Italian bagpipes: Commedian Alessandro Mazziotti plays his Zampogna 8 palmi by Vincenzo Sanzo in D
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- Опубліковано 9 жов 2022
- This video was originally recorded by Vincenzo Santoro and Francesco Bandello on a hard-to-find Facebook page which only Italians or Italian bagpipe fans will ever find. Trying to make a wrongly-kept secret known by uploading this to reach out to wider audiences because nobody would otherwise know how insanely cool Italian bagpipes are.
From Santoro's description: "During the inauguration of the Museum of musical instruments in Artena, the legendary Alessandro Mazziotti played a piece on a monumental two meter and twenty Lucanian zampogna. Truly amazing stuff, as you can see from this extraordinary video shot by Francesco Bandello."
Honestly, because I don't speak Italian I have no idea whatsoever Alessandro is saying. All I know is that he's a real commedian because the audience is very easy and bursts out laughing at anything he says. And ... When will he start playing his pipes already??????
Note the occasional and barely audible bubbling noise. That's the tenor drone (out of the two drones, tenor and sopranina) growling or gurgling.
Behind the "Palmi" size, "Palmi" is a very old Italian measurement, which varies between 25 centimeters each (short palmi), and 26.5 centimeters each (long palmi). The difference between two tones generated by those two frequencies is an entire half step or semitone. This measurement was not written in stone and so it varied anywhere from 25 to 26.5 centimeters, so the variation in pitch within the palmi measurement gives you as much as an entire half step or semitone. So imagine that: 26.5 times 8 equals 212 centimeters. That's 83.464566929133858267716535433071 inches, or 6.9553805774278215223097112860892 feet long!!!
Not familiar with Italian bagpipes? I encourage you to download this plain text dictionary I put together about these instruments. You will seriously learn a ton of things you never knew, and I don't want this to be entirely secret so this is my best way of getting the word out. This link will be updated whenever future modifications to the dictionary are made, so if you don't have the latest version, no worries. Last updated: 12/31/2023
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/pysxqo...
Technically speaking it was super hard to try to synch the high-quality audio with the original video. On Facebook, the audio of the video itself was very high quality. But when I downloaded the video from Facebook the audio was seriously worse than a telephone. So I had to spend the whole day just to try to figure out how to swap the bad audio with the good audio and I think I figured it out. I used VLC Media Player. It took at least one out of several unsuccessful tries to put the correct audio in with the video! Keep in mind I'm still blind / visually impaired and have NEVER used video editing software before!
#Italian #bagpipes
Comically large bagpipe
LOL, glad you like it.
Wow the bass must have been even more impressive in person!
I’ve heard old recordings of large pipes, but to se this is wonderful. So very glad you’ve made this available with fine information.
Glad you like it! The problem is, I hate the fact that until now it's pretty much been a wrongly kept secret which would only be uncovered if you learned Italian (NOT FAIR!) so I want to bridge the gap to wider audiences who would obviously otherwise miss out on what I persoonally think are the coolest variety of bagpipes in the WORLD.
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 An old friend, ethnomusicologist and of Calabrese descent turned me onto this great, pastoral music. Large pipes good, Northumbrian small pipes also good! Italian pipes must be as ancient as any.
Italian bagpipes: Surprisingly calming and pastoral in nature! One could fall asleep listening to these.
The Great Highland bagpipes: Makes me want to go to war. I could charge a line of British infantry with nothing but a kilt on and a claymore in my hands!
Glad you love it too! In fact, I far prefer Italian zampogne better than Highland pipes myself just because the zampogna is far cooler (with two chanters, sometimes even 3 different chanters on some modern varieties!). So that always keeps things interesting!
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189How do you finger three chanters? A person has only two hands.
@@johnhudelson2652 The third chanter, between the two main chanters, only can play two or three notes, and all it is is just a few tiny little holes spaced super close together to be able to cover all three holes with your left hand thumb. So you kind of partially cover and uncover the holes just with your left thumb, it's kind of complicated. The right hand chanter you use all 5 fingers of your right hand. Because the left hand chanter only uses four fingers, your left thumb becomes free, so that's why the third semi-chanter with the holes added facilitates the use of the left hand thumb. Does that make any sense?
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 Yes, it makes sense.
