The Italian zampogna belongs to the
bagpipes family. Usually made of mediterranean wood: olive,
cherry, blackthorn, box-wood, it has two divergent chanters (played
with separate hands) with one or two drones of variable length. Its bag is
often the skin of a goat or of a sheep.
The pipes are housed in a single stock. Chanters and drones have
conical bores and mount double reeds. Two different models can usually
be seen: the keyed and the lame zampogna. In the keyed model it is the manca, that is the left chanter
that features a brass-lever key for the little finger. The key is
protected by a perforated wooden barrel.
Etymologists suggest that "zampogna" might derive from the Greek "symphonia", but some, like C. Sachs, strongly criticize this hypothesis remarking that the Greek word wasn't related to any specific musical instrument. For instance, Isidore of Seville in his Etymologiae said it was a drum.
Bagpipes were very likely a product of the ancient peoples of the Eurasian continent, though there is little evidence for their existence earlier than the first century BC. The earliest written documents date back to Roman times. Scholars usually quote Suetonius's Life of Nero. The Emperor would have devoted himself in winning prizes as organist, aulete and utricularius, if he had been able to preserve his empire
The "tibia utricularis" was very likely an instrument made of a pair of "tibiae" played with the help of a bag functioning as a reservoir for air. It was a low grade instrument, for low-caste musicians and mendicants. Similar ideas can be found inMartial. In one of his epigrams the poet uses the Greek word ascaules, that is an aulos, with a bag, to ridicule Canus, a famous musician of his times.
Perhaps the Romans had borrowed the instrument from Greece, from the near-east or from earlier Italian peoples. However, after Suetonius there are very few documents until the Middle Ages.
The term zampogna, or sampogna, appears in some medieval literary sources. But, little is known about the morphology of the instrument. Questions may arise on how many chanters or drones it featured. Some evidence of the presence of a zampogna like instrument with two chanters can be found at the beginning of the XV century and it's only in the mid-XVI century that iconographies show the presence of at least one drone.
As suggested by Baines,
in his history of woodwind instruments, the Renaissance is the earliest
period in western musical history to have left us a representative
stock of its instruments.
Actually, since Agricola's Musica Instrumentalis Deutsch
till Praetorius'Syntagma Musicum
there have been quite a lot of works with plates and descriptions of
the instruments of the period, but it's hard to find a clear description of the zampogna and this means that it was still a
shepherd's instrument, not deserving too much attention.
Maybe a zampogna can be traced in the Syntagma Musicum. It is a Schaperpfeiff Praetorius had seen at the court of Magdeburgh, featuring two chanters and two drones.
Nowadays' keyed instrument was given its shape in the course of the XVIII century even though this model bears a technology that can be traced back to the renaissance bombarde, namely: a little finger open key, v-shaped (swallow tail) on the top end, and protected by a slide-on barrel, the fontanella.
Unfortunately, the zampogna has hardly survived the industrial revolution, even though its tradition is still alive in some areas of central (Ciociaria, Molise, Abruzzi) and southern Italy (Pollino, Sila and Sicily).
The zampognari have always been itinerant musicians.
At Christmas they play the novene through the streets.
A novena, that is the nine days before a Saint's festivity, is an agreement between the zampognari and a family. By handing out a small holy picture, the zampognari ask for permission to play their novena outside the door of the house the previous nine days before the festivity, in exchange for a small amount of money. Alas, much of this tradition is lost.
There used to be some important novene between the end of November and the beginning of February: the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8th), Christmas (Dec 25th), St. Anthony (Jan 17th) St. Blaise (Feb 3rd). Nowadays the novene are performed mainly in December, for Mary Immaculate and Christmas; they rarely occur outside that period.
Whereas in the past there were many occasions for the zampognari to tour around: every important Christian Saint had a novena to be played, there were many pilgrimages to go on and there was no feast without them; nowadays, the zampognari act more like buskers and can be met playing on the beaches of some fashionable resorts in the summertime.
In central Italy, the zampognari usually play in duo. One plays the keyed zampogna and the other one the ciaramella or bifera, so that the former provides the accompainment to the latter that plays the melodies and often sings as well.
An interesting encounter with a couple of zampognari can be found in D.H. Lawrence's The Lost Girl
During a short period spent in the Comino Valley the English writer came across some zampognari performing a mysterious ritual on a cold winter morning. That was the year 1919. Lawrence and his mistress Frida were staying in Le Serre, near Picinisco in Ciociaria (central Italy), an area where many zampognari still come from.
Many composers have been inspired by the traditional music of the zampognari and besides Haendel, (Messiah), Bach (Christmas Oratorio) and Vivaldi, others like Anerio, Frescobaldi, Corelli, Kapsberger can be quoted.
H. Berlioz heard some of them in Rome and left a vivid description of this encounter in his Mémoires and their music inspired his Sérénade d'un montagnard des Abruzzes a sa maitresse - in Harold en Italie, Op. 16 - and above all a Sérénade agreste à la Madone which Berlioz wrote in 1844.
The ciaramella (also known as bifera or biffera), derives its name from calamus, a latin word denoting cane. There is a possible association with the Indian word sanayi (to be pronounced /shanái/) that is very close to the German Schalmei (shawm in English). Others have suggested the Indo-European kan, meaning cane as well as chant. Anyway, the ciaramella is a sort of primitive oboe often made of olive wood and with a conical bore. It has a double reed which is directly mouthed.
The ciaramella has eight holes, a thumbhole and some (usually two) vent holes. Vent holes are useful for the tuning of the instrument. The zampognari have always a lump of beeswax to tune their instruments with. The length of a ciaramella depends on the zampogna it is to be played with. A standard ciaramella usually measures about 26-28 cm.