Lraniziooi NEWSLETTER of the ITALIAN FOLK ART FEDERATION of AMERICA

LRaniziooi NEWSLETTER OF THE ITALIAN FOLK ART FEDERATION OF AMERICA Volume 2 NO. 1 1981 The Revolutionary The Shirt of Sound RECIPIENT OF the Happy Man TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF FROM ITALO CALVI NO'S ITALIAN FOLK MUSIC N.E.A. GRANT FIABE ITALIANE by Anna L. Chairetakis The National Endowment for (Recently we recommended the newly re the Arts, Washington, D.C. has leased English Translation,ltalian Folk Tales • • • • • awarded I.FAFA a $24,453.00 by George Martin. It has come to our atten tion that the first printing is sold out. While Part 1 established that the aesthetic grant. The purpose of the grant we wait for a reprint, it is our desire to share criteria by which we judge and respond to is to produce a series of L.P. with you the charm of one of these fables as our own music do not apply to most world albums of Italian folk music translated by Dr. Anthonly F. LePera.) music; what is needed is a new frame of re;erence. new ways 01 organizing our per and songs performed by first ceptions and of making sense of the pro generation Italian immigrants A king had an only son and lusion of musical styles which Italy has to living in the U.S. Anna Chaire loved him more than himself. This offer. takis is to supervise and direct prince was always unhappy and the project. (Details in next sad. He spent days staring out into Part II newsletter.) space. "What is it that you need?" the Let us outline the largest and most obvious contrast within Ital King would ask. "What is it that you feel?" ian folk music; that between the North and the South. Southern ANNUAL "I don't know, father, I don't know myself." songs are mainly performed solo; CONFERENCE where they are performed in chorus, "Are you in love? If you desire a The Fourth Annual Conference vocal blend tends to be ragged and young woman, tell me, and I wi!! voices are organized in melodic and and Workshop of IFAFA is planned see to it that you marry her, be she rhythmic unison, or in heterophony: for the weekend of October 2-4. the daughter of the most powerful the individual is always prominent. 1981, at Rutgers University, New King on earth or the neediest pea The predominant vocal presentation . Brunswick, New Jersey. The con sant girl." of the South is highpitched, narrow, ference, chaired by Elba F. Gurzau, "No, father, I'm not in love." nasal, sometimes harsh; the singer's Artistic Director, is co-hosted by I. And the King continued in every vocal chords are tense. Melodies Ballerini of Philadelphia and the way possible to distract him' are undulating or descending in Italian Folk Ensemble of Fort Lee, Theaters, balls, concerts; nothing shape with narrow intervals bet N.J. worked. The Prince became paler ween notes, and frequently orna The conference is designed to mented through the use of much and paler day by day. The King put bring togetherfolkgroupsand other melisma. (Scales and harmonies forth an edict and from all corners interested parties to share their are modal; in relatively "modern" of the world came the most learned knowledge of Italian folk songs, songs we find resolutions in minor people: philosophers, doctors, and dances, costumes and various other keys.) Text is extremely important professors. He introduced his son aspects of Italian folk art. Members in the South-most songs are lyric to them and asked them for their and nonmembers are welcome. For poems with little or no repetition. advice. They withdrew to think and Rhythm is complex, or free (arhyth additional details, write E. F. Gurzau, then returned to the King. "Majesty, mic). The prevailing mood is one of c/o IFAFA. we have been thinking and have sadness, even anguish, or (as in the We are particularly grateful to consulted the stars. This is what tarantellas) one of joy driven by de Prof. Joseph E. Laggini of Rutgers you must do. Find a man who is termination, or a certain hypnotic for his enthusiasm and for his as totally content and happy in every- continued on page 2 sitance with the conference. 