[Correct Rotation] Alfredo and Antonio Cibelli - Canto A Zampogna (1927) mono mix

Here's an overly rare zampogna / ciaramella recording from 1927, made in New York at the Victor recording studios.

The zampogna player is Alfredo Cibelli, most known as an operatic tenor and instrumentalist, on a 6-palmi zampogna a chiave (chanters in octaves, double reeds) in the key of A-flat major, along with Antonio Papariello singing in the traditional type of Italian folk-singing style, and playing a type of instrument that is known in the Lucanian dialect as "Cucchia" (two very limited ciaramelle played by a single player). Alfredo's pipes sound to be made by Carmine Trimarco (1864 - 1960), given their unique Lucanian type of tone quality to them, particularly on the bass chanter. Keep in mind this was WAAAAAAAAAY before the Forastiero Brothers (essentially the Cecilia Bartoli of zampogna makers, so famous you can hardly talk about zampogne without mentioning them). Vincenzo Forastiero, the older of the two brothers, was born only in 1919 and sadly passed away in early 2018. Antonio, the younger brother, was born 1929 and still alive, but retired). So because Trimarco taught the two brothers to make instruments, Trimarco is most likely the make. Occasionally Alfredo's bass chanter cuts in and out (stops sounding sometimes), due to its higher pressure required to make it vibrate. Also, as with all zampogna recordings that have awful worthless sopranina drones, I've reduced his sopranina for this mono mix, and so during Antonio's Cucchia parts it does slightly affect the sound of his cucchia a little. This particular sopranina plays the note E-flat (just above middle C).

Antonio's Cucchia, also called "Coppia ciaramella" in basic Italian (a pair of ciaramelle of a very limited musical range), is somewhat atypical with regard to its two scales. Of the two pipes, the soprano plays the notes Lá (F in this case), Sol (E-flat), Fa (C-sharp), Mi (C), and what should be Ré (B-flat), but is unintentionally Mé / Rí (B natural). The alto, on the other hand, has the normal scale consisting of Fa (C-sharp), Mi (C), Ré (B-flat), Dó (A-flat) and Ti (G). As you can hear, because the same fingering on both hands gives a third interval between the two pipes on the Cucchia (i.e., Fa and Lá on the alto and soprano respectively with no holes covered), it's part is pretty much all parallel thirds. But what makes this record different from the other side is that Antonio is singing in what I amount to the Lucanian dialect of Italian, so I have no idea what in the world he's singing. His vocal range is about the range of the first register / octave of a typical ciaramella, but in the octave of the soprano chanter on the zampogna.

What I find super interesting is that two pipers can be heard talking to each other, both at the beginning and at the end. Although, at the end I hear a third voice, which sounds more like that of an operatic tenor's voice. I concluded that the younger voices are probably two ciaramella players, and the older voice is Alfredo because he is also an operatic tenor. There's also something that sounds like a gavel banging at the beginning, but whatever that is, I don't know.

I recently tended to have countless dreams about me playing the zampogna (WHEN THE HONEST HELL WILL I EVER GET ONE!). Because this voice is certainly not a soprano - it's a tenor - I've always imagined either my fluent-Italian-speaking friend Lindsey W., or maybe my cousin Maria, singing and playing the Cucchia. I'm sure if you can try to picture this in your head while you listen to it this might enhance the music a little more. Mind you, this Cucchia player / singer does not have much vibrato if any at all, either in his voice or his playing, and compared to the zampogna with a ton of trills and so forth, the Cucchia's part doesn't really sound all that impressive to me, despite the wider vocal range.

Technologically this record is pretty smooth, with no need for ClickRepair. However, the Cucchia is so loud at the higher frequencies that I have dynamically compressed these higher frequencies, so that the zampogna will sound closer to the microphones and the Cucchia a bit farther away, when really the situation was where the Cucchia is super close and the zampogna is sadly originally somewhat muffled.

I'd hate to keep anyone in the dust for rare recordings like this one, so enjoy! I mean, why should zampogna recordings be wrongly kept secrets?

Originally this record was actually a half-step too sharp, which is why I thought it was a 5 palmi in A! It's actually a 6 palmi in A-flat (the same common key as "O Mio Babbino Caro"), and in fact A-flat was the common key of zampogne that size back in the record era, so the recording is actually played too fast as far as revolution goes. I know this because there's a strong low note I heard as I blocked out some frequencies of the zampogna, instead of 240 Hz it was like 257.5 Hz, and it was recorded in New York which uses 120 as

[CorrectRotation]Alfredo