Map Folklore I 1990 - Polivocalità - Touring Club Italiano CART-TEM-096 (cropped)

Trallalero is a kind of

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

folk music from the

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

n region of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, in northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. It is traditionally performed by men, though there have been some female performers in the modern era. The name derives from the monosyllabic

vocable In the broadest sense of the word, a vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. Use of the words in the broad sense is archaic and the term is instead used for utterances ...

s (non-lexical vocalizations), ''tra-la-le-ro'' , which feature heavily in the repertoire of the groups or ''Squadre''. These are typically sections of songs without words during which the melody is sung on nonsense syllables. In the 1950s, American

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...

and

Diego Carpitella Diego Carpitella (Reggio di Calabria, 1924 - Rome, 1990) was an Italian professor of ethnomusicology at D'Annunzio University of Chieti–Pescara and La Sapienza University in Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = ...

recorded trallalero. Lomax later claimed he was blown away, and called it the most significant work in his long and storied career. Edward Neill worked to revitalize the tradition in the middle of the 20th century, with a wide range of works by musicologist Mauro Balma making up the majority of modern academic study on the subject. Trallalero groups consist of

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

and bass parts, accompanied by a

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically b ...

and a singer whose voice imitates a

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

(''chitarra''). As the names of parts suggest, the imitation of instrumental styles replaces traditional vocal polyphony: this is a distinguishing feature of this genre. Nine singers are considered a normal line-up: one each of chitarra, tenor, contralto, baritone and five basses, although sometimes groups can be significantly larger. In these larger groups basses are often divides into three sections: the ''bassi profondi'' or 'deep basses' who are usually limited to the long sounds or drones, the ''bassi alti''or 'high basses' who are similar to the deep basses but, as the name suggests, sing a slightly higher melody during certain sections of the songs, and the 'bassi cantabili' or 'singable basses' who typically sing a higher, more complex melody and often provide a rhythmic counterpoint to the other bass parts.Mauro Balma, ‘Lexicon of multipart singing in Liguria and in the area of the Four Provinces (Apennine of the provinces of Genoa, Alessandria, Pavia and Piacenza — Italy)’ in European Voices II : Cultural Listening and Local Discourse in Multipart Singing Traditions in Europe ed. Ardian Ahmedaja (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2011) p. 375-380. Online at: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/34353 ccessed 04/07/22 Group harmony in Liguria is historically associated with mountain villages, where two voices (usually a tenor and a baritone) sung over accompaniment by bass or

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

. A repertoire of traditional songs evolved over time, and the style moved to the docks of Genoa, a noted port city. There, metal-workers, longshoremen and stevedores sang Trallalero, with the practice peaking in the first three decades of the 20th century. Some Trallalero groups are still practicing in Genoa and Liguria, and can be usually seen performing at the annual ''Le vie dei canti'' festival in the winter months.

References

External links

*{{cite web , url=http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/tral_gen.htm , website=Musical Traditions , department=Review , author-link=Rod Stradling , last=Stradling , first=Rod , title=The Trallaleri of Genoa recordings by

, with much background information. * For the ''Le vie dei canti'' festival see: https://www.leviedeicantifestival.it/ Culture in Genoa Music of Liguria Italian folk music