Experience Sicily

Category: Music

  • Persian Drummer at Villa Palagonia

    On the left is a print from Bonanni’s 18th-Century “Gabinetto Armonico,” a series of plates documenting antique musical instruments and their players. On the right is an 18th century statue from Bagheria’s Villa Palagonia that was created based on Bonanni’s plate Number 118. It’s a musician with tamburro Persiano or barrel drum from Persia that…

  • Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and a Zampogna Player

    Nativity scenes (presepe or presepio) in Sicily and Southern Italy don’t just illustrate the Holy Family, they also show the folk traditions of the people in the region. For example, at the presepe in Sant’Elia that Experience Sicily’s Filippo Buttitta photographed last week, the life-sized figures include this zampogna, or bagpipe player. Zampogne (plural for…

  • Full Circle

    Sieves, like the one shown, have been used for generations to aid the olive and almond harvests (just to name two examples of when it’s used) by straining dirt and other particles out from fruit that has fallen to the ground. When we see an antique sieve next to a tamburello, or Italian frame drum…

  • Palermo’s Theater of the People

    The revivalist architectural style of Teatro Politeama in Palermo is a late nineteenth century homage to Roman-era amphitheaters like the Colosseum. Built in the early 1870s, it recalls details of buildings uncovered in Pompeii, specifically the columned promenade and decorative frescoes throughout the theater (Excavations of Pompeii, although started slowly in 1748, were strongly underway…

  • Villa Palagonia: Castanets

    Statue of musician playing castanets, Villa Palagonia, 18th century. (NB, further to yesterday’s post… Castanets are often made with chestnut tree wood.)

  • Traditional Dress of a Sicilian Cart Driver

    According to “Il costume popolare in Italia,” a book by Emma Calderini published in 1934, this is an illustration of what Sicilian cart drivers, or carrettiere, typically wore. So, if you need a last-minute Halloween costume idea, you might be able to pull this off! Just know that in addition to transporting goods–often through the…

  • Almost Ten Years Later

    In 2006, I sang on a float in the New York City Columbus Day Parade. At the end of the parade route, I came upon a folk group from Sicily, who I couldn’t resist talking to. On 69th Street, I met Giuseppe Mazzarella from Trapani, an award-winning singer and sports medic for the Trapani soccer…

  • Bagheria’s Sicilian Carts

    While in Bagheria on Wednesday, we had an extraordinary meeting at the workshop of Michele Ducato, one of the last painters of Bagherese Sicilian carts. Pictured is a detail from a cart on which he’s currently working. In addition to learning about the “family business” and the construction of the carts from Michele, Giovanni Di…

  • Enchanting Sicily, Day 13: Monumental Massimo

    LIVE from Sicily! | We spent today touring the neighborhoods of Palermo, starting here at Teatro Massimo the largest opera house in Italy and the third largest in Europe after Paris and Vienna. I want to tell you more about our excursion through the city’s lively markets, but after ending today with a private concert…