Southern Italian pizzica tarantata
Salento, Italy
Photo courtesy of Vincenzo de Pinto
In southern Italy, the music that accompanies the trance-like dance ritual of tarantism nearly vanished before becoming the most prominent symbol of a regional resurgence. Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino (CGS), a seven-member ensemble from the Salento peninsula of Apulia “the heel of the boot” of Italy—led this revival in the music and dance of Salento. Their reward: they are the biggest stars of Italian traditional music.
Salento’s distinctive music is the pizzica tarantata, which accompanies the dance (pizzica) associated with tarantism, the belief in ritual possession arising from the bite of a local spider, the taranta. The centuries-old practice remained strong in this rural and impoverished region into the mid-20th century. Those who believed they were afflicted by the spider’s bite would exorcise the poison through trance-like dancing accompanied by hired musicians, whose songs were propelled by the heartbeat-like rhythms of the tamburrieddhu frame drum. For the possessed, who were mostly women, the ritual brought communal attention to their expression of suffering. As CGS bandleader Mauro Durante says, the songs in this tradition “have a power, a magic, that you can feel even today. They are connected to really important things. They are connected to contact—something we are losing today.”
Just as the practice of tarantism was in danger of being snuffed out by the forces of modernism and the Catholic Church, its propulsive music and protest politics were embraced by a new generation. Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino was formed in 1975 by the musical scholar and activist Rina Durante, along with her cousin, the guitarist and singer Daniele Durante. They led the group for three decades, revitalizing interest throughout Italy in this regional. Today’s CGS carries on this legacy with the dedication of a new but deeply rooted generation. Current bandleader Mauro Durante, who plays frame drums and violin, is the son of Daniele Durante and fellow CGS founding member Rossella Pinto. The younger Durante joined the group at age 14 and inherited his father’s mantle in 2007. Under Mauro’s leadership, CGS is bringing both the introspective and the ecstatic aspects of Salentine music to a global audience.
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino is anchored by the singing of a trio of outstanding vocalists: the mesmerizing Alessia Tondo, Giancarlo Paglialunga (a masterful player of the tamburrieddhu), and Emanuele Licci, a guitar and bouzouki player who, like Durante, is the son of an original CGS member. Powering the band’s sound are Giulio Bianco on a brace of instruments including the Italian bagpipes, and pizzica scholar Massimiliano Morabito, hailed as “the best traditional diatonic accordionist in Puglia.” In keeping with the tradition of tarantism, the seventh member of the band is not a musician at all, but the incomparable dancer Silvia Perrone.
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has over 20 albums to its credit, the most recent being 2021’s Meridiana, which was recorded while the group was in lockdown. By combining music and dance that engage centuries of history with lyrics that often address modern challenges, CGS continues the Salentine tradition of using pizzica tarantata to draw the community together in order to process life’s struggles and to expel the poisons of the contemporary world. As Mauro Durante says, “This music is important now, it’s not just a postcard from the past.” Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino made their Richmond Folk Festival debut in 2016 and are among the favorites returning to celebrate the festival’s 20th anniversary.
Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino’s performances at the Richmond Folk Festival are made possible in part with support from the Italian Institute of Culture of Washington.