ife in rural and pastoral communities was marked by important liturgical events, among them there was Easter with its complex liturgy full of imaginaries, such as death-rebirth-resurrection,
ever since symbolizing nature’s awakening, the passage from winter to spring. Then our farm labourers cast off their clothes of hard workers and became refined cantors of the Passione tu Cristù and Lu Santu Lazzaru. Generally two cantors, an accordionist or a man playing a barrel organ together with a palm bearer, placed themselves at the crossroads of the village, sung and mimed the Passion of Jesus one at a time. They often went even to farmhouses to play the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The Passion tells the life and the pains of Christ and the excruciating suffering of a mother wandering and looking for the fruit of life: her son. The Passion represents popular pietas (piety) and the most complex and articulated way through which people express their mysticism and the need to communicate with divinity.
The book which is a product of the Chants of Passion provides important ideas about the repertoire of ritual chants of begging linked to annual cycle and widespread throughout the country and expands on the mimic and gestural performance of Salentine cantors.
The volume includes an interview to Antimo Pellegrino, one of the last cantors of Passion, a significant bibliography about the subject and avails itself of the contributions of: S. Torsello, A. Ricci, R. Tucci, L. Chiriatti and G. De Santis.
An audio cd is attached to the book and includes six precious examples of “Passions”, which are a little but still meaningful mix of religious chants of Salentine oral tradition.
This work is dedicated to Cosimo Surdo, a great performer of “grika” Passion and Salentine oral culture, who died recently
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