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Trallalero is a kind of polyphonic folk music from the
Trallalero is a kind of polyphonic folk music from the Liguria
it, Ligure
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n region of Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, 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 ...
. 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 m ...
Alan Lomax and Diego Carpitella 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 male singing 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 low extreme for tenors is wide ...
, baritone 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, typica ...
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 strin ...
(''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. 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 Alan Lomax, 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