: La serenata a San Giovanni Rotondo: studi sul canto lirico (Bologna, 1997)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

g: instruments and instrumental music

A. Baines: Bagpipes (Oxford, 1960/R)

D. Carpitella: ‘Der Diaulos des Celestino’, Mf, xxviii (1975), 422–8

F. Giannattasio: L'organetto, uno strumento musicale contadino dell'era industriale (Rome, 1979)

M. Bröcker: ‘Il Piffero: ein Spieler und sein Instrument’, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis, vii (1981), 134–48

G. Giuriati: ‘Un procedimento compositivo caleidoscopico: la tarantella di Montemarano’, Culture musicali, ii (1982), 19–72

S. Cammelli, ed.: Musiche da ballo, balli da festa: musiche, balli e suonatori tradizionali della montagna bolognese (Bologna, 1983)

J.P. De Bousquier and M. Padovan: ‘Il violino della Val Varaita’, Culture musicali, ii (1983), 71–8

F. Guizzi and R. Leydi: Strumenti musicali popolari in Sicilia (Palermo, 1983)

P. Staro: ‘Musica per danzare: congruenza fra cultura musicale e cultura coreutica nella prassi esecutiva del violinista Melchiade Benni di Monghidoro’, Culture musicali, iv (1983), 57–69

P. Arcangeli and G. Palombini: ‘Sulle ciaramelle dell'Alta Sabina’, Culture musicali, v–vi (1984), 169–98

F. Guizzi and R. Leydi: Le zampogne in Italia (Milan, 1985)

R. Leydi and F. Guizzi, eds.: Strumenti musicali e tradizioni popolari in Italia (Rome, 1985)

A. Ricci and R. Tucci: ‘The Chitarra Battente in Calabria’, GSJ, xxxviii (1985), 78–105

N. Staiti: ‘Iconografia e bibliografia della zampogna a paro in Sicilia’, Lares, lii (1986), 197–240

F. Giannattasio: ‘Les recherches italiennes: systèmes d'improvisation dans les musiques d'Italie du sud’, L'improvisation dans les musiques de tradition orale, ed. B. Lortat-Jacob (Paris, 1987), 235–51

G. Plastino: ‘I tamburi di San Rocco’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 139–58

J. Strajnar: Citira: la musica strumentale in Val di Resia (Udine and Trieste, 1988)

F. Guizzi and N. Staiti: Le forme dei suoni: l'iconografia del tamburello in Italia (Florence, 1989)

E. Stockmann, ed.: Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis, ix (Stockholm, 1989)

R. Starec: Strumenti e suonatori in Istria (Udine, 1990)

M. Sarica: Strumenti musicali popolari in Sicilia (Messina, 1994)

R. Leydi and F. Guizzi, eds.: Gli strumenti musicali e l'etnografia italiana 1881–1911 (Lucca, 1995)

G. Plastino: Lira: uno strumento musicale tradizionale calabrese (Vibo Valentia, 1995)

C. Caliendo: La chitarra battente (Salerno, 1998)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

h: dance and theatre

G. Ungarelli: Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia bolognese (Rome, 1894)

B.M. Galanti: La danza della spada in Italia (Rome, 1942)

D. Carpitella: Ritmi e melodie di danze popolari in Italia (Rome, 1956)

S. Fontana: Il maggio (Florence, 1964)

G. Bosio and others: I Maggi della Bismantova (Milan, 1966)

P. Toschi: Le origini del teatro italiano (Turin, 1969)

P. Staro: ‘Metodo di analisi per un repertorio di danze tradizionali’, Culture musicali, i (1982), 73–94

D. Carbone: ‘Trascrizione del movimento e danze tradizionali: analisi di un saltarello di Amatrice’, Culture musicali, vii-viii (1985), 3–55

G. Gala: ‘Primo contributo per una filmografia sulla danza tradizionale in Italia’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 195–238

P. Staro: ‘Analisi del repertorio di danza della valle del Po’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 57–89

P. Staro: ‘Documento letterario e danza etnica’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 127–46

J. Strajnar: ‘Le danze di Resia’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 91–100

E. Castagna, ed.: Danza tradizionale in Calabria (Catanzaro, 1988)

T. Magrini, ed.: Il Maggio drammatico: una tradizione di teatro in musica (Bologna, 1992)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

i: folk and art music

P.E. Carapezza: ‘Perennità del folklore: tre esempi nella tradizione musicale siciliana’, Culture musicali, iv (1983), 41–6

T. Magrini: ‘Dolce lo mio drudo: la prospettiva etnomusicologica’, RIM, xxi (1986), 215–35

L. Rovighi: ‘Violino popolare e violino barocco’, Culture musicali, iv (1983), 31–55

N. Staiti: ‘La formula di discanto di “Ruggiero”’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 47–79

R. Starec: ‘Scritto e orale, colto e popolare, sacro e profano nella tradizione cantata: due esempi dall'Italia nordorientale’, Culture musicali, xii–xiv (1987–8), 180–93

G. Merizzi: ‘La fonte popolare nell'opera di Adriano Banchieri: indagine sul repertorio poetico-musicale profano’, Culture musicali, new ser., i–ii (1990), 17–74

R. Morelli: ‘Otto canti della Stella fra Riforma e Controriforma’, Culture musicali, new ser., i–ii (1990), 75–107

I. Macchiarella: Il falsobordone fra tradizione orale e scritta (Lucca, 1995)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

j: historical sources

P.E. Carapezza: Antichità etnomusicali siciliane (Palermo, 1977)

A. Carlini: Una raccolta inedita di musiche popolari trentine (1819): 21 balli popolari trentini per violino raccolti nel 1819 da Joseph Sonnleithner (Bologna, 1985)

G. Plastino: Suoni di carta: un'antologia sulla musica tradizionale in Calabria 1571–1957 (Lamezia Terme, 1997)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

k: minority groups

L. Levi: ‘Canti tradizionali e tradizioni liturgiche giudeo-italiane’, La Rassegna mensile di Israele, xxiii (1957), 403–11, 434–45

C. Ahrens: ‘Die Musik der griechischen Bevölkerungsgruppen in Italien’, Neue Ethnomusikologische Forschungen: Festschrift Felix Hoerburger zum 60 Geburtstag, ed. P. Baumann, R.M. Brandl and K. Reinhard (Laaber, 1977), 129–39

I. De Gaudio: ‘Analisi delle tecniche polifoniche in un repertorio polivocale di tradizione orale: i “vjersh” delle comunità albanofone della Calabria’, Quaderni di M/R, xxx (Modena, 1993)

L. Del Giudice, ed.: Studies in Italian American Folklore (Logan, Utah, 1993)

N. Scaldaferri: Musica arbëreshe in Basilicata: la tradizione musicale di San Costantino Albanese con riferimenti a quella di San Paolo Albanese (Lecce, 1994)

Italy, §II: Traditional music: Bibliography

l: discographies

R. Tucci: ‘Discografia del folklore musicale italiano in microsolco (1955–1980)’, Culture musicali, i (1982), 125–48

M. Gualerzi: ‘Discografia della musica popolare sarda a 78 rem (1922–1959)’, Culture musicali, ii (1982), 167–92

F. Giannattasio and R. Tucci: ‘Discografia della danza tradizionale in Italia’, Culture musicali, vii–viii (1985), 239–304

T. Magrini: ‘The Documentation of Italian Traditional Music in Records: 1955–1990’, YTM, xxii (1990), 172–84

For updated discography see the database of the website of Music & Anthropology 〈www.muspe.unibo.it/M&A〉