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Occitan Folk Music
The traditional Occitan music in the Occitan Valleys of Italy, along with the language and religion are a fundamental element of aggregation for the local community. They mostly consist of ballads, mainly in the Occitan territories of Piedmont; performed during almost all occasions of celebration in the valleys and are well known even outside the boundaries of Occitan Valleys of Italy. The ruggedness and impervious nature of the valleys has resulted in each valley having kept its own melodies and dances, different steps and patterns from those of adjacent valleys. A few of the instruments traditionally used are the accordion, clarinet, violin, organ, as well as the hurdy-gurdy (''vioulo''), the diatonic button accordion (''semitoun'') with '' pinfre'' (various wind instruments) and the harmonica (''ourganin''). Ballads in the valleys Valle Vermenagna: Courenta, Courenta dei coscritti e Balet Valle Maira: Courento dla Rocho Val Varaita: Countradonsa, Courento, Buréo vièi ...
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Occitan Music
Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Occitans The Occitans ( oc, occitans) are a Romance-speaking ethnic group originating in the historical region of Occitania (southern France, northeastern Spain, and northwestern Italy). They have been also called Gascons, Provençals, and Auvergnats.The ..., people of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. {{disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...
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Hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses ''tangents''—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. For this reason, the hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes. It is mostly used in Occitan, Aragonese, Cajun French, Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician, Hungarian, and Slavic folk music. One or more of the drone strings usually passes over a loose bridge that can be made ...
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French Folk Music
As Europe experienced a wave of roots revivals in the 1950s and 1960s, France found its regional culture reviving traditional music. Brittany, Limousin, Gascony, Corsica and Auvergne were among the regions that experienced a notable resurgence in the popularity of folk music. Traditional styles of music had survived most in remote areas, such as the island of Corsica and mountainous Auvergne, as well as the more nationalist lands of the Basques and Bretons. In many cases, folk traditions were revived in relatively recent years to cater to tourists. These ''groupes folkloriques'' tend to focus on very early 20th century melodies and the use of the piano accordion. Folk music and dance now has an established place as a popular pastime in its own right with innumerable festivals, concerts and bals folks across France and a number of regular publications devoted to it. Auvergne Auvergne is known for cabrette bagpipes. The cabrette (''little goat'' in Auvergnat) is a bagpipe ma ...
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Baìo
The baìo (also known as "Baìo di Sampeyre") is a traditional festival that takes place every five years in the municipality of Sampeyre, in the Valle Varaita in the province of Cuneo, Italy. The "Baìo di Sampeyre" was one of the most important and ancient traditional festivals in the Italian Alps. The long-awaited return of the festival in the year 2012 began on February 5 and concluded on February 16, the final Thursday before Lent (a day that is also celebrated as Fat Thursday). Origins and tradition The tradition's origins date back to between 975 and 980, when teams of Saracens, who had penetrated the valley to control the Alpine passes, were driven away by the local population. The festival commemorates the expulsion of the invaders. The Baìo is composed of four parades (or "armies"), coming from the provincial capital, Sampeyre (Piasso), and its three hamlets: Rore (Rure), Calchesio (Chucheis), and Villar (Vilà). Traditionally, only men participated in the parades, ...
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Occitania
Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern third of France (with the exception of the French Basque Country and Northern Catalonia, French Catalonia) as well as part of Spain (Aran Valley), Monaco, and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese). Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages, but has never been a legal nor a political entity under this name. However, the territory was united in Roman times as the ''Septem Provinciae, Seven Provinces'' ( la, Septem Provinciæ) and in the Early Middle Ages (''Aquitanica'' or the Visigothic Kingdom#Kingdom of Toulouse, Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, or the share of Louis the Pious following Thionville ''divisio regnorum'' in 806) ...
