Track 1 - Alla Boara

The field recording that inspired the arrangement:

This is a typical call-and-response work song that would be sung to one another while doing field work. The song begins with an instrument that not many people would associate with Italian folk music and that is the “jaw harp” (scaccia penssieri). That specific bit of inspiration came from a recording that Lomax had done of some Sicilian suffer miners. I was struck by these almost Middle-Eastern sounds that they were singing along with the jaw harp accompaniment. Throughout the piece I wanted to keep that kind of harmonic aesthetic. The first time I heard the field recording it sounded to me like it could be in 7/8, (you can find that recording here) so I put the composition in that meter.

After improvisations by Dan Mihelarakis and Tommy Lehman there is a traditional Italian folk feel called the “tarantella” (the fast triplet rhythm played by the guitar and frame drum) that takes right into an accordion solo by Michael Ward-Bergeman. Throughout this part of the composition it builds toward the return of the “call and response” before the piece climaxes into a bigger 7/4 feel. The idea behind this last section was to create a more modernized version of the tarantella on the drum set. Electronics and solo were performed by Chris Coles.

Original Lyrics:

O canta la zighéla int e rastèle 3x

ui è di segadòr ch’in conta quèle

O canta la zighéla int la fèra 3x

ui è di rastladòr ch'in conta quèle

Translation:

Oh, the grasshopper sings on the rake, / There are reapers who count for nothing.

Oh, the grasshopper sings on the blade of the sickle. / There are rakers who count for nothing.