0 co"tinued on page 3 THE REVOLUTIONARY SOUND is present (a lead si nger, however, being imposed upon the Southern: co ntinued from page 1 will be quickly joined and sub the urban upon the rural; the civ merged by the chorus). and only in ilized" upon the agrarian and work pleasure. (We can only touch upon certain areas of the North such as ing classes. Mass media is damaging folk music/dance troups many of the question of instruments, noting the Veneto and Liguria. Texts are of that prior to the 19th century the moderate importance compared to which only distantly reflect the bagpipe, flute and certain "primitive" the South, and contain many repeats authentic local traditions, and all percussion instruments were the and nonsense phrases, even where too frequently trivialize them. principal music makers and means ballads are sung as In Piedmont and Liguria. Rhythms tend to be simple of accompaniment in rural areas I was a child living in Southern and among the poorer classes; and regular. The predominant mood is one of pleasure, tempered by Italy when I first had the good string and wind ensembles are fortune to hear musica popolare in associated with the artisan classes solemnity (in the Alps), of sweet sadness, and sometimes of liberating its own social setting-the cries of and the urbanized areas along the gaiety. Musically speaking the street vendors, the melancholy coasts.) Varying Mediterranean in songs of mulateers, the ninna nanne fluences and stylistic genres are North is part of Central Europe with its old patterns of communal sung by mothers on their doorsteps, the most important in Southern and the strange and compelling music-depending upon locality land holding, work and decision making. Modern western european tarantelle played on jaws harp, these might be: Old Mediterranean friction drums, tamburi, rattles and (indigenous, montane), Classical harmonies and melodies came into being in the beginning of the scrapers, punctuated by whistling Greek (Sicily, Reggio), Byzantine and accompanied by the mournful Greek (Calabria, Pug lie), Arabic and 19th century, and it was then that the "orchestral" model of perfor call of the conch sheil and the North African (Sicily, Campanian mance was introduced into North improvised exchanges between littoral), Spanish (general, but es ern polyphony. singers. Now, as someone who pecially Naples), medieval to early has been working in this field, it modern French (notable esp. in re seems to me that it is this Southern ligious songs and older ballads; One way of summing up would be to say that the Southern style music in all of its own local variety, the troubadors were influential in which is least known and appreci medieval Naples and Sicily). The lends itself to improvisation, while Northern music is integrative and ated-in large part because we "typical" style described above is relies on a certain conformity. have learned to think of Western associated with and is a product of music-Western art-as the sole the complex world of old empires Diego Carpitella has drawn correct and advanced model, and and high culture, in which natural other models as deviant, primitive resources were scarce, social life attention to another important feature of Italian folk music: gen or exotic. Many Italians and Italian highly stratified, and the sexuality Americans are shocked, even dis of women strictly controlled. The erally, that is the development over many centuries of two valid mayed, when they hear the Arabo peasants and others of the poorer Hispanic sound of the Sicilian classes were both excoriated and and divergent traditions-one peasant-worker, the other urban strambotto or the Neopolitan stimulated by the civilization they fronne a limone-Iet alone the carried. artisan. (The Neopolitan popular music with which we are all famil revolutionary heterophonic iar grew largely out of the latter, for choruses from Calabria or the In Northern music, choruses Sardinian muttettu. There are some prevail-before the Alpine-type example.) And of course, Italy gave rise early to a cultivated "great valid historical reasons for such chorus subsumed almost every reactions, but perhaps this moment thing else, there were many very tradition" in music which has con of self appraisal, of assertion, for beautiful and unusual varieties of tinued into modern times. For Italians in America, is the right one polyphonic chorus all across the centuries there was a creative give to draw back the curtains of histories Northern region, from Liguria to and take between these three known and told, and take a fresh Friuli. (The old village-style Alpine traditions, as well as between the look at the Southern Italian genius, choruses have themselves been South and the NorthCenter (for in music, as in other things. 0 eaten up by large, highly regi instance, it is believed by scholars me.nted semiprofessional groups, that Sicily gave Tuscany her most which are part of an unfortunate important poetic and song form, trend to put the stamp of respecta the stram botto, in the 12th century). bility on folklore, thereby cutting Bu~ over the last hundred years, out the heart of its vitality and sig oWing to attempts to create a Anna Chairetakis is an anthropologist and a doctoral candidate in Cultural An nificance.) Vocal presentation is national culture, to military con scription in two wars, the spread of thropology at Columbia University. Recent open, relaxed and rather lowpltched.

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