Ethnomusic

Domenico Di Virgilio
Folklore and folklorism: some remarks from the fieldwork in Central Italy (and beyond)

Foreword

Il tema del riconoscimento delle proprie identità è oggi attualissimo, non c’è giorno in cui non accada di leggere sui giornali od ascoltare in tv o radio, o di imbattersi in discussioni che affrontano questo argomento. Forse c’è proprio da ringraziare le migliaia di esseri umani che quotidianamente entrano in Italia per averci messo di fronte a queste domande (e per l’intenzione di continuare a farlo): chi siamo veramente, quali sono le nostre radici e la nostra cultura, cosa veramente chiediamo per il nostro futuro. Il più che decennale contatto con le realtà d’oltreoceano aveva forse un po’ appannato i nostri sensi, intorpidito gli apparati recettivi facendoci ritrovare, noi mediterranei, appesantiti da un insieme di antichi e meno antichi stereotipi sui valori (quali?) dell’occidente, della cristianità ed altro. Di un’Europa che aveva trasferito tanti anni fa (già allora totalmente impregnata del sangue di migliaia di guerre e milioni di vittime) i propri sogni di rifondazione di se stessa proprio oltreoceano, non dimentichiamo che i pellegrini del Mayflower sfuggivano le persecuzioni religiose, fondamentalismi di altre epoche ma sempre fondamentalismi. Il tema che il Seminario Europeo di Etnomusicologia presentava quest’anno analizza proprio l’esistere o il crearsi delle società multiculturali, nelle quali le differenti identità si affrontano, spesso si scontrano e si confrontano, per imparare a riconoscersi nel reciproco rispetto: “Multicultural societies are often compared to mosaics: the society comprises a frame in which different groups or "cultures" form a pattern like the tiles. The mosaic presupposes difference: to be entitled to a place the tiles must be clearly distinguishable. Visibility is the keyword – to be significant and different.” Una sorta di multiculturalismo lo abbiamo sempre vissuto quotidianamente all’interno delle nostre realtà locali dove convivono, spesso nella reciproca indifferenza, le culture ‘alte’ e quelle cosiddette popolari. Ma la mia scelta è stata di andare a vedere anche cosa ha contribuito a forgiare, nel secolo passato il concetto, di ‘abruzzesità’; un concetto che è inevitabilmente influenzato dall’immagine che ne hanno dato alcuni pittori e dai suoni che hanno trasmesso alcuni musicisti. Una creazione fortemente intellettuale quindi? Non saprei, probabilmente non solo, certamente una immagine che ha facilitato le cose collocandoci poi in un folklore un po’ di maniera.

My own experience as fieldworker with local oral traditions (folklore) is that recognised identities still survive and are often connected to Christian – Catholic identity. If we accept this religious identity as common to all the socalled Europeans (there has been recently a lot of discussion when debating on the European Constitution), local oral cultures/identities become minorities when in presence of the official displays of the Church.

Due mainly to the following reasons:

economic changes and increasing standardisation

decontextualisation of repertoire

loss of self awareness

a certain amount of self protection

the minorities have become soundless and voiceless, almost hidden and avoiding visibility. If their traditions, and their music too, preserve a function in their own context it is mainly because they are ‘not disturbing’. It is what I call ‘silenzio-assenso’. Nevertheless the elusive role of the women in many traditional cultures remains essential and meaningful for these traditions to be alive.

Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Miracoli (Holy Mother of Miracles)
Casalbordino (Chieti), 11th June 2006.
For this occasion several groups of pilgrims (compagnie) come from nearby villages. On their arrival the ‘compagnie’ are welcomed by the abbot of the Sanctuary, when living they sing all together their farewell. We see the procession held at the end of the mass lead by the local bishop. Then we see three old pilgrims left alone to sing their farewell to the Holy Mother filmati

→ video

Procession of Fraternities
Scanno (L’Aquila) 16th July 2006.
On the occasion of the Feast for the Madonna del Carmine (Holy Mother of Mount Carmel) several fraternities gather in this village.

