The Night of the Tammorra: Celebrating Southern Italian Folk Culture in Naples

The popular culture of Southern Italy, its community magic, musical and choreographic rituals become the manifesto of the 'Night of the Tammorra', a project promoted and financed by the municipality of Naples for 'Naples City of Music' and organized by the Santa Chiara Orchestra association with the artistic direction of musician and composer Carlo Faiello. For the 22nd edition, entitled 'Metropolis Folk', the event will bring together dozens of musicians, dancers, performers, and singers in Piazza Mercato. Two nights to live to the fullest, those of Friday 6 and Saturday 7 September, which assume the role of zenith in the research on traditions. 'With"The Night of the Tammorr" – declares Sergio Locoratolo, coordinator of cultural policies of the municipality of Naples – Piazza Mercato confirms itself as another center of the city, and the beating heart of a Naples that protects its history and its musical traditions and that, at the same time, looks to the future, promoting dialogue between different generations of artists and spectators. The beating heart of Naples that recognizes in music, and in culture, a fundamental tool for the growth of a community.' The protagonists of the opening night will be Ars Nova, Bagarjia Orkestar, and the Ensemble Notte della Tammorra with the participation of the vocal quartet Paese Mio Bello, Monica Sarnelli, and Antonio Onorato. While on Saturday, here is the music of Enzo Avitabile, debuting at this festival. 'This year too we managed to create a multiple and heterogeneous program,' reiterates Carlo Faiello. 'The focus of the 22nd edition is the transformation of music and popular singing in the transition from rural and suburban culture to the current era. The changes that the sound of the oral tradition has undergone in contact with the music generated in the Neapolitan metropolis.' 'Naples – observes Ferdinando Tozzi, the mayor's delegate for the music and audiovisual industry – has a tradition rich in sounds, songs, and dances, which must be protected and enhanced, even by reinterpreting it in the light of more current sounds. In line with the"Naples City of Musi" project, the 2024 edition of"The Night of the Tammorr" will start from the rites and rhythms of tradition to embrace the present and explore, through workshops, conferences, and performances, our musical identity and its future developments.' Conceived with the aim of enhancing and rediscovering Campanian music, dance, and traditional songs through their representation and contamination with different musical genres, the 'Night of the Tammorra' is a festival of music and popular culture conceived by Neapolitan composer and musicologist Carlo Faiello. The event has its origins in the ancient festival 'a Notte de’ Tammorre held for centuries in Comiziano, near Nola, during the Epiphany holiday. Carlo Faiello rediscovered and brought to light its ancient expressive codes at the end of the 90s when they had been removed from collective memory and gradually conceived an event in which dance, ritual, popular customs, music, and show find connection until they merge into a single creative performance in which nationally renowned artists perform together with old and historic exponents of the popular scene. On stage, the coexistence between professional musicians, expert singers, young drummers, virtuoso dancers, and ballerinas is generated and explodes. Tradition thus changes its forms but remains very much alive. And it confirms itself as one of the main matrices – archaic and contemporary – of Naples and its people. For the 22nd edition, moreover, Carlo Faiello has chosen to multiply the itineraries, thoughts, and proposals by expanding the contents to create a map of meetings that embrace the time span of 2-7 September. At this point, it is clear that the project expands to become the week of the tammorra, hosting many dance and drum workshops and some conversations on this precious sonic universe. From Monday 2 September in the church of Santa Croce e Purgatorio al Mercato, there will be free popular dance workshops curated by Mariagrazia Altieri. And on Thursday 5 September in the same church, the conference Metropolis Folk - Mother City will take place, which creates, welcomes, and returns. Vincenzo Esposito, professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Salerno, and Ugo Vuoso, from the Institute of Historical and Anthropological Studies, will speak. The moderator will be Franco Sorvillo, head of the Ceic - Campanian Ethnographic Center. With the participation of Renato Marengo, music critic and producer/author.