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Rating: The charm emanating from this peculiar chapter of the Italian singing tradition is primarily due, in my opinion, to the deep and poignant feelings that permeated the souls of the authors of such verses and music, many of whom were involved and marked by the unique, perilous, harsh, and cruel experience of the Great War a century ago. It was a grinding positional warfare against Austria amidst breathtaking yet treacherous and terrible mountains, ready to seize with cold and hunger even more than the enemies' bullets and bombs.
The extreme trials to which one's physical and mental survival was subjected, the immense sense of camaraderie among those who shared the same perilous fate, the nostalgia and hope of returning to normal life, to family, to loved ones, to lost places and professions, have spawned a series of songs that, although often shrouded in Catholic fatalism or some kind of naive popular rhetoric, display and preserve within them the strength, the depth, the solemnity of drama, life precariousness, brotherhood at the core of their genesis.
To all this, in order to be deeply moved by the Alpine songs, one can just add two possible and healthy passions, namely the love for the mountains, particularly the Dolomites, which are the splendid yet cruel stage for much of that anguish and music, and finally the taste for choral vocality, the polyphonic harmonization rich in melodies and counterpoints. It is the art of adorning the simplest of vocal lines with evocative harmonic support, all played a cappella due to its trench origins, atop mountains, in the galleries carved into the living rock where there was no room for musical instruments, so they made do like this while striving to stay alive, to be there for a better tomorrow.
Translating all this towards today's music listeners, those who cultivate a taste for polyphonies like those of the late Freddie Mercury with Queen, or those of Chris Squire with Yes, and further for the vocal art of groups like Eagles, Manhattan Transfer, Crosby Stills & Nash, Little River Band, Chicago... in short, for the best that rock has expressed at the level of choral singing, I believe they can equally appreciate the style, skill, and evocative power developed by this traditional form, in the strict Venetian/Trentino cadence, of popular Italian music.
Outstanding musicians (such as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Luciano Chailly, for instance) have worked to best arrange these simple and instinctive mountain songs, crafting sumptuous harmonic draperies around the original themes, thus granting them dignity and elegance. The complexity and dynamics of the interplay between harmonizations, counter-singing, alterations, and chases do not reach the virtuosity of other folk cultures (the Bulgarian one being the craziest and most intricate: they work on quarter tones and stay in tune, those Bulgarian choristers, an unbelievable feat!), but in any case, it is more than enough to consider this musical proposal technically of high standard and far from banal.
I picked up this CD several years ago in a little shop near the Ponte di Bassano, one of the most famous, evocative, and symbolic places of the entire Alpine epic, choosing it somehow among the dozens on display of the same genre. Two different ensembles sing on it, the "Penna Nera" choir from Gallarate and the "Stella Alpina" choir from Treviso. Almost all the classics of the genre are there... such celebrated titles as "Sul cappello", "Dove sei stato mio bell'alpino", "La leggenda del Piave", "Quel mazzolin di fiori", "Il testamento del Capitano", "Dammi o bello il tuo fazzolettino", "Sul ponte di Bassano" and many other less known tracks, all so wonderfully arranged and superbly performed by arrays of beautiful tenor, baritone, and bass voices, that deeply move me every time I listen to them again.Loading comments slowly