→ video

Scanno, Ufficio della Beata Vergine,
a local fraternity meets every Sunday morning at seven thirty to sing the Office for the Holy Virgin Mother. I have followed this tradition for the last ten years. The people attending the rite, either member of the fraternity or not, has drastically reduced, and only one organist has been left. The organist you see playing here is also reknown for his craft of local Jewellery. In traditional contexts very often same people cover various but equally meaningful roles and are symbols of the common identity.

→ video

When coming from outside how do we perceive local identities? What is our preferred medium to approach them? It is for me interesting to pay attention to the seemingly different perception we usually have for the sonic or visual repertoires. This village, Scanno, is well known for the handicrafts (mainly jewellery) and for the images: photos, movies of local women in costumes and of the houses with beautiful carved stones (Henry Cartier Bresson too took photos of them). These images have nowadays become symbols of recognised identity.

Scanno: Women dressed in costumes:
On the left an old woman with the every day costume On the right young women with costumes for important occasions

foto: D. Di Virgilio

foto: M. Di Martino

When listening to this recording by Alan Lomax what do we imagine?

Ninna nanna (lullaby) Scanno, L’Aquila, 1954
→ audio
(The A.Lomax Collection, Abruzzo, Rounder Rec. 2001)
Field recording by Alan Lomax courtesy of the Alan Lomax Archive.
http://www.culturalequity.org/

In such contexts the intellectual élites: artists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, politicians, may become spokesman for an ethnic pride that asks for visibility, but they may also mark the process in a substantial way (folklorisms). At the beginning of the last century (1900 A.D.), in the Abruzzi, a group of intellectuals: writers as Gabriele D’Annunzio, painters as Francesco Paolo Michetti, musicians as Francesco Paolo Tosti, researched on the local traditions (with the help of the folklorists Antonio De Nino and Gennaro Finamore). Following their own artistic insight and sensitiveness, they created an image of the ‘Abruzzesità’ that soon became ‘folklore’ for both the bourgeois and non bourgeois classes.

F.P.Michetti.

On the left: drawn from life, ink on paper
On the right: pilgrims, ink on paper
Entrambe le opere: Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe degli Uffizi, Firenze
Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali.
È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo

F. P. Michetti, Procession, ink on paper (1890 ca.)

Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma
Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le attività culturali.
È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo

F.P.Michetti. Pilgrimage, ink on paper

Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe degli Uffizi, Firenze
Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali.
È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo

Nowadays folk choir in costume

Teasing couplets (rec. by Giorgio Nataletti, San Giovanni Teatino, Chieti 1948).
→ audio
Concessione dell’Accademia Naz. di Santa Cecilia, Archivi di Etnomusicologia, Roma

Francesco Paolo Tosti in 1880 published a collection of folk melodies arranged for educated voices and piano.

Tu nel tuo letto a far dei sogni d’oro
→ audio (Teasing couplets)
Concessione dell’Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, Ortona

In 1880 he wrote the song in dialect ‘la violetta’ (the violet) which is considered the first example of folk song written by a learned musician in modern times in Abruzzo la violetta
→ audio
Concessione dell’Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, Ortona

Typical of a certain ‘supervising’ attitude is the case of those musical traditions fostered and exhibited to promote political ideas and international relations. The search for identity can be shifted towards ‘national identity’ with lots of more or less acceptable consequences. Out of hundreds possible examples I choose one from Croatia: “With the rise of the new state of Croatia – at the beginning of the 1990s – there was a need for re/defining national identity. Mediterranean identity grew from a typically regionally – based identity to an important factor in the formation of the national identity of today’s Croats. – and in such context – Music is one of the values which people compare.”(J. Caleta, The ethnomusicological approach to the concept of the Mediterranean in music in Croatia, Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research 36/1, Zagreb 1999, pp.183-195)

But the search can also look beyond national boundaries and be mainly ideology – based. In such cases music is a favourite carrier of queries. Here it is a paradigmatic example: the language of jazz (itself an ethnomusicological object) applied to Afro - Cuban music.

