This period of the year is very special in Campania (region of Italy): you can listen “Zampogne” every day in the streets. They announce the approach of Christmas. Just for some days I listen to them in the half-dark of the first morning hours. At 5 -6am! I don’t know, sincerely, why they have to play so early. Imagine to hear this sound near your house when you are sleeping else. 
As is written in the depliant of the group “Le Zampogne di Daltrocanto“, and it’s really so, this strange sound touches something special in the soul, the very basic strings of it. Maybe it’s the “ancestral” memory in our genes: this kind of musical instruments had, probably, all agricultural peoples of the world.
Last time I was on shift in Salerno, the just mentioned group came to us to have a rest after they sung for somebody. I’ve never seen these instruments so near and -what was a surprise for me, I’ve never heard them to perform complicated folks dances’ music like tarantella.
Unfortunatelly, I had nothing other than my cell to make some photos and register the sound. I was really desperated to discover that only one piece of music was recorded and only some photos I made. Well, I’m very sorry for the quality of both, but I want to show them to you because they are interesting first, and I did not find a registration with the chants of the women that make this show absolutely singular (Floriana Attanasio, Paola Tozzi).
Here you see the group chanting for one of the friends in the main room of our complex.
The songs are similar to crying out. In part to shout down the sound of “zampogna” and “ciaramella” (pipe) maybe, in part to create very much alike perception. Castanets and drum complete the picture.
Antonio Giordano, il zampognere, has 3 or 4 different instruments. Did you know that they have hairs inside? I’ve never thought about it but it was clear for me that the skin is “naked” inside too. I was not right. And they have different voices, these instruments. Near the zampogna Antonio had a little drum, as you will see on the next photo.
Floriana had her instruments at hand literally.
