Italy - The Resia Valley

In the Resia Valley (north-east of the Friuli region) lives one of the most interesting ethnic minorities of Italy. Thanks both to its geographical remoteness and its social cohesion it maintains very particular cultural features in language (a particular dialect of slavish origin), music, dance and customs. Here the music is only performed by two instruments: Citira (fiddle) and Bunkula (three-stringed cello). This repertoire is well alive and also flourishing because, besides the old tunes, the best players compose some new ones which are often named after them. In this way some fiddlers have tied their name to the local musical history.

All the tunes have a two-part structure: the first one fingered in the Key of D (called "na tenko") and the second one in the key of G (called "na tusto") fingered in the same way a fifth lower.
In the first part the cello rhythmic drone is a double sound D-A while in the second one it is a simple G, so that strings are never fingered at all. Another essential element of the tune is the hard foot stamping of the fiddlers who play sitting down.

Here are some famous players of the past decades:

Music in the pub


The dance


Carnival 1973

Italy - The Caffaro Valley

The musical tradition in the Caffaro Valley, sited in the north-east Alps of Lombardy, in the province of Brescia, is featured as one of the most interesting fiddle traditions all over Northern Italy. It is still alive and in progress since it is closely linked to the rite of Carnival.
The fiddle repertoire in the Caffaro Valley was made of twenty-four ritual dances, which were similar both in the villages of Ponte Caffaro and Bagolino.
Since the second half of the 70s, other dances no longer in use were reintroduced notified by Marcello Buccio (1912-1978), Costante Cosi (1917-1988), fiddlers of the old Fellowships, and Stefano Bordiga (born 1931), still a member nowadays .
Despite some differences in harmonizations, the tunes are still quite the same in the two villages.
Here is the old LP published by the Lombardy Administration, containing recordings made in Bagolino in the year 1972

Out-of-print

Regione Lombardia Vol.4 - La musica del carnevale di Bagolino

Here is the Bagolino Carnival in the year 2000




And here is the Carnival in the hamlet of Ponte Caffaro in 1993