mediterranean traditions
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Musical tradi,ons of the Northern Mediterranean
Week 23
Southern Europe and Mediterranean
• Local Tradi,ons • Instruments • Scales • Events and Musical Calendars • Dances • Social Func,ons • Religion – Catholic calendar, saints days and church links.
Geography
Folk Tradi,ons
• Most countries in med. area have a vibrant folk tradi,on that involves instrumental music, dance and song.
• OKen involves na,onal/regional costumes, specific regional instruments and local tradi,ons on specific days or fes,vals.
Spain and Balearic Islands
Galicia
• Has a local language and very strong regional iden,ty.
• Instruments – gaita with percussion. • Scales – c major scales with brighter thirds. • Lots of emphasis on playing in parallel thirds with two instruments.
• Local dances and dance forms.
Parallel but different. • Spain has many regional tradi,ons of pipe and tabor playing and
also of bagpipe playing. For the pipe and tabor Aragon has chiflo, there is the pito in Cas,le, and the txistu in Basque country.
• Spain and neighbouring countries abound in regional bagpipe tradi,ons. Gallica is synonymous with the Gaita, Gascony has the Bodega and in Catalonia there are bagpipes (sac de gemecs) a bagpipe played with the a pipe and tabor.
• There are similari,es between Mallorca and other Mediteranean island tradi,ons. The Maltese Zaq is a bagpipe played with a fric,on drum and tamborine (tambor). Like the Xeremiers the most of the animal’s skin is used to make the bag.
• The blowpipe is ,ed into one of the forelegs and the music is en,rely seasonal – Christmas, Carnival and the agricultural fes,val of St Peter and St Paul and the end of harvest are important dates.
The Xeremiers of Mallorca
Village tradi,ons in Mallorca
Colla de Xeremiers
Xeremies • The Xeremies bagpipe has a bag made of very thick goat skin covered with
cloth, with a chanter to play the melody and two or three pipes for drones and pedal notes. The bag is inflated through a mouthpiece called bufador (blower), joined to the bag by the nou del bufador (blower’s walnut). The chanter is semi-‐conical and usually tuned in (C#), while the drones are tuned at C# in the same octave, C# two octaves below, and G# in the octave below the chanter. Some xeremies are tuned in C. A xeremies player is known as a xeremier.
• Mallorcan xeremies should not be confused with Ibiza’s xeremia simple (single flute or flageolet) nor with the xeremia bessona (double-‐barred flute, also known as reclam de xeremies). Tradi,onally the instrument was made out of Granadi wood from Cuba. With the Castro/Cuban revolu,on in 1962 this wood became difficult to get hold of and other woods have been tried. Many of the xeremiers played by the old genera,on had dummy drums and only one actually worked. By contrast the younger players wanted all three to func,on and took case to get the all tuned before playing.
Southern France
• Mediterranean France has many similari,es.
• Tradi,on of dance with pipe and tabor.
• Costumes of food and wine.
• Local language – languedoc.
Provence
Maltese Zaqq
Sardinia
• Ancient tradi,ons of singing and performing – that have roots in an,quity.
• Greek Aulos – and Sardenian ‘Launadas’. Links over ,me.
• Song and dance. Times of the year – village fes,vals.
• Local dialect, foods, costumes. Etc.
Launadas of Sardinia
Polyphonic singing
• Folk-‐singing in parts – extensive use of drones. • Of major scale – of thirds. • Connec,on with religion. • All male groups. • Used specifically to accompany dancing. • Local groups from par,cular villages.
Tenores de big
Vocal Drones
• Drone based music is a peculiarity of the region.
• Normally on instruments – bagpipes, hurdy-‐gurdies, jews harps, string drums etc.
• Also vocal drones • Usually movables fiKhs.
Vocal Drones
Southern Italy
• Has all these folk tradi,ons. • Regional dialects. • Costumes, dances and instruments. • The Zampogna – the strangest bagpipe of all. • 4 drones and 2 chanters. • Uses the en,re animal.
Sicily and Southern Italy
Balkan region
• Instruments, dances, songs, costumes, languages, food, etc.
• Unusual in that the music is also eastward looking – Micro tones, composite rhythms (5s and 7s als 3+2+2, etc.
Balkan Bagpipes
Greece -‐ Macedonia