Mediterranean Music

[Angela]

I'm currently enamored with the music of the group L'Arpeggiata under the direction of Christine Pluhar.

Their Mediterraneo CD is just wonderful in my opinion.

 

[LeBrok]

I like it, very moving, heart grabbing.

 

[John123]

Lame. Il Volo is the best; puts tears in my eyes every single time. Very patriotic stuff. Il Volo-Il Canto; that one is my favourite personally.

 

[Angela]

Lame. Il Volo is the best; puts tears in my eyes every single time. Very patriotic stuff. Il Volo-Il Canto; that one is my favourite personally.

Patriotic? Adamo, they're mainly for export...no Italian under 60 of my acquaintance would be caught dead listening to Il Volo....Are you quite sure you're Italian? I'm afraid diaspora or part diaspora people don't quite count. Heck, I barely count, even according to my own relatives. :sad-2:
If you are, you've quite lost touch with the Italian cultural scene, and most particularly with anything at all listened to by people in what I presume is your age group.

I find it hard to credit, not least because of your lack of chivalry. :shocked: And didn't your mother ever teach you that if you can't say anything nice you should say nothing at all?

Although to be fair, I can manage to listen to them when I'm looking at him...:innocent:
And yes, I know, lame...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3mYDCQEs9E

 

[John123]

Jeez, what's with all the backlash? Hahaha!

 

[John123]

They're italian; they sing in italian....I don't get it. Raoul bova's not even a great looking guy to be honest! (If that's who it is).

 

[Alan]

starting from 3:20 that is very familiar to me. It is Oriental/East Mediterranean sound and instruments (from Balkans to Iran and Egypt).

 

[Angela]

starting from 3:20 that is very familiar to me. It is Oriental/East Mediterranean sound and instruments (from Balkans to Iran and Egypt).

That particular song is Greek. There are others on the album as well.

This Turkish song is also on the album...

The rest are mostly Iberian, including one of my favorites, Sem Saber, although there are a few songs in Griko from the Salento peninsula in Italy. (the very heel of the boot in Apulia)

 

[Nobody1]

I like that song;

From the best show in the world (The Sopranos) - RIP Gandolfini;

 

[Aberdeen]

I'm currently enamored with the music of the group L'Arpeggiata under the direction of Christine Pluhar.

Their Mediterraneo CD is just wonderful in my opinion.

I can't understand what they're saying, but it's certainly beautiful music.

 

[Angela]

I like that song;

From the best show in the world (The Sopranos) - RIP Gandolfini;

I thought the choice to use a song by that group (Spaccanapoli) was really interesting, not least because it's a Neapolitan song.

It's tammurriata music, a folk dance from Campania...very different from anything I ever heard or saw growing up, but I'm a convert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obChUqZ9_58

They keep this up all night during the summer festivals.

The Pizzica Salentina from Puglia is a different tradition and one I like even better. Its current incarnation is very different from its mystical, female centered origins. Now it's usually a dance that focuses very much on the man/woman relationship.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1LajwqY1i0

It's quite a wonderful way to spend some time during summer vacation...from the beach to the piazza to eat, have a glass of wine, and dance. I heartily recommend it...particularly if you're young enough to keep up the pace.

Ed. Aberdeen, I'm glad you enjoyed the music. As to understanding the lyrics, I'm sort of in the same boat, as not one of the songs in that Pluhar album is in an Italian that I can understand. The "Italian" songs are in Griko, the Greek dialect that still survives in a few areas, or they are in southern dialects that are almost equally impenetrable to me, especially when sung, so I found the cheat sheet of translations that come with the album quite useful.

 

[Alan]

That particular song is Greek. There are others on the album as well.

This Turkish song is also on the album...

The rest are mostly Iberian, including one of my favorites, Sem Saber, although there are a few songs in Griko from the Salento peninsula in Italy. (the very heel of the boot in Apulia)

Thanks. As I thought, the instruments and sound are Oriental-East Mediterranean.

