A Primitive Bagpipe from Molise, Italy

Author(s): Roberta Tucci and Luciano Messori

Source: The Galpin Society Journal, Vol. 38 (Apr., 1985), pp. 134-137
Published by: Galpin Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/841285
Accessed: 07-11-2015 03:17 UTC

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playedfrom the floor. If, however,it had been madefor a lady, the
possibilitycannotbe so lightlydismissed.
Iconographic evidenceof thecustomof sittingon cushionsis scarce.An
engraving facingp. 112of the 1669editionof Antoniode Govea'sHistoria
de la Viday Muertedel GloriosoSanJuan de Dios (a copy, complete with
is in theBritishLibrary
illustrations, andseeP1.VIII),however,showsfour
womensittingcross-legged on a carpet.Theyare,in fact,fourprostitutes
beingbroughtto repentenceby thesaint.Thepicture,whichalsoappears
in latereditionsof S.Juan'slife,is of additionalinterestto organologists,
as
one of the womenis holdingan instrument of the guitarfamilywithsix
strings(representingsix courses?).It shouldbe mentionedthat the
engraving mayantedatepublication of the 1669editionby asmuchastwo
orthreedecades,sinceoneof theotherillustrations, by thesameartistand
engraver(Francisco Fern?ndez and Pedro de Villafranca),is dated1639.
B. KENYON DE PASCUAL

A PRIMITIVE BAGPIPE FROM MOLISE, ITALY

In 1954theanthropologist AlbertoM. Cireseandtheethnomusicologist

Diego Carpitella, while field-recordingfolk music in Molise,' came
acrossa Mayritewhichusedto takeplaceoncea yearin a smallvillage
in the provinceof Campobasso.At Fossalto,on MayDay morning,a
man dressedin a cone made of branches,grassand flowers (called
a dialectexpressionwhichdenotesthe shepherds'conicalcane
pagliara,
huts) used to walk throughthe village streets, accompaniedby a
bagpiper and two singers (P1. IX d). Along the way, from the
windowsandthebalconiespeoplethrewpailsfullof waterathim,while
the two singersalternatelysangshortversesof greetings?Afterthisfirst
roundwas over,thepagliara lodgedin the priest'sgardenandthe small
group of musicians began ask aroundfor gifts of food insideand
to
outsidethe village.Thepagliara riteappearedparticularlyinterestingto
CireseandCarpitella,becauseit showedstrongconnectionswithother
springperformances foundin Europeanfolk-lore(suchasJack-in-the-
Green) and because of its integrityand the high degree of social
participation. On the contrarythe bagpipe,whichappeareda unique
specimenamongItalianbagpipes,didnotbecomeanobjectof particular
interestand was not even described.'However it appearedin some
photographsand, as regards'the style and the type of melody',
Carpitellanoted how these were 'completelydifferent from the
shepherdstyleof otherItalianregions'in which'the voice followsthe
'breath'of the instrumentandconstantlyprolongsitself,not onlyat the
134

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endof the songbutduringits intermediate coursetoo. On the contrary
thetypicalpeculiaritywhichcharacterizes the styleof Fossaltopagliarais
the voicewhichfollowsone-noteintervalsin a symmetrical andprecise
rhythmicalpattern,while in the backgroundthe bagpipe plays a
continuousdronewhichjust supportsthe accompaniment pattern:i.e.
in sucha way to give the unrealimpressionof a
Twenty-sixyearslater,MayDay 1980,we wentpolyrhythmia',s
to Fossaltoin order
to examinethebagpipe,to seewhetherit wasstillinuseand,possibly,to
find some tracesof thepagliara. Unfortunatelywe discoveredthatthe
bagpipe had falleninto disuse towards the middleof the sixties,while
thepagliara hadbeen sporadically performedthroughthe seventies,but
accompanied by othertypes bagpipes.At Fossaltohoweverwe found
of
two specimensof the instrumentin a countryfarm.The firstone had
belongedto the lastplayer,knownasBaffodiFerro(IronMoustache) who
died in 1976 andwho incidentallyhad also madeit (P1.IX a and b).
Thesecondone is anattemptby hissonat a reproduction of the original
IX At
(P1. c). present the latter keeps both the specimens,but cannot
play them.
At firstsightit canbe notedthatthe instrumenthascanepipesand
thisfeaturedistinguishes it fromotherItalianbagpipesandclassifiesit
among the most primitivetypes.The pipesare three:two equal-hole
chantersof approximatelyequal length and one drone. Both the
chantersare made from a singlejoint, with the holes burnt-outand
subsequentlyfinishedoff with a knife. The R. chanter,20 cm. long
(Fig.1 a), is calledfemale;the L. chanter,22 cm. long (Fig.1 b),is called
male,followingan archaicterminologyused for some Italiantypes of
bagpipesanddoubleflutes.Thedrone,calledmupo(Fig.1 c),is about22
Thi I I Ill ly Vh

oIOI mIV V

0 3 in.

