1.TARANTELLA
The Tarantella Dance music is probably the most recognized song of all
the Italian folklore music. It literally means "tarantula" because the dance
is done buy everyone in a great big circle going clockwise, until the music
in the set changes, becomes faster, then they quickly change the direction
to counterclockwise, this continues several times and is fun to see who
keeps up. You can see this dance at authentic Italian weddings, is often
the theme song of many restaurants and pizzerias, can even be heard in
The Godfather movie and the CBS sitcom "That's Life".
Generally played with a strong mandolin (Italian guitar) presence, each
region has its own version. For example the most popular version you will
undoubtedly hear most frequently is the Napoletana verson (that from the
region of Naples).
THE ORIGIN OF TARANTELLA
The ancient Neapolitan dance TARANTELLA takes its name from
“TARANTA”.
A legend tells that “TARANTA” was a BIG SPIDER that lived in the
Maditerranean countries and in the Greek
colonies in the South of Italy. With this dance people wanted to
chase away the strong pain for the poisonous
sting of a legendary spider called “TARANTA”.
So it was like a THERAPHY against the pain with long and fast
movements. Problably this theraphy ,recognized
in the Greek colony,TARANTO, in South of Italy,came from Greece.
It is was magical rite,like in Mediterranean
places ,against natural enemies that are symbol of evel or pain:
spiders in Italy,snakes and scorpions in Spain or
other countries.
But in the XVIII and XIX centuries TARANTELLA became a romantic
and joyful dance among young men and
women ,playing Neapolitan drums “TAMBURELLI”. In Naples it was
danced in the Royal Palace for Kings and
Queens but Neapolitan Tarantella was also the most popular
dance in all festivities and festivals in the
South of Italy.
2.SCIARACULE –MARACULE
This dance comes from the Italian region FRIULI,in the North of
Italy.
The dance was composed in the XVI century by MAINIERO, a
musician for religious and classical music. He wrote
a book around 21 dances and for this reason was under suspicion
for magical rites and denounced to the
Church.
SCIARACULE –MARACULE is an agricoltural rite to obtain a good
harvest. Women come around a walnut-tree,
repeating a melody just with voices ,without music. Then they go
to a river to dip the plough ‘s point in the
water. The rite is long and MANIERO tells that he saw this dance
with a priest and then he wrote the music and
movements in his book.
From the region FRIULI the dance started to spreed to Venice and
other European countries