ER GHETTO

Vegeu més avall dues vistes d'aquest mateix carrer uns anys abans (1860 i 1874), des de l'altra banda de l'arc que hi ha en primer terme, amb una pifferari sonant davant una imatge de la Madonna.

The Ghetto. Rome. Gravat de L. Aughe, 1874, Cassell, Petter & Galpin.

Er Ghetto 1860

LA BEFANA

THE BEFFANA, AN ITALIAN TWELFTH NIGHT CUSTOM

The Beffana is said to have been an old woman, who was busily employed in cleaning the house when the three kings were journeying to carry the treasures to be offered to the infant Saviour. On being called to see them pass by, she said she could not just then, as she was so busy sweeping the house, but she would be sure to see them as they went back. The kings however, as is well known, returned to their own country by another way; so the old woman is supposed to be ever since in a perpetual state of looking out for their coming, something after the manner of the legend of the wandering Jew. She is said to take great interest in the welfare of young children, and particularly of their good behaviour. Through most parts of Italy on the twelfth night the children are put to bed earlier than usual, and a stocking taken from each and put before the fire. In a short time there is a cry. " Ecco la Beffana!" and the children hurry out of bed, and rush to the chimney; when lo! in the stocking of each is a present, supposed to have been left by the Beffana, and proportioned in its value to the behaviour of the child during the past year. If any one has been unusually rebellious and incorrigible, behold! the stocking is full of ashes. This degrading and disappointing circumstance is generally greeted by a torrent of tears, and the little rebel is then told, if he or she will promise most faithfully to be better behaved for the future, the stocking shall be replaced, and perhaps the Beffana may rely on the promises of amendment, and leave some little present as she comes back. Accordingly the child is put to bed again, and in a short time the cry is again raised, "Here's the Beffana," and the child jumps up, runs to the stocking, and finds some little to there, which of course the parents have placed there in the interim. Any misbehaviour during the following year is met with, "Oh! you naughty child, what did you promise on Epiphany? No more presents will you get from the Beffana." On the preceding night a sort of fair is held, consisting of the toys so to be presented, which is crowded to excess. On one occasion when I witnessed it at Rome, the soldiers were sent for to clear the way, as the people got so closely packed there was no means of getting about. The interest excited could scarcely be believed in England.—From Notes and Queries.

(The Spectator, 28/1/1860, pàg. 6)

Fà la befana. Tradizionali dono di regali in occasione dell'Epifania. La ricorrenza della Befana è celebrata a Roma nella notte tra il 5 e il 6 di gennaio, con festeggiamenti popolari, al suono di trombette di cartapesta, baldorie, gazzarre, che si svolgono in piazza Navona, centro di una fiera annuale che si apre il 15 diciembre e termina la sera del 6 gennaio. Nel corso della fiera, in una serie di baracchette provvisorie, si vendono, sino al Natale, le figurine ("li puppazzetti"), una volta di gesso, oggi di plastica, per la raffigurazione del Presepe e, successivamente, dolciumi e giocattoli, regali tradizionali che è, o meglio era, uso far trovare ai bambini la mattina del 6 gennaio, facendo loro credere che si tratta di doni portati durante la notte dalla Befana, raffigurata, nella fantasia popolare, da una donna vecchissima, dal naso adunco e dalla bazza sporgente, che viaggia per il cielo a cavallo di una scopa, con un sacco pieno di done sulle spalle. I doni sono posti in una calza che il bambino, prima di andare al letto, appende ad un appiglio (una volta, al camino, lungo la cui cappa la Befana sarebbe discesa, cosa che non sarebbe al presente più in grado di fare non potendo passare entro le tubazioni dei termosifoni) per ritrovarla, al matino, ricolma di regali e dolciumi e, talora, pezzi di carbone destinati ai bambini che sono stati cattivi.

(Dizionario romanesco, Fernando Ravaro, Roma 2010, Newton Compton editori)

2096 (2062). PASQUA BBEFANIA
LA NOTTE DE PASQUA BBEFANIA

Mamma! mamma! - Dormite. - Io nun ho ssonno. -
Fate dormì cchi ll'ha, ssor demonietto. -
Mamma, me vojj'arzà. - Ggiù, stamo a lletto. -
Nun ce posso stà ppiù; cqui mme sprofonno. -
Io nun ve vesto. - E io mó cchiamo nonno. -
Ma nun è ggiorno. - E cche mm'avevio detto
Che cciamancava poco? Ebbè? vv'aspetto? -
Auffa li meloni e nnu' li vonno! -
Mamma, guardat'un po' ssi cce se vede? -
Ma tte dico cch'è nnotte. - Ajo! - Ch'è stato? -
Oh ddio mio!, m'ha ppijjato un granchio a un piede. -
Via, statte zzitto, mó attizzo er lumino. -
Sì, eppoi vedete un po' cche mm'ha pportato
La bbefana a la cappa der cammino.

6 gennaio 1845

2097 (2063). PASQUA BBEFANIA
LA MATINA DE PASQUA BBEFANIA

Ber vede è da per tutto sti fonghetti,
Sti mammocci, sti furbi sciumachelli,
Fra 'na bbattajjeria de ggiucarelli
Zompettà come spiriti folletti!
Arlecchini, trommette, purcinelli,
Cavallucci, ssediole, sciufoletti,
Carrettini, cuccù, schioppi, coccetti,
Sciabbole, bbarrettoni, tammurrelli...
Questo porta la cotta e la sottana,
Quello è vvistito in càmiscio e ppianeta,
E cquel'antro è uffizzial de la bbefana.
E intanto, o pprete, o cchirico, o uffizziale,
La robba dorce je tira le deta;
E mmamma strilla che ffinissce male.

