Traditional Music, Opera, Composers

Performing in Los Angeles since 1994, Musicàntica performs the music from Southern Italy’s oral traditions (e.g., the music associated with peasants, fishermen, street vendors) while blending more contemporary musical styles in Mediterranean World Music. Their repertoire includes traditional and original compositions. “The connection between the southern Italian tradition, the individual experiences as immigrants in Southern California, and the symbolic remembrance of the sounds of their respective birthplaces is evident in the artists’ various improvisations and re-adaptations of older material.” Among the native Italian instruments they use are: tamburieddhru (a frame drum used for the Pulgiese pizzica tarantata dance); the putipù (a friction drum); the chitarra battente (a 10-string guitar from the Renaissance), the benas (a single and double Sardinian reed clarinet), and the marranzanu, or jaw’s harp—as well as other percussion instruments such as castanets, animal jingle collars, sheep copper bells. They also feature the fina (created by Enzo Fina), a lamellaphone inspired by the African mbira, and other creatively adapted hand-made instruments.

Roberto Catalano, “Development and Hypnotic Performance of an African Lamellaphone in the Salentine Area,” in Performing Ecstasies: Music, Dance, and Ritual in the Mediterranean, ed. Luisa Del Giudice and Nancy Van Deusen, 89-102. Ottawa: The Institute for Medieval Music, 2005.

Roberto Catalano and Enzo Fina, “Simple Does Not Mean Easy: Oral Traditional Values, Music, and the Musicàntica Experience,” in Oral History, Oral Culture and Italian American,” ed. Luisa Del Giudice, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Italian Traditional Song (2 audio cassettes + 135 pp. booklet), ed. by Luisa Del Giudice, for the Italian Heritage Culture Foundation and the Italian Cultural Institute, Los Angeles, 1989, 2nd rev. ed., IIC, 1995 (with English translations of dialect texts): Luisa Del Giudice, (310) 474-1698; luisadg@humnet.ucla.edu

Alessandra Belloni, New York-based percussionist, artistic director of I Giullari di Piazza, and teacher, together with composer John La Barbera, former music director of the ensemble, are perhaps the most prominent (and longest active) performers of southern Italian folk music, dance, and theater in the U.S. Alessandra frequently performs and conducts workshops in Los Angeles. “I Giullari di Piazza also specialize in the improvisational style of Commedia dell’Arte theater, with music and dance, masks and giant puppets, combining mythic rituals of Pagan-Christian origins. Through the creation of new works based on these old traditions, our goal is to encourage Italian-American awareness, interest and pride in this rich ethnic heritage which has been lost due to […] assimilation.” For CD’s, DVD’s and other publications, consult Belloni and La Barbera Web sites.

Among this New York-based company’s productions are: La Befana, Festa Primavera, Carnival performances, and Caffè concerto, a “nostalgic musical theatre production exploring the charming musical and literary legacy of the early Italian-American immigrants.” This entertainment included Italian vaudeville show with music, songs, dance, comedy and specialty acts performed in nightclubs and little theatres in Little Italy.”

IFAFA
Italian Folk Art Federation of America, Inc.
P.O. Box 1192
Rockford, IL 61105
http://www.italian-american.com/ifafa/IFAFALinks.htm

An association that seeks to preserve and foster interest in Italian folk arts. Incorporated in 1979 by Elba Farabegoli Gurzau (author of Folk Dances, Costumes, and Customs of Italy)…

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