Song for Che, Charlie Haden & Liberation Music Orchestra (Song for Che, Impulse 427 1973)

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	Domenico Di Virgilio Folklore and folklorism: some remarks from the fieldwork in Central Italy (and beyond)

	Foreword Il tema del riconoscimento delle proprie identità è oggi attualissimo, non c’è giorno in cui non accada di leggere sui giornali od ascoltare in tv o radio, o di imbattersi in discussioni che affrontano questo argomento. Forse c’è proprio da ringraziare le migliaia di esseri umani che quotidianamente entrano in Italia per averci messo di fronte a queste domande (e per l’intenzione di continuare a farlo): chi siamo veramente, quali sono le nostre radici e la nostra cultura, cosa veramente chiediamo per il nostro futuro. Il più che decennale contatto con le realtà d’oltreoceano aveva forse un po’ appannato i nostri sensi, intorpidito gli apparati recettivi facendoci ritrovare, noi mediterranei, appesantiti da un insieme di antichi e meno antichi stereotipi sui valori (quali?) dell’occidente, della cristianità ed altro. Di un’Europa che aveva trasferito tanti anni fa (già allora totalmente impregnata del sangue di migliaia di guerre e milioni di vittime) i propri sogni di rifondazione di se stessa proprio oltreoceano, non dimentichiamo che i pellegrini del Mayflower sfuggivano le persecuzioni religiose, fondamentalismi di altre epoche ma sempre fondamentalismi. Il tema che il Seminario Europeo di Etnomusicologia presentava quest’anno analizza proprio l’esistere o il crearsi delle società multiculturali, nelle quali le differenti identità si affrontano, spesso si scontrano e si confrontano, per imparare a riconoscersi nel reciproco rispetto: “Multicultural societies are often compared to mosaics: the society comprises a frame in which different groups or "cultures" form a pattern like the tiles. The mosaic presupposes difference: to be entitled to a place the tiles must be clearly distinguishable. Visibility is the keyword – to be significant and different.” Una sorta di multiculturalismo lo abbiamo sempre vissuto quotidianamente all’interno delle nostre realtà locali dove convivono, spesso nella reciproca indifferenza, le culture ‘alte’ e quelle cosiddette popolari. Ma la mia scelta è stata di andare a vedere anche cosa ha contribuito a forgiare, nel secolo passato il concetto, di ‘abruzzesità’; un concetto che è inevitabilmente influenzato dall’immagine che ne hanno dato alcuni pittori e dai suoni che hanno trasmesso alcuni musicisti. Una creazione fortemente intellettuale quindi? Non saprei, probabilmente non solo, certamente una immagine che ha facilitato le cose collocandoci poi in un folklore un po’ di maniera. My own experience as fieldworker with local oral traditions (folklore) is that recognised identities still survive and are often connected to Christian – Catholic identity. If we accept this religious identity as common to all the socalled Europeans (there has been recently a lot of discussion when debating on the European Constitution), local oral cultures/identities become minorities when in presence of the official displays of the Church. Due mainly to the following reasons: economic changes and increasing standardisation decontextualisation of repertoire loss of self awareness a certain amount of self protection the minorities have become soundless and voiceless, almost hidden and avoiding visibility. If their traditions, and their music too, preserve a function in their own context it is mainly because they are ‘not disturbing’. It is what I call ‘silenzio-assenso’. Nevertheless the elusive role of the women in many traditional cultures remains essential and meaningful for these traditions to be alive. Pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Miracoli (Holy Mother of Miracles) Casalbordino (Chieti), 11th June 2006. For this occasion several groups of pilgrims (compagnie) come from nearby villages. On their arrival the ‘compagnie’ are welcomed by the abbot of the Sanctuary, when living they sing all together their farewell. We see the procession held at the end of the mass lead by the local bishop. Then we see three old pilgrims left alone to sing their farewell to the Holy Mother filmati → video Procession of Fraternities Scanno (L’Aquila) 16th July 2006. On the occasion of the Feast for the Madonna del Carmine (Holy Mother of Mount Carmel) several fraternities gather in this village. → video Scanno, Ufficio della Beata Vergine, a local fraternity meets every Sunday morning at seven thirty to sing the Office for the Holy Virgin Mother. I have followed this tradition for the last ten years. The people attending the rite, either member of the