By Francesco Tirinato - Jump Team
Traditional Calabrian music is rooted in sounds and dances that for centuries have marked moments and anniversaries in the life of local communities.
Fortunately, there are a number of places scattered throughout the region that make it possible to explore and learn in detail about the origin and importance of the most traditional musical instruments still used in Calabria.
This is the case of the Museum of Instruments and Popular Music of Calabria, located in Isca sullo Ionio (a small town in the province of Catanzaro), and housed in the “Antonio Procopio” Conservatory of Popular Music of Calabria.
Here you will find a collection of almost 80 musical instruments, meticulously described through a very accurate iconographic path.
This is a vast cultural heritage linked to every area of Calabria.
Visitors and all enthusiasts will be able to take a “journey” through the historical reconstruction of traditional musical instruments through evocative photographs depicting famous Calabrian musicians, and above all by admiring a large collection divided into four sections: aerophones, chordophones, membranophones and idiophones.
Some examples of typical Calabrian musical instruments on display in the museum:
“Particularly important are the library and media library, with a vast catalogue compiled over some 20 years of field research, with extensive documentation on traditional festivals, rituals, music, musicians and instruments. The archive is divided into the audio section, with about 200 hours of recordings; video, with about 100 hours; and photos, with over 120,000 images.
This museum, managed directly by ARPA, a group of cooperatives, associations and private bodies operating in Calabria, is therefore an important place for the dissemination of traditional Calabrian music, which here (as in other structures scattered throughout the region) continues to be preserved and disseminated.
Sources and photos by:
https://www.beniculturali.it/luogo/museo-degli-strumenti-della-musica-popolare-calabrese
https://viaggiart.com/isca-sullo-ionio/museo/14852/museo-e-conservatorio-di-musica-popolare-della-calabria.html
https://www.wikiwand.com/it/Musica_della_Calabria#/google_vignette
https://www.emvdigangi.it/tamburelli.html
https://www.calabriainforma.it/arte-e-cultura/2020/12/19/catanzaro-quandu-na-vota-cerano-i-cerameddhi/28127/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/842707
Calabria cultural heritage Calabria museum music musicalisntruments