Abballati, abballati

Songs and sounds from Medieval Sicily

 Foné CD99F07

 

Fabio Accurso

ud, daf, voice

Roberto Bolelli

voice, scattagnetti (castanets)

Farzaneh Joorabchi

voice, setar

Donato Sansone

friscalettu (flute), synphonia, daf, voice

Nico Staiti

tammureddu (tambourine), riqq, daf

Fabio Tricomi

fiddle, tar, ud, zarb, tabor and pipe, tammureddu, friscalettu, marranzanu (jew’s harp), lira, voice
Faisal Taher voice
 

Conceived, recorded and produced by
Giulio Cesare Ricci

Recording assistant
Paola Maria Ricci

Recorded at
Catania, Castello Ursino (XIII sec.)

1999 giulio cesare ricci editore

Suriat Mariam - I part
 from Koran

Canto di Carnevale (Carnival song)
A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Congaudentes iubilemus
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Giacomo da Lentini – Peire Cardenal: Ben m'e venuto
J. Schultze, Sizilianische Kontrafakturen, Tubingen, 1989

Assolo di marranzanu (Solo on the jew's harp)
tradiz. Catania

A la viddanisca
A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Natali regis glorie
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Federico II? (testo): Dolce lo mio drudo

Vicariota
A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Exultantes et letantes
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Sugnu vinutu di luntana via
trad. Resuttano (CL)

In hoc anni circulo
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Benedicamus Domino
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Montedoro
A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Richiami (Shepherds calls)
A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Resonet intonet
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Parandoush / Chiovu 'Abballati'
Trad. Iran / A. Favara, Corpus di Musiche Popolari, Palermo, 1957

Eia fratres
Ms. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, 19421 (Troparium de Catania)

Surat Mariam - II part

 

The CD draws the ideal sound landscape of the isle in the middle ages with a particular focus on Frederick II age. It aims at underlining the musical influences coming from several cultures: the indigenous, the Arabic, the Byzantine, the Norman and the Provençal.

While the Sicilian quality of the Corpus Favara is unquestionable, the Catanese quality of the Troparium is derived from the fact that all pieces, stylistically silmilar to sacred music commonly played all over Europe in those times, were copied in Sicily for use in liturgical services in the Catania cathedral. One of the pieces, the sequence Eya fratres, contains obvious local references: it was in fact written on the occasion of the translation from Constantinople of the remains of Saint Agath, patron of the city of Catania.

The inclusion in the repertoire od a contrafactum of a text of Giacomo da Lentini documents a musicological hypothesis, never definitively proved, according to which the Siciian poets of teh 13th century set their own verse with music.

Another example of contrafactum is found in the superimposition of the melody of the persian song Parandoush with the text of Chiovu Abballati, one of the most popular pieces in the Sicilian musicl tradition. The surprising silnilarity between the two melodies serves to reinforce the charm evoked by this island in the middle of the Mediterranean, whose role as a bridge (precisely “al qantarah”) between cultures is here felt at its very best.

 

 

 

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