fraternity or not, has drastically reduced, and only one organist has been left. The organist you see playing here is also reknown for his craft of local Jewellery. In traditional contexts very often same people cover various but equally meaningful roles and are symbols of the common identity. → video When coming from outside how do we perceive local identities? What is our preferred medium to approach them? It is for me interesting to pay attention to the seemingly different perception we usually have for the sonic or visual repertoires. This village, Scanno, is well known for the handicrafts (mainly jewellery) and for the images: photos, movies of local women in costumes and of the houses with beautiful carved stones (Henry Cartier Bresson too took photos of them). These images have nowadays become symbols of recognised identity. Scanno: Women dressed in costumes: On the left an old woman with the every day costume On the right young women with costumes for important occasions foto: D. Di Virgilio foto: M. Di Martino When listening to this recording by Alan Lomax what do we imagine? Ninna nanna (lullaby) Scanno, L’Aquila, 1954 → audio (The A.Lomax Collection, Abruzzo, Rounder Rec. 2001) Field recording by Alan Lomax courtesy of the Alan Lomax Archive. http://www.culturalequity.org/ In such contexts the intellectual élites: artists, anthropologists, ethnomusicologists, politicians, may become spokesman for an ethnic pride that asks for visibility, but they may also mark the process in a substantial way (folklorisms). At the beginning of the last century (1900 A.D.), in the Abruzzi, a group of intellectuals: writers as Gabriele D’Annunzio, painters as Francesco Paolo Michetti, musicians as Francesco Paolo Tosti, researched on the local traditions (with the help of the folklorists Antonio De Nino and Gennaro Finamore). Following their own artistic insight and sensitiveness, they created an image of the ‘Abruzzesità’ that soon became ‘folklore’ for both the bourgeois and non bourgeois classes. F.P.Michetti. On the left: drawn from life, ink on paper On the right: pilgrims, ink on paper Entrambe le opere: Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe degli Uffizi, Firenze Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo F. P. Michetti, Procession, ink on paper (1890 ca.) Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Roma Su concessione del Ministero per i Beni e le attività culturali. È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo F.P.Michetti. Pilgrimage, ink on paper Gabinetto dei disegni e delle stampe degli Uffizi, Firenze Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. È fatto divieto la riproduzione e la duplicazione con qualsiasi mezzo Nowadays folk choir in costume Teasing couplets (rec. by Giorgio Nataletti, San Giovanni Teatino, Chieti 1948). → audio Concessione dell’Accademia Naz. di Santa Cecilia, Archivi di Etnomusicologia, Roma Francesco Paolo Tosti in 1880 published a collection of folk melodies arranged for educated voices and piano. Tu nel tuo letto a far dei sogni d’oro → audio (Teasing couplets) Concessione dell’Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, Ortona In 1880 he wrote the song in dialect ‘la violetta’ (the violet) which is considered the first example of folk song written by a learned musician in modern times in Abruzzo la violetta → audio Concessione dell’Istituto Nazionale Tostiano, Ortona Typical of a certain ‘supervising’ attitude is the case of those musical traditions fostered and exhibited to promote political ideas and international relations. The search for identity can be shifted towards ‘national identity’ with lots of more or less acceptable consequences. Out of hundreds possible examples I choose one from Croatia: “With the rise of the new state of Croatia – at the beginning of the 1990s – there was a need for re/defining national identity. Mediterranean identity grew from a typically regionally – based identity to an important factor in the formation of the national identity of today’s Croats. – and in such context – Music is one of the values which people compare.”(J. Caleta, The ethnomusicological approach to the concept of the Mediterranean in music in Croatia, Croatian Journal of Ethnology and Folklore Research 36/1, Zagreb 1999, pp.183-195) But the search can also look beyond national boundaries and be mainly ideology – based. In such cases music is a favourite carrier of queries. Here it is a paradigmatic example: the language of jazz (itself an ethnomusicological object) applied to Afro - Cuban music. Song for Che, Charlie Haden & Liberation Music Orchestra (Song for Che, Impulse 427 1973)

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