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Vesuvius
Ensemble
Vesuvius Ensemble is dedicated to the musical and cultural
heritage from Naples and other parts of southern Italy. The
ensemble performs songs in dialect from the Italian countryside
which have been passed on orally and in writing over centuries
and finally researched and recorded in the twentieth century.
The songs are accompanied by Baroque continuo instruments
(Baroque guitars, chitarrone) in combination with rustic string,
percussion, and wind instruments typical of the region (chitarra
battente, colascione, tammorra, ciaramella).
The ensemble is led by Francesco Pellegrino, the Italian
tenor who performed at La Scala and now resides in Toronto,
teaching Italian Art Song at the University of Toronto. Though
a classically trained singer, Pellegrino also possesses rare
first-hand experience with the traditional folk music of southern
Italy, and has formed Vesuvius Ensemble as a North American
vehicle for its performance and preservation. Joining him
are the versatile Marco Cera (oboist with Tafelmusik Baroque
Orchestra and guitarist with Polaris Ensemble) and lutenist
Lucas Harris.
The Vesuvius Ensemble’s mission is to contribute to
the preservation and transmission of the enormous cultural
legacy made up by the popular cultural traditions in the zone
around Naples and southern Italy. This legacy includes the
cultural and musical traditions of countryside peasants, whose
rituals and songs been passed on orally and in writing over
centuries and finally recorded and researched in the twentieth
century by important scholars such as Roberto De Simone, Diego
Carpitella, and Alan Lomax. The area’s cultural heritage
also includes published material from professional Renaissance
& Baroque composers working in urban settings who published
in forms which imitated popular music or used texts in regional
dialect (Falconieri, Kapsberger, Kirscher, Vinci, Provenzale,
Leo, etc.).
This program attempts to paint a portrait of Naples and its
surrounding countryside in the Renaissance & Baroque periods,
offering narrations between musical selections which will
give colourful details of Neapolitan life (the Moorish and
Spanish influence on the city’s cultural production,
the city’s special religious and secular festivities,
unique musical institutions like the conservatorii, also hardships
such as the plagues and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in
1631). The instruments used will create a unique Southern
soundscape: the tammorra, chitarra battente, ciaramella, colascione,
etc.
The music will include examples of the following musical
forms:
Fronna, an improvised lament sung a capella, evolved from
traditional funeral laments in the countryside
Tammuriata, a couple’s dance and song, to the accompaniment
of the tammorra (large frame drum with bells)
Tarantella, both sung and instrumental versions of the traditional
peasant dance
Villanella popolare, songs in dialect with origins in the
countryside
Villanella / Canzone villanesca / Strambotto, rustic songs
as stylized and published by leading madrigal composers of
the 16th & early 17th centuries Arias from operas and
cantatas in Neapolitan dialect.
Please visit http://www.vesuviusensemble.com/
Video Links:
Lu
Guarracino, Madonna de le Grazie
Procidana
Rosa
d'argento rosa d'amore
Madonna
de le Grazie
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