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Vermenagna
The Vermenagna is a long river in northwestern Italy (Piedmont). Geography The Vermenagna is a tributary to the river Gesso, in the river Po basin. Its source is a small lake higher than 2000 m close to the Rocca dell'Abisso, not faraway from the Colle di Tenda; after Limonetto the flows crosses the comunes of Limone Piemonte and Vernante, where it gets from the left bank its main tributary, the ''rio di Valle Grande'', which collects the waters of the valley of Palanfrè (or ‘’Val Grande’’). Its course continues reaching Robilante and Roccavione; on the border between the latter comune with Borgo San Dalmazzo the Vermenagna ends in the Gesso, at 610 of elevation. The course of the Vermenagna separates the Maritime Alps from the Ligurian Alps. Main tributaries * Left side: ** rio di Valle Grande. *Right side: ** torrente Valleggia; ** rio Malandrè. See also * Natural Park of Marguareis * List of rivers of Italy This is a list of rivers which are at leas ...
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Harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica include diatonic, chromatic, tremolo, octave, orchestral, and bass versions. A harmonica is played by using the mouth (lips and tongue) to direct air into or out of one (or more) holes along a mouthpiece. Behind each hole is a chamber containing at least one reed. The most common is the diatonic Richter-tuned with ten air passages and twenty reeds, often called the blues harp. A harmonica reed is a flat, elongated spring typically made of brass, stainless steel, or bronze, which is secured at one end over a slot that serves as an airway. When the free end is made to vibrate by the player's air, it alternately blocks and unblocks the airway to produce sound. Reeds are tuned to individual pitches. Tuning may involve changing a reed’s length ...
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Diatonic Button Accordion
A melodeon or diatonic button accordion is a member of the free-reed aerophone family of musical instruments. It is a type of button accordion on which the melody-side keyboard contains one or more rows of buttons, with each row producing the notes of a single diatonic scale. The buttons on the bass-side keyboard are most commonly arranged in pairs, with one button of a pair sounding the fundamental of a chord and the other the corresponding major triad (or, sometimes, a minor triad). Diatonic button accordions are popular in many countries, and used mainly for playing popular music and traditional folk music, and modern offshoots of these genres. Nomenclature Various terms for the diatonic button accordion are used in different parts of the English-speaking world. * In Britain and Australia, the term ''melodeon'' is commonly used, regardless of whether the instrument has one, two, or three rows of melody buttons. * In Ireland, ''melodeon'' ( ga, mileoidean or ''an bosca ...
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Organ (music)
Carol Williams performing at the United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel.">West_Point_Cadet_Chapel.html" ;"title="United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel">United States Military Academy West Point Cadet Chapel. In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more Pipe organ, pipe divisions or other means for producing tones, each played from its own Manual (music), manual, with the hands, or pedalboard, with the feet. Overview Overview includes: * Pipe organs, which use air moving through pipes to produce sounds. Since the 16th century, pipe organs have used various materials for pipes, which can vary widely in timbre and volume. Increasingly hybrid organs are appearing in which pipes are augmented with electric additions. Great economies of space and cost are possible especially when the lowest (and largest) of the pipes can be replaced; * Non-piped organs, which include: ** pump organs, also known as reed organs or harmoniums, which ...
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Occitan Valleys
The Occitan Valleys ( oc, Valadas Occitanas; it, Valli Occitane; pms, Valade Ossitan-e; french: Vallées Occitanes; frp, Valâdes Occitanes) are the part of Occitania (the territory of the Occitan language) within the borders of Italy. It is a mountainous region in the southern Alps. Most of its valleys are oriented eastward and descend toward the plains of Piedmont. The area has a population of inhabitants (July, 2013). Its major towns are Lo Borg Sant Dalmatz (Borgo San Dalmazzo), Buscha (Busca), Boves (Bueves) and Draonier (Dronero). The Occitan linguistic enclave of La Gàrdia (Guardia Piemontese) in Calabria does not belong to the Occitan Valleys. A 1999 Italian law ("Law 482") provides for the protection of linguistic minorities, including Occitan. Communities with clear Occitan presence before the 482/99 Act These are the villages where an autochthonous Provençal-speaking community has surely settled and may still speak the language. Around 35% of the populati ...
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Violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular use. The violin typically has four strings (music), strings (some can have five-string violin, five), usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and is most commonly played by drawing a bow (music), bow across its strings. It can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow (col legno). Violins are important instruments in a wide variety of musical genres. They are most prominent in the Western classical music, Western classical tradition, both in ensembles (from chamber music to orchestras) and as solo instruments. Violins are also important in many varieties of folk music, including country music, bluegrass music, and ...
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