Mediatized Voices: The Traditional Songs of the Arbëresh Villages of Southern Italy at the Beginning of a New Century

This paper discusses recent changes to vocal practices in the Arbëresh villages of Southern Italy owing to recording technology and audiovisual media. Founded in the 15th century by Albanian refugees coming from the Balkans after the war with the Ottomans, Arbëresh people preserve their old oral language, their religious practices, and their vocal musical practices. In recent decades, important changes have been taking place in local transmission and perception of vocal Arbëresh repertories. Performers have been studying old recordings and archival materials and discovering characteristic timbral and stylistic elements of the vocal performance that seem to be even more distinctive than the language, the poetic lines, or their ritual meanings. These new discoveries have given rise to a tradition of young singers, especially women, who stress performance techniques such as vocal production and ornamentations. These singers are very much appreciated in festivals in Italy and abroad (perhaps more than in the original villages where the old rituals are almost disappeared) and during the musical festivals in Albania, where they are enthusiastically received as evidence of the "ancient" vocal tradition of their ancestors. The paper, with the use of audiovisual examples, will discuss the changes that are creating a new "mediatized" perception of the vocal Arbëresh repertoires or songs, with strong implications at the level of the identity of this population; it is based especially on the appreciation of stylistic elements of the vocal performance, more evident and more perceptible through the "magnifying glass" of recording technology.