La festa di Sant'Antuono a Macerata Campania - Prove musicali delle battuglie - I ritmi

In the days leading up to January 17th, all the battuglie participating in the feast of Sant'Antuono rehearse on the days, times, spaces, and locations (especially in the courtyards, which are still used for agricultural work today). Official rehearsals begin on December 8th and usually end on January 6th. Rehearsals are held over the weekend, in addition to some midweek evening rehearsals. The musical tradition of the pastellessa battuglie is based on three rhythmic-musical patterns, inherited from the peasant past and, over time, reshaped and arranged to accompany the new musical and communicative needs of the feast. The first, preceded by the suspension of the ruglio (or roll or strenta), which primarily marks the arrival at the central locations of the musical performances, evoking a sonic chaos regulated by the slow or fast rhythm of the instruments' rolling, is "'a Sant'Antuono," the most commonly performed. The second model is "a pastellessa" or "music of the dead," a sort of funeral march that rarely features the scythe. The third, finally, is the "tarantella," a faster tempo used primarily to accompany the singing. The transition from one model to the next is marked by the "'e tre" (three-and-a-half) movement (De Simone – Rossi 1977). Alongside specific rhythms, there is a repertoire of songs defined each year that, at the same time, maintains certain fixed points. The songs, inherited from the repertoires of the oral tradition of the area, primarily concern work songs, mockery, and love songs. Alongside songs sung in retaliation against the master ("Sole e sole," "Oje tiritò"), verses extolling female beauty ("Nenna né" or "Sei sorelle," a military song in Italian) or describing the magnificence of the festival ("'A festa 'e Sant'Antuono"). Survey date: February 2, 2020 Reference project: The Feast of Sant'Antuono in Macerata, Campania: Tradition and Reinterpretation (co-financed by the Campania Region and the University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli") Scientific Project Manager: Professor Claudia Santi (University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli") Field Survey Manager: Dr. Matteo Enia