ORCHESTRA POPOLARE DELLE DOLOMITI
Concier di testa

OPDD 001

885016006921
Calicanto
Italia

 

The inedited repertoire of the traditional music of Dolomites , the beautiful mountain area declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Between old dances, narrative songs and rhythms of popular feasts that animated Alpine valleys, this album knows how to excite the listener by drawing on a wide range of musical colors and timbres, enchanged by original arrangements performed by a twenty-pieces orchestra that employs ancient instruments and voices. The CD is packaged with a 100 pages booklet in Italian, English and German.

L’Orchestra Popolare Delle Dolomiti and their album Concier di testa, come from a deep research on the traditional repertoire, largely inedited, linked to the territory of the Dolomites, the beautiful mountain area declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Always in balance between the atmosphere of the ancient dances, narrative and lyrical episodes, and the rhythms of popular feasts that animated the alpine valleys of the Dolomites, the CD knows how to excite the listener by drawing on a wide range of musical colors and timbres, enhanced by original arrangements, but always respectful of the sources. A captivating and poetic proposal that can be very addictive and fun for any audience.

The songs, for the most part, have been arranged from the precious manuscripts found in Borca di Cadore few years ago and published in the book by R. Tombesi, F. Ganassin and T. Luison : Ballabili antichi per violino o mandolino, un repertorio dalle Dolomiti del primo ‘900 (ed. Nota, Udine 2012). But the CD is enriched by other melodies both instrumental and sung, related to different territories and different themes. And there are also the classics of the alpine repertoire , as "La Pastora" or the intense "Stelutis Alpinis" in Friulian dialect.
Altogether we can listen to over thirty different melodies, proposed as a suite, with names sometimes curious (concier di testa, berlingozza, pia, bettina, etc.) or other best known as waltz, manfrina, quadrille, villotta, varsovien, sottis or gavotte.

The ensemble, which consists of about twenty musicians, was created by the meeting of the following groups, as well as individual musicians, all from Triveneto area : Abies alba (Trentino), Al Tei (Belluno), Bandabrian (Veneto), Calicanto (Veneto), Compagnia del fil de fer (Trentino), Mideando string quintet (Veneto), Pasui (Alto Adige/Südtirol), Quartetto Neuma (Trentino), Zephiros (Veneto). The line-up of the Orchestra presents a section of picks (mandolins, guitars), a section of strings (violins, cellos and double bass), a horn section (piccolo, schwegelpfeife, bagpipes, flutes, ocarinas), harp , zither, diatonic accordion, harmonium, traditional and home-made percussion. Special consideration for the voices: in the front row the female protagonists, intense and refined, while male interventions refer to a mode as it was a time in the entire Alpine Arc.

The idea that moves the Orchestra is to restore dignity to the repertoires of music and dance of the Alpine area as well as to support that network of enthusiasts, researchers, musicians and dancers operating in the area for the conservation and revival of traditional repertoires in a modern way.

Package includes a 100 pages booklet with wonderful black&white photos. It contains also explanatory notes on tracks, texts of the songs plus speeches, essays and comments by Marcella Morandini, Pietro Bianchi, Carmine Ragozzino, Antonio Carlini, Roberto Tombesi, Guglielmo Pinna, Francesco Ganassin, Modesto Brian and Domenico Zamboni.
All these in Italian, English and German.

Concier di testa is an expression from Cadore area translatable as "plenty of common sense" or "fine brain," but also an implicit advice to have judgment.