BOTTARI AND TARANTELLAS 

Carnival Music in Campania

For the Music (and Musicologies) in the 21st century Seminar, entitled Copyright of Oral-Tradition Music: a New Ethnographic Issue, the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies has organised a concert with I Solisti di Montemarano and the Pastellesse Sound Group on Friday, 26 January (6.30-8.00 pm).

Bottari and Tarantellas. Carnival Music in Campania

The concert with the Pastellesse Sound Group (Macerata Campania) and I Solisti di Montemarano (Avellino) has been organised in collaboration with the Associazione Sant’Antuono & le Battuglie di Pastellessa di Macerata Campania and the Museo Civico Etnomusicale “Celestino Coscia e Antonio Bocchino”, Montemarano.

Free admission while seats last.

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Pastellesse Sound Group

Founded in 2006, the Pastellesse Sound Group are tradition bearers intent on popularising and keeping alive the folk culture of the battuglie di pastellessa (lit. “patrols” of pastellessa, the music of the “barrel-players”), typical of Macerata Campania (Caserta). They play on special kinds of musical instruments, such as barrels, vats and sickles, in addition to classic instruments to perform music with an unusual rhythm called pastellessa. The music is part of a rite that originated at Macerata Campania and dates back to pre-Christian times, when the town was a district of ancient Capua. Over time the music has become the main feature of the festival of St Anthony (Festa di Sant’Antuono), which dates back to the 13th century. The complex, overlapping rhythms are a fundamental factor in this musical form: barrels, vats and scythes give life to rhythms based on the sounds and rural music of the Macerata community, of which the “barrel-players of Macerata Campania” are typical performers.

Since 2006, the Pastellesse Sound Group has been involved in promoting the Festa di Sant’Antuono, unique in its kind, held on 17 January every year at Macerata Campania. In 2011, the group was acknowledged as being of “Civic Interest” by the Macerata Campania Town Council. In 2014, the group released its first CD entitled Tra Sacro e Profano; and in 2015 they released Sole e Sole (Lavoro Vero), a single produced with the band I Calatia and the rapper Fabio Farti.

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Associazione Sant’Antuono & le Battuglie di Pastellessa

Alfonso Munno, President

 

Pastellesse Sound Group

Giuseppe Bellotta (violin), Pietro Bentivenga (accordion), Donato Capuano (voice, tamorra and castanets) Giuseppe Capuano (vat), Vincenzo Capuano (vat), Andrea Castiello (sickle), Nicola Castiello (“patrol” leader), Battista Laudando (barrel), Saverio Laudando (vat), Mario Roggiero (voice and guitar), Domenico Salzillo (barrel).

Programme: Traditional Intro, Oje tiritò, Cicerenella, Sole e sole, Brigante si more, Vulesse addeventare nu brigante, La zita, Zi munacella, Infrascata in Estemporanea, Canto dei Sanfedisti.

 

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I Solisti di Montemarano

Based on an original idea by ​​Achille D’Agnese and Beniamino Palmieri, the group was founded in 2000 to promote and develop the entire musical heritage of Upper Irpinia. The group consists of a dozen musicians bound by a sincere, close friendship. Ambassadors of the famous tradition of the Carnival and the Montemarano tarantella, they have had the honour of representing Montemarano and the whole of Irpinia worldwide: from New York to Canada, Buenos Aires, Zurich, Geneva, Brussels, Budapest, Basel and almost all Italian cities. The group has also collaborated with some renowned Italian folk musicians and singer songwriters, such as Eugenio Bennato, La nuova compagnia di canto popolare, Marcello Colasurdo, Carlo Faiello, and the Cantori di Carpino. Their first recording E chì ho murì is an attempt to give traditional Irpinian songs a new sound. Their contribution to the CDs Lezione di tarantella by Eugenio Bennato and Il suono della tradizione by Carlo Faiello is tangible proof of the importance of I Solisti di Montemarano on the Irpinian and Italian popular and folk music scene.

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I Solisti di Montemarano

Umberto Cantone (clarinet), Giovanni Cantone (clarinet), Michele Cavaliere (tambourine), Generoso Coscia (….), Achille D’Agnese (voice and accordion) Antonio Follo (dance), Pina Maria Follo (dance), Luigi Mastromarino (tambourine), Michelino Nicastro (accordion).

 

Programme: Tarantella di Montemarano, Sulillo Mio (work song), Iuccetella (folk song), Tarantella di Montemarano.