 

[Angela]

The serenade is a courtship ritual where a young man would sing a love song beneath the balcony of a young woman with whom he'd fallen in love. This particular song is from Corsica.
As the dialect is very close to Tuscan and Ligurian, I can provide a loose translation, although you lose all the rhyming and alliteration, and yes, the poetry of it.

Lyrics:
Come my lovely to the balcony
And listen to my song
And I'll sing you a lovely melody
with the guitar that will accompany me
Repeat

As you sleep in a bed of plumes
While I sleep in a bed of stone
A happy, tranquil night you're passing
forgetful of me, your own.
Repeat last two lines

I would buy you a silken dress
Of a thousand colors
Garnished with roses and flowers
All I would give for your first love
Repeat last two lines

So many stars shine in the sky
So many fish in the waves of the sea
And you my lovely one must come
On the boat of your fisherman
Repeat last two lines

I want to go to my native town
I want to go far from you
Recieve oh lovely one my last good-bye
That while dying I sing for you
Repeat last two lines

A French translation is provided with the video.

 

[Ruiy]

¿There is something that gives uniqueness to the Mediterranean music and apart from the rest of the musics ?. ¿ What do you think ?; yes or no...

 

[Angela]

¿There is something that gives uniqueness to the Mediterranean music and apart from the rest of the musics ?. ¿ What do you think ?; yes or no...

That's a difficult question to answer. Ethnomusicologists were usually interested in only very local traditions, with some holding that it wasn't even necessary to investigate the common traditions that developed over the thousands of years of contacts between the civilizations that bordered the Mediterranean.

That view has more recently been challenged, and there has been a proliferation of course offerings and specializations in "Mediterranean music" in many music programs in universities and music schools.

Also, even in the case of those most vehemently against seeking out the common roots of much of this music, there was agreement that Mediterranean vocality can be defined as a vocality in which: the voice is projected far outward; there is a nasal timbre and "une voix granuleuse"; it presents melismatic ornamentation throughout the totality of the melodic phrase; and there is a narrow upper range. Not all local traditions will conform exactly to this canon, but I think it's a worthwhile analysis nonetheless.

If you're interested in the subject, you might want to take a look at the book The Mediterranean in Music, edited by David Cooper. Much of the book is excerpted online at the link below:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Di...wBzgK#v=onepage&q=Mediterranean music&f=false

As for me, I guess I would say that I know it when I hear it. Obviously, musicians like Christine Pluhar of L'Arpeggiata, given the title of the album I cited in the original post, also sees enough commonality to warrant grouping that material together.

And now to get back to the music.
This is a haunting piece by Barbara Furtuna (Cruel Fate), a Corsican polyphonic singing group performing here with some instrumental music in the background, although it is usually sung a cappella. The lead singer is wonderful; he conveys the passion of the song not only through his voice, but through his body language, and in particular, through the movement of his hands.

 

[Angela]

It was time for a break for music. (Those books on the Indo-Europeans are giving me a massive headache)

However, between the books and article, and the discussion here, I couldn't seem to get horses and cows off my mind.

So, here is Maremma Amara, Bitter Maremma. The Maremma is a subregion of Toscana, and before its swamps were drained, a very deadly one:

This will give the gist of the meaning:
Bitter Maremma
Everybody tells me Maremma, Maremma,
but to me it seems a bitter Maremma.
The bird that goes there looses its feather,
I’ve lost a dear person there.
Cursed be Maremma Maremma
Cursed be Maremma and those who love it.
Every time you go there my heart trembles
because I worry that you will never come back.
Cursed be Maremma Maremma
Cursed be Maremma and those who love it.

 

[Echetlaeus]

I present "Erotokritos", one of my favs. Here in a modern approach.

 

[Echetlaeus]

Polyphonic power here from Epirus. It comes from the very ancient times ...

 

[Echetlaeus]

And this ...

 

[Echetlaeus]

Last but not least, Griko power from Magna Graecia ...