6 gennaio 1845



(Giuseppe Gioachino Belli Poesie Romanesche - Libreria dello Stato 1988-1993)

Grazie a: I sonetti di Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, 
http://www.ggbellimosetti.altervista.org/TESTI/elenco_sonetti.htm

PIFFERARI A ROMA

Pifferari als voltants de Roma, 1836. Italie pittoresque, París, chez Amable Cortes Editeur, 1836-1837. Col·lecció de gravats antics de l'autor del blog.

Pifferari a Roma, gravat de l'Illustrirte Zeitung, Leipzig, 22/12/1855. Col·lecció de gravats antics de l'autor del blog. 

 "J’ai remarqué seulement à Rome une musique instrumentale populaire que je penche fort à regarder comme un reste de l’antiquité : je veux parler des pifferari. On appelle ainsi des musiciens ambulants, qui, aux approches de Noël, descendent des montagnes par groupes de quatre ou cinq, et viennent, armés de musettes et de pifferi (espèce de hautbois), donner de pieux concerts devant les images de la madone. Ils sont, pour l’ordinaire, couverts d’amples manteaux de drap brun, portent le chapeau pointu dont se coiffent les brigands, et tout leur extérieur est empreint d’une certaine sauvagerie mystique pleine d’originalité. J’ai passé des heures entières à les contempler dans les rues de Rome, la tête légèrement penchée sur l’épaule, les yeux brillants de la foi la plus vive, fixant un regard de pieux amour sur la sainte madone, presque aussi immobiles que l’image qu’ils adoraient. La musette, secondée d’un grand piffero soufflant la basse, fait entendre une harmonie de deux ou trois notes, sur laquelle un piffero de moyenne longueur exécute la mélodie ; puis, au-dessus de tout cela, deux petits pifferi très-courts, joués par des enfants de douze à quinze ans, tremblotent trilles et cadences, et inondent la rustique chanson d’une pluie de bizarres ornements. Après de gais et réjouissants refrains, fort longtemps répétés, une prière lente, grave, d’une onction toute patriarcale, vient dignement terminer la naïve symphonie. Cet air a été gravé dans plusieurs recueils napolitains, je m’abstiens en conséquence de le reproduire ici. De près, le son est si fort qu’on peut à peine le supporter ; mais à un certain éloignement, ce singulier orchestre produit un effet auquel peu de personnes restent insensibles. J’ai entendu ensuite les pifferari chez eux, et si je les avais trouvés si remarquables à Rome, combien l’émotion que j’en reçus fut plus vive dans les montagnes sauvages des Abruzzes, où mon humeur vagabonde m’avait conduit ! Des roches volcaniques, de noires forêts de sapins formaient la décoration naturelle et le complément de cette musique primitive. Quant à cela venait encore se joindre l’aspect d’un de ces monuments mystérieux d’un autre âge connus sous le nom de murs cyclopéens, et quelques bergers revêtus d’une peau de mouton brute, avec la toison entière en dehors (costume des pâtres de la Sabine), je pouvais me croire contemporain des anciens peuples au milieu desquels vint s’installer jadis Évandre l’Arcadien, l’hôte généreux d’Énée." 

(Hector Berlioz, Mémoires, I, 240-241)


"The only music that struck me in Rome is a form of popular instrumental music which I am rather inclined to think is a survival from antiquity – I mean the pifferari. That is the name they give to wandering musicians who as Christmas approaches come down from the mountains in groups of four or five. Equipped with bagpipes and pifferi (a kind of oboe), they come to perform devout concerts in front of images of the Madonna. They usually wear broad coats of brown cloth, and the same pointed hats worn by brigands; their appearance has a kind of wild mysticism which is full of originality. I have spent hours watching them in the streets of Rome, their heads slightly inclined over the shoulder, their eyes blazing with the most intense faith, their gaze fixed with pious love on the holy Madonna, almost as still as the image they are worshipping. The bagpipe, supported by a large piffero which sounds the bass, plays a harmony of two or three notes, over which a medium length piffero performs the melody. Then on top of it all two small and very short pifferi, played by children of 12 to 15 years, rain down trills and cadences and bathe the rustic melody with a cascade of exotic ornaments. After cheerful and jolly tunes which are repeated at great length, a slow and solemn prayer, full of patriarchal warmth, brings the naive symphony to a worthy conclusion... Heard at close quarters the sound is so loud as to be almost unbearable; but heard from a certain distance this strange orchestra has an impact which leaves few unmoved. I then heard the pifferari on their home ground, and while I had found them remarkable in Rome, once in the wild Abruzzi mountains, where my wandering fancy had taken me, I was moved by them even more."

(Traducció a l'anglés: The Hector Berlioz Website, "Berlioz in Italy. The Abruzzi Mountains and the Pifferari.". http://www.hberlioz.com/Italy/abruzzi.htm)

Er Ghetto 1860

The Ghetto. Rome. Gravat de L. Aughe, 1874, Cassell, Petter & Galpin. Col·lecció de gravats antics de l'autor del blog.

Le Pèlerin. Revue illustrée de la semaine. Núm. 2494, 11 de gener de 1925. Col·lecció de gravats antics de l'autor del blog.

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Els pifferari baixen en colla des dels Abruzzi fins a Nàpols per a pidolar durant la Setmana Santa. Le monde illustré, 26 de març de 1864. Col·lecció de gravats antics de l'autor del blog.