IF I WERE A SWALLOW - Barbara Bertoldi

IF I WERE A SWALLOW (CVLD321)

Available in: HD File, CD

01 - La Dosolina - Eddy Serafini,  2:44
02 - Gran Dio del Cielo - Armando Franceschini,  3:09
03 - ‘Ndormenzete popin - Erika Eccli,  2:42
04 - E col cifolo del vapore - Nikos Betti,  3:22
05 - La sposa morta - Marco Uvietta,  2:20
06 - Il Maritino - Armando Franceschini,  2:04
07 - La Madonnina - Camillo Moser e Italo Varner,  2:10
08 - La casa del mio bèn - Armando Franceschini,  1:38
09 - Ninna Nanna - Eddy Serafini,  1:59
10 - L’è tre ore che son chi sotto - Erika Eccli,  1:23

88.2kHz / 24bit original digital recording made at Areamagister Studios, Preganziol (Italy) on December, 28, 29, 2019

Production: Velut Luna
Executive Producer: Marco Lincetto
Musical Producer: Marco Lincetto & Barbara Bertoldi
Recording, Mix & Mastering Enegineer: Marco Lincetto
Photo: Marco Lincetto
Design & Layout: L'Image

In 1888, Costantino Nigra published "Canti popolari del Piemonte" (Folk Songs of Piedmont), employing for the first time an ethnological, comparative, and dialectological approach to Italian popular poetry. It was a long, passionate research into "truly popular songs, that is, without a known author, those songs heard in the fields, in the stables, the creations of peasant poets," as Nigra's father-in-law, Giovenale Vegezzi Ruscalla, wrote in a letter to a Sardinian scholar.
With Nigra, a new research methodology was born, which had previously been the domain of literary scholars and philologists, mainly Tuscan.
These studies reveal that while folk songs may have anonymous authors in terms of writing, their area of diffusion is well identifiable. The historical trace that the text leaves through the modifications it undergoes over the years, if not centuries, is also clearly visible.
The themes addressed encompass all aspects of human life, narrating work, leisure, love, sorrows, and wars. These texts, like those presented in this CD, are strongly dialectal, typical of northern Italy, with diffusion also in France, Provence, Catalonia, and Portugal.
Then, as is typical of popular narrative, it is varied and adapted to different situations and times, without changing the narrative structure, so that one can always, or almost always, trace back to the original text.
The songs on this CD, chosen by the performing musician and re-harmonized for cello and voice by composer friends and colleagues, bring the narrative back to its truest representation, when the performer was not a choir, but one or at most two voices, accompanied by an instrument, whether guitar or violin, very often played by ear.
The cello accompaniment provides a refined and unprecedented presentation in the vast field of folk song performances.
The re-harmonizations proposed by the various composers make the narrative varied and diverse, according to different sensibilities, while respecting the primitive harmonization.