| PIETRA
or the song of a city
Sailing in the musical waters
of the Mare Nostrum - this sea so rarely calrn, always ready
for upheaval of some kind - means you grow attached to the
ups and downs of a region unique through its history of demons
and marvels. Naples was called Parthenapolis after Parthenope,
its foundng enchantress, before li became known as Neapolis.
When Ulysses passed close to Naples he had himself attached
to the mast of his ship. so as not to be lured by the song
of Parthenope the siren. This implies that he recognized the
age-old, bewitching powers of this song — he arranged the situation
so he could reap th e fullest pleasure from the song without
succumbing to the siren's allure. And this he did, al lowing
himself the pleasure but still remaining master of the situation.
She, on the other hand, Iost her marvellous song, and thus
her power to seduce. In Na ples people a lways pity Parthenope;
her song is still very much alive here, it has survived in
many different forms.
One outstanding feature of Naples is the large
number of its distinguished musical personalities — Scarlatti,
Pergolesi, Cimarosa, Bellini. But all that was a long time
ago. O f course, there's a tradition of specifically Neapolitan
music and songs, in which nostalgia and regret for the past
are always present. But as elsewhere, the new generation of
singers, including Pietra, is breaking away from tradition
to seek new forms of expression.
A hundred years ago this city lost his status
of capital of a kingdom to become a mere provincial city. This
relinquishment of power coincided with th e emergence of songs
such as “O sole mio”, that has known worldwide success. The
more the Neopolitans emigrated, the more nature and th e natural
landscape around the city turned into wasteland; a nd the more
poverty there was, th e more great singers of the stature of
GigIi, Schipa a nd Caruso vaunted the beauties of Naples, the
sun, the sea etc. This was the golden age of the Neapolitan
Song. La canzone napoletana, with its mixture of elements f
rom traditional songs and opera-like arias became an important
genre of popular music.
During the 20s a lot of Neapolitans emigrated
to America , giving rise to another glorious period for Neopolitan
songs. They helped to ease the pain of the emigrant's nostalgia
and their melancholy reflected his dramatic situation far away
f rom family and home.
In the immediate post-war period the songs
often spoke of poverty, hunger and prostitution, all rife after
the occupation by die Allied forces.
If you really love Neapolitan singing, stop
for a moment or two in the narrow streets of the city, peek
into the basements, go and look near th e churches, rather
than gaze out to sea. In Naples everything is tied up with
songs and singing. Everything is born in song and ends in song.
In Na ples singing is a way of talking.
Leaving aside th e strictly musical characteristics,
voice and vocal technique have common traits throughout the
Mediterranean world: the strong, husky voice with ist throaty
quality, th e singing technique where die voice is taut a nd
straight, th e nasalizations of timbre, th e deliberately grainy
quality of th e voice.
With Pietra, the interplay of all the different
tones becomes her song: th e Iow, raucous tone of fishermen,
the rhythm of th e taxi drivers, th e murmurings of th e black-market
street sellers, th e affectionately tender words of lovers,
all th e mysterious sounds of the city i tself... With Pietra
it's a whole symphony of voices, sounds and cries. In Naples
nothing is perfect nothing is refined. Vices and virtues, feelings,
possessions are all stiIl a t the primitive, instinctive stage
and surge forth with vehemence directly from Pietra's heart,
her very soul.
The Mediterranean i dentity has been forged
from the successive waves of migration, th e endless crossings
made i n sailing boats from one land to another, over th is
sea that links so many lands, surrounds them, « the
sea between Iands », the sea that unites more than
it divides.
In this context a true Neapolitan is a real
mixture. Naples has been occupied in the past by Romans, Normans
, Africans, Angevins, people from Aragon and Piedmont and more
recently by the Germans and Americans. A true Nea politan is
probably a kind o f Punchinello, a rnask.
Pietra's singing is neither l inear nor unsupple.
She succeeds in making us wend our way across this bay of Naples
in time and space without ever Iosing sight of th e paradoxical
but undeniably real unity o f th e Mediterranean .
This album resounds with th e echo of ancient
myths and th e Neapolitan bel canto; its music becomes a breeze
redolent of the coasts it has swept across a nd the islands
it's drifted over, now continuing its purposeful way towards
a larger Mediterranean . For Pietra's song finds an echo on
th e other shores of the Mediterranean, in popular songs f
rom the Maghreb , Kabylian rhythms, th e sound of an ‘ud or
a bendir.
If thiere is such a thing as the Neapolitan
identity, Pietra's ambition is to express it in a music that
is unique, singular in its essence but plural in its forms
and sources of inspiration.
Sami SADAK
Translated by Delia Morris
A project
by: Eugenio Bennato
Musical direction: Eugenio Bennato
Realization: Erasmo Petringa
Realization"Sole Sole": Martino De Cesare, Tony Semeraro
Mixing: Enzo Rizzo
Registration: "Ada Studio" of Airola (BN) (Erasmo Petringa)
"Orange Bug" of Naples ( Salvio Imparato)
"Maya Records" of Crispiano (TA) ( Tony Semeraro)
"Ellada Studio" of Athen (Greece) Instruments: Laud, mandoloncello,
cello and bass Erasmo Petringa
Guitar battante Erasmo Petringa, Marcello Vitale
Percussions Emidio Petringa and Erasmo Petringa
Drums Gianluca Brugnano
Electric Bass Diego Imparato
Guitar battante Martino De Cesare and Luca Gianquinto
Voices Mbarka Bentaleb (Tunisia), Zena Chabane (Mozambique), Eleana Zeghinoglou
(Greece), Abbes Boufrioua (Algeria), Laura Klain (France), Samir Toukour (Algeria),
Pasqualino Ruggiero (Italy).
Masterisation: Antonio Baglio - Studio Nautilus of Milan
Cover picture: Barbara Ledda of Rome
Production: Taranta Power of Naples, Editions cinquantacinque of Naples
www.pietramontecorvino.com |
