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The work that follows is part of a multimedia project dealing with
folk singing in Central Italy. It has been supported by Museo delle Genti d'Abruzzo (Pescara).
In this region, Abruzzo, folk singing is the expression of the cultural traditions
of peasants and shepherds, traditions that in recent years have deeply changed or
already disappeared, as results of modifications in the socio-economic conditions.
We consider the research work on oral traditions and their rescue of much importance,
and we think that the best way to do it, nowadays, is using the media technology
and the intervention of the public institutions.
The singing repertoire we have dealt with includes recordings from the late forties
to the present days: a time span of fifty years that gives us the possibility to
consider the singing tradition in relation to the changing environment in which it
develops.
The songs of this kind of oral culture are an essential and powerful expression of
all the moments and aspects of life (birth, courting and marriage, working, religious
festivals and fraternities, mourning). The harsh, scream-like, unadorned, sonic result
is a voice of high, impressive timbre and significance ("le grain", as
Barthes says). This vocal style is not strictly distinctive of Central Italy,
but its evidences are available in all the Mediterranean and Balkan
area. |
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The place where
recordings where made
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So far we have completed a dedicated workstation located in the Museum, and we intend
to realize a CD-Rom and Internet version of the work. The workstation is implemented
as a travel across the singing tradition of Abruzzo by means of songs, videos, historical
images and photos, texts, and real-time spectrograms.
A paper on the project was presented at the Fourteenth European Seminar in Ethnomusicology,
held in 1998 at Jerusalem, Israel. |
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Singing Styles
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We show here some aspects we have dealt with: how the material have been organised.
You can listen to an audio file with a song from the Good Friday in Farindola
(Pescara).
A chapter is devoted to singing styles.
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Occasions and manners
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You can listen to audio files:
- a monodic song from Farindola (Pescara) (Download - QuickTime mp2 - 145Kb);
- a song with instrumental accompaniment from San Giovanni Teatino (Chieti).
(Download - QuickTime mp2 - 845Kb)
A chapter illustrates "occasions and manners" of singing.
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Presenting card
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You can listen to an audio file in which a woman mourns the death of her husband
(Download - QuickTime mp2 - 400Kb).
Each of the 84 songs has its own presenting card with information like: recording
date and place, style of singing, singer etc. This slide relates to a marriage song.
In the work the loudspeaker on the card allows you to listen to the song, the icon
to get the sonogram; by clicking the underlined words you enter a particular argument. |
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You can listen to an audio file with a wedding song recorded in Carpineto Sinello
(Chieti) (Download - QuickTime mp2 - 635Kb).
For some songs we have prepared:
- transcriptions;
- pitch contours;
- sonograms
The following is the transcription of the first couplet from a song that whose usually
sung while picking up olives, it was recorded in Carpineto Sinello (click to enlarge
the transcription). You can listen to the same couplet. (Download - QuickTime
mp2 - 415Kb)
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Carpineto Sinello
"Vale cchiù nu giovine"
Transcription
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Carpineto Sinello
Pitch contour analysis (G. Tisato)
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The following is the pitch contour of the same song and you can listen to the second
couplet (Download - QuickTime mp2 - 390Kb):
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Carpineto Sinello
Third couplet
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Sonograms are obtainable real-time for all the songs.
The next one relates to the same song recorded in Carpineto Sinello, and you can
listen to the third couplet (Download - QuickTime mp2 - 245Kb).
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Lanciano
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To enable the users to read and understand the sonograms a chapter of the works explains
the acoustic phenomena, chapter 6 - Timbro e risonanza dei suoni vocali.
This helps us in explaining some characteristics related to the performance and to
the timbre of this vocal style. For example the singing formant used by some
singers.
You can listen to an audio file with a reaping song recorded in Lanciano (Chieti)
(Download - QuickTime mp2 - 805Kb). |
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We have also studied the patterns of the final cadences. |
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Lanciano
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You can listen to an audio file with a reaping song recorded in Lanciano (Chieti)
here the choir keeps the final note while the soloist vocalises a fioritura
(on G3 we have a male and a female voices, on G4 the choir, on B4 the soloist).
(Download - Audio mp3 - 3,5Mb).
A book on these topics and with more information on this repertoire has been recently
published (including CD): Domenico Di Virgilio, La musica di tradizione orale
in Abruzzo. Unfortunately it is in italian but if you are interested in having
and reading it contact me. |