FIG. 1

135

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cm. long, and it is made from two joints which fit into each other and the
joint is strengthenedby thread lapping. Reeds are up-cut simple cane
reeds with thinned blades and tuning strings. The stock is made of
walnut or beech wood and is knife cut; a lump of bees-wax is stuck to it
which is used to tune the fingerholes. The pipes are inserted into the
stock and made airtight by tow lapping. The instrumentis completed
with an elder-wood blowpipe supplied with a valve, and a small lamb-
skin bag. There is also a pin which is used - as usuallyin bagpipes- to
widen the fingerholes while tuning them.
The scheme of notes of the instrument

R. chanter L. chanter Drone

EX. 1

is the typical one of the Central and Southern Italian bagpipes' solo
model, with the chanterstuned in fourths. The real pitch of the above-
mentioned specimen is a semitone higher than the above example,
while the specimen recorded in 1954 is more than three semitones
higher. Though the equal-hole arrangement of the chanters would
suggest an unison, here as a matter of fact the intervals which are
obtained by fingering pairs of corresponding fingerholes are nearly
thirds.This is obtained by thinning the two reeds differently. This same
arrangementof equal-hole chanters of approximately equal length is
found in Italy in small solo bagpipes which are spread between
Southern Lucania and Northern Calabria and are called surdulinaor
kiiramunxia.6But in these bagpipes the thumbhole is missing and there
are other structuraldifferences: wooden pipes, L. chanter plugged at
lower end and a second drone sounding the dominant in the higher
octave.
At Fossalto bagpipes used to be played mainly for ritual occasions
connected with the quest for gifts of food: May Day (the pagliara),
Christmas, New Year's Day, Carnival, and each occasion had its
particularsonata.The instrumentwas also used for serenades.7At present
the bagpipe has been partly replaced by the diatonic accordion, but its
most archaic repertoire has died out with it.
ROBERTA TUCCI and LUCIANO MESSORI

136

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 !iii ?
i,•iil

i:i

:~iR ?
;: : .'
tc

PLATE IX
A primitive fromMolise,Italy.
bagpipe
the
(a) bagpipe; the
(b) pipes;(c) the (d) thepagliara,1954.
reconstruction;
Photo:D. Carpitella.

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 NOTES
1Molise is a
regionof SouthernItaly.The field-recordingtapesrefer to
No. 23 of CentroNazionaleStudidi MusicaPopolare(C.N.S.M.P.),Rome.
See Folkdocumenti sonori.Catalogo delleregistrazioni
informativo musicali
originali,
Editedby Documentazione e StudiRAIperla I Reteradiofonica, Torino,1977,
pp. 309-311.
2 A field-recordingof the pagliara can be found in the above-mentioned
collectionsand it is reproducedin the record Northernand CentralItaly,
CollectedandEditedby A. LomaxandD. Carpitella,ColumbiaKL5173,1957
(SideII, Band3, No. 28). ItalianEdition:Folklore musicale vol. 1, Pull
italiano,
QLP 107, 1973.
3 See Cirese,A. M., 'Lapagliaramaiemaie',LaLapa,III, 1955,pp. 33-36;
alsoCirese,A. M., 'La"pagliara" del primomaggionei paesislavo-molisani',
Slovenski EtnografVIII, 1955,pp. 207-224.
4 The onlydescription of the instrument - referringto the recordquote-
can be foundin Baines,A., Bagpipes, Oxford, 1960,p. 102.
s Carpitella,D. 'Sullamusicapopolaremolisana',La Lapa,III, 1955, pp.
21-23.
6
See the recordCalabria 1 Strumenti,Editedby R. Tucci, Fonit CetraSU
5001,1979(SideA, Band5), andits accompanying booklet(pp.4-5). See also
Jensen, S. and RichterAndersen,T., 'An UnusualItalianBagpipe',GSJ,
XXIX, 1976,pp. 112-115.
' Besidethe
MayDay songreproducedin the recordquote,the Collection
No. 23 of C.N.S.M.P.includesa New Year'sDay songanda serenade.Sound-
recordingsof the othersonatasare missing.

THE 'WELL KNOWN CLARINET BY LINDNER'

InMahillon'simportantcatalogueof the greatinstrumentcollectionin

the ConservatoireRoyalde Musiqueat Brussels,in Volume 1 (first
issued1880),No. 414wasa three-keyedclarinetin A. Theinstrument is
widely believed to be a now-lost instrumentby J. Denner (Young,
Clarinet6; Nickel, Kb). I believe that the entry has causedmuch
confusion. Nickel, for example, hypothesisedthat the foot joint
carryingthe thirdkey might have been by anothermaker,since he
consideredit unlikelythatDennerhimselfmadea three-keyclarinet.In
fact the originalcatalogueentryfor No. 414 reads'Clarinette en la de
l'anc.coll. Tolbeque.Elle n'a que troisclefs ... Ce type,l'undes plus
anciens,portela marquede Denner,l'inventeurede la clarinette....
Instruments thatareactuallystampedwitha makersnamearedescribed
using the formula of No. 413:'. .. Marque:Felchlin, Berne...'; thusthe
catalogueentry does not attribute the instrument
to Denner himself.
The Lindnerinstrument is to be foundin Volume2 (firstissued1896)
137

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