L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE T h e s c a r t o c - c i a t u r a w a s one of those jobs t h a t , i n t h e M a r c h e , w a s n e v e r d o n e i n s o l i t u d e . F a m i l i e s a n d n e i g h b o r s would sit together stripping t h e h u s k s f r o m t h e c o r n , often well into the evening. At some point (you can bet o n i t ! ) s o m e b o d y w o u l d b e g i n t o s i n g ; a w o m a n might take the first line, a man come in after her, and before long the two voices w o u l d m o v e a r o u n d e a c h o t h e r , s o m e t i m e s c l o s e e n o u g h t o s o u n d a l m o s t uncomfortable, then coming back together at the end of the phrase, with the answer- ing voice often doing the work of an instrument. This was the c a n t o a v a t o c c u , a f o r m o f t w o - p a r t s i n g i n g o n c e h e a r d across much of the Marche and especially associated with agricultural work. It belongs to a broader family of rural polyphonic tra- ditions found throughout t h e c e n t r a l A d r i a t i c a n d A p e n n i n e a r e a s . T h e M a r c h e , h o w e v e r , d e v e l - oped a particularly recog- nizable version of it, built o n t h e v e r y t e n s i o n a n d i n t e r a c t i o n b e t w e e n t w o i n d e p e n d e n t v o i c e s . O n e singer begins, and the other e n t e r s l a t e r , s o m e t i m e s repeating the line, some- times holding a note under- neath it, sometimes moving so close that the two pitches produce a beating effect. The result can sound rough to ears accustomed to choir singing, but this roughness belongs to the vatoccu style itself. Gastone Pietrucci, who spent years document- ing the traditional music of the region, described the form as discanto bivocale: two voices sharing the same song while retaining enough independence for the fric- t i o n b e t w e e n t h e m t o remain audible. The name vatoccu may come from the batacchio, t h e c l a p p e r o f a b e l l , because of the way in which one voice sounds and the o t h e r s t r i k e s b a c k , b u t Pietrucci also connected the term with the acoustic beats produced when two close pitches interfere with one another. The two explana- tions are not far apart, since both depend on the same p h y s i c a l i d e a o f s o u n d answering sound, so vatoc- cu can fit pretty well both interpretations. C a n t o a v a t o c c u w a s w i d e l y p r a c t i c e d i n t h e Marche, although it was not sung during every kind of work. It belonged mainly to jobs that kept people occu- p i e d t o g e t h e r f o r h o u r s , sometimes for entire days, and recordings and inter- views collected in the region d u r i n g t h e 1 9 7 0 s r e c a l l vatocchi being sung during the wheat harvest, haymak- ing, grape picking and corn husking. In Apiro, people r e m e m b e r e d m e n a n d w o m e n s i n g i n g b a c k a n d forth during both the har- vest and the scartocciatura, w h e n t h e h u s k s w e r e r e m o v e d f r o m t h e c o r n . Sometimes the singers were n o t e v e n w o r k i n g i n t h e s a m e f i e l d : o n e p e r s o n w o u l d b e g i n a v e r s e a n d someone in a neighboring field would answer, knowing e x a c t l y w h e n a n d h o w t o c o m e i n . N o b o d y n e e d e d formal lessons to learn the t e c h n i q u e , b e c a u s e t h e y w o u l d g r a d u a l l y b e c o m e familiar with the melodies and timing while growing u p : b y t h e t i m e s o m e o n e was ready to join in, much of what they needed to know had already been learned through years of listening and repetition. W h a t t h e y s a n g a b o u t , curiously, was often quite unrelated to the work they w e r e d o i n g . T h e v e r s e s could be romantic, mocking, argumentative, satirical or simply funny, because the stornello allowed people to flirt and compete with one a n o t h e r a n d o c c a s i o n a l l y say things they might have hesitated to express in an ordinary conversation. Men and women exchanged vers- e s t h a t c o u l d t u r n f r o m courtship to open challenge, while other songs poked fun at neighbors, local authori- ties or members of the cler- gy. The gradual disappear- ance of this tradition during the twentieth century was c l o s e l y c o n n e c t e d t o c h a n g e s i n a g r i c u l t u r a l w o r k : m e c h a n i z a t i o n reduced the number of peo- p l e n e e d e d i n t h e f i e l d s , jobs that had once occupied entire groups for days could be completed much faster, and some seasonal activities disappeared altogether. At the same time, people were leaving rural communities, and there were fewer oppor- t u n i t i e s f o r t h e k i n d o f spontaneous exchanges on w h i c h c a n t o a v a t o c c u d e p e n d e d . W h e n a s o n g requires someone else to answer, it becomes difficult to keep it alive if there is nobody nearby who knows the response. Fortunately, researchers began documenting the tra- dition while there were still p e o p l e w h o r e m e m b e r e d how it was sung: Pietrucci a n d D a r i o T o c c a c e l i recorded performances in s e v e r a l c o m m u n i t i e s , including Apiro, Montefano and Filottrano, often noting t h e s i n g e r s ' n a m e s , t h e dates and the circumstances o f e a c h r e c o r d i n g . T h o s e tapes are now preserved in t h e A r c h i v i o S o n o r o delle Marche, allowing us to hear the voices and the singing techniques of peo- ple who learned this tradi- tion through everyday life, long before anyone thought of recording it for posterity. A song made for two: the Marche's Canto a Vatoccu LUCA SIGNORINI California State License no. C-13951

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