So because I can't understand Italian speech yet, a friend of mine tried translating Alessandro's speech at which they were laughing. Apparently like most piping myths he mentions that it takes a whole lot of hot air to play the pipes (truthfully it doesn't, it's just a myth). Apparently he's been blowing hot air into that zampogna since that morning ('stammatina', this morning), but this translator friend said the zampogna was sitting by a heater since that morning. So when he said "heater" I assumed that's their way of referring to the 'hot air' pipers have. Then I think the funny part was when he said something from what I could understand this translator translated as 'if anyone wants to try playing this thing...' - perhaps this might make more sense as to why Alessandro is such a commedian.
You do indeed need a lot of hot air to play these pipes!
Italian piper here: since it was taking a lot of time to inflate that huge zampogna, he actually asked the audience if anyone wanted to help him blowing air in the bag (and the other guy proposed to play TV ads in the meanwhile). He also told that the difficult part is not playing the instrument, but it's been eating the two goats (zampogna's bag is made of goat skin).
I'm italian so let me translate:
Stamattina che sta vicino al termosifone. Quindi, un attimino che... (This morning when it was close to the radiator. So, just a second that...)
Friend: Intanto mandiamo la pubblicità. (Meanwhile let's send ads) Alessandro: Esatto. (Exactly.)
Se qualcuno vuole contribuire... (If someone wants to help...)
La fatica non è personale, ma pe' magnasse (magnasse is roman dialect and in normal italian it would be per mangiarsi) 'ste due capre è stata veramente dura. (The effort isn't personal, but to eat these two goats it was really hard.)
GRAZIE! That was VERY invaluable! But I thought there's a little bit more speech at the end after that last line.@@marcomarletta1430
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 Oh, yea, he says "zitta. Questa è lei, eh, lo so io." which translates to "shut up. It's her, I'm sure about it." I think he refers to the noise in the background but they probably talked about it in the part before the video so idk what he means
I play the highland pipes and I thought because of the enormous size it was a joke but they sound quite beautiful!
Super glad you LOVE these!!!! Now I wish I had a set, but I'm afraid not. As well, I didn't record this. Literally I thought of including videos (instead of just audio files on a black background which I've always done) just to attract more subscribers. Thing is, as a blind person I've never been able to make videos 'cause I obviously can't see, and I'm not living with anyone who can help me with the camera and all that. And I learned the hard way most people are more reactive to visual stuff which is a definite BOO in the blind world. Plus, as I mentioned to someone else, this wasn't a recording I made but it was on a hard-to-find Facebook page run by Italian pipers which only Italians or Italian bagpipe fans will ever find. Trying to make a wrongly-kept secret known by uploading this to reach out to wider audiences because nobody would otherwise know how insanely cool Italian bagpipes are, compared to Scottish Highland pipes. So if it can only be found on a niche Facebook page and wrongly kept a frickin' secret, why not upload it to YT? The only thing I hate about Italian bagpipes is that it's a wrongly kept secret NOT MEANT TO BE SECRET!
Alessandro Mazziotti playing an enormous zampogna measuring 8 1/2 palmi.
Video filmed at Museikè, a musical instrument museum in Artena, Rome, Italy, c. January 2018. The museum opened in January 2018.
Domenica scorsa, durante l'inaugurazione del Museo degli strumenti musicali di Artena, il mitico Alessandro Mazziotti si è esibito in una suonata con una monumentale zampogna lucana di due metri e venti. Una roba veramente strabiliante, come si può bene vedere da questo video straordinario girato da Francesco Bandello!
Thanks. I do have the original description too.
It's funny that in the description you give a measurement based on traditional units which vary by more than a centimeter, but you give them with so many decimal places that you're indicating a subatomic precision to your calculations. We don't need that many decimal places to know it's 7 feet long, especially when the measurements are so imprecise! 😂
Beautiful a full sound!! Amazing😄😃
Glad you love it!!!!!!! It's my favorite instrument in the WORLD as well!!!!! Keep in mind I didn't actually record this. Problem is, too many Italian pipers don't know how to speak English which is clearly and obviously THE WORST THING EVER, so I didn't know what to do other than by "borrowing" as it were a Facebook video from a big Facebook page specializing in Italian piping.
What an interesting sound. Super cool bud
drone hits hard on these big boys :D
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my god this is awesome
Glad you love it, feel free to check out the first-ever zampognara donna on my channel playing a 6-palmi (this one being 8-palmi). Lucia Quattrocchi has definitely set a Guinness Record in Italian piping but this flipped gender role sort of thing made me freak out for life. ua-cam.com/video/3reDYDrQYas/v-deo.html
Nice 👍
Wow thank you so much!!!!!
Glad you love it!!!! Keep in mind I didn't actually record this. Problem is, too many Italian pipers don't know how to speak English which is clearly and obviously THE WORST THING EVER, so I didn't know what to do other than by "borrowing" as it were a Facebook video from a big Facebook page specializing in Italian piping.
As well as a couple with our pal, there is just one other 8 I've found so far, but a couple of sevens as well. More to the point, I just spotted something I watched the other year. Do you know there's an 80 minute documentary called Zamponga, the soul of Southern Italy ?
Of course! I first watched that in 2015. BTW, if you go down my channel I made an audio recording about how I fell in love with zampogne. Can't remember if you can put links in comments but I'll try. ua-cam.com/video/7PLJa0LaP28/v-deo.html
In Canada, you can blow away the fallen autumn leaves from your sidewalk with this thing
FUNNIEST, THING, IN THE WORLD!!!! LOL LOL LOL!!!!!!!!
Love it. Want it.
Me too... I mean, at least I wish so! But the pipemaker Vincenzo Sanzo who made this instrument actually gave up making pipes to pursue a full time piano career. Sad but true. He was the only pipemaker to make a zampogna of this size.
So, it's not an Italian Portable Cannon, but a bagpipe?
Never would've guessed.
Still seems deadly, with that a big bag.
Deadly ... for the player.
He be out'o'breath afore the bag's even half full? O_O
LOL!!!! This made my day!
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189
Glad you liked it. :)
Capisci subito che il video è italiano da quante risate ci sono
Yesterday's was overloaded. It sounded good, but this is cleaner. I was worried you might have wasted your time for a second.
That's exactly what my goal was. I'm actually glad you noticed a difference. For me the difference was night and day. Just took forever to figure it out because to me, the quality of audio is absolutely 100 percent important. If there's better audio available, why not use that instead of the crappy audio version.
Also, if the audio used to be so bad but I obviously had no idea how to change the video, is the quality of the video blurry too? I obviously wouldn't know. All I knew is that the audio was crap so I just had to swap it out for a higher quality version.
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 The vids are indistinguishable, and I'm not just saying that to see if I can spell it !
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 It sounds strangely soothing now the sound's been tamed.
@@PIPEHEAD Right, but is the video itself blurry though? If the original audio was crap, I'm assuming the video was nothing like the other recent ones on here with actual video. Does that make more sense?
How much would One of those cost?
To be honest I don't know. But I can give you an estimate. One friend of mine bought himself a standard size 3-palmi zampogna (tenor G) for 500 Euros, and bought himself a 4-palmi (baritone D) zampogna for 800 euros. A 6 palmi is usually 1300 euros (bass G), so perhaps an 8 palmi would top out around 1600 euros. Keep in mind these Italian guys who told me about the prices had no idea what dollars were, so I have no idea what they would be in dollars. The other problem is though, most zampogna players don't speak English (WORST SHAME EVER!) and even Google Translator won't be enough. Count on your soprano opera singer friends to help you, LOL!
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 is there maybe a page of a builder were I could one of these bigis?
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 or try to order :)
I think this boomer of a Bagpipe would work better if it was a Bellows Blown Bagpipe. It sounds Bassey & you can feel it vibrating against you chest.
Like physically you mean? I can imagine so. But there's no real evidence of an actual bellows-blown Italian bagpipe in history that I know of, except for the legend of... oh, darn, what was the name... Dionysius? Or was it Utriculus? Some sort of Latin-sounding name involving some sort of mythical piper playing a bellows-blown zampogna. BTW, feel free to check out some of the zampogna albums on my channel too. They're most easily found in the Playlists section.
@@michaelkazmierskidunn7189 There's the sordellina napoletana which is a bellows blown "zampogna smallpipe"
Use air compresor
LOL.
More like bigpipes
LOL!