L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE A t r i c c h e b a l - l a c c h e l o o k s l i k e s o m e o n e t o o k t h r e e w o o d e n h a m - mers, stood them upright in a frame and decided that the best way to use them was …making music! T h e m i d d l e h a m m e r stays still, while the two on e i t h e r s i d e s w i n g i n w a r d and strike it, and little metal disks fixed to the wood jin- gle with every blow. Played well, the instrument pro- duces a rattling, clacking rhythm that can cut through singing and dancing without needing a single string or a d r u m s k i n . I t s n a m e , i n Neapolitan, is an imita- tion of the noise it makes, which seems only fair: it is d i f f i c u l t t o d e s c r i b e t h a t noise any other way. The three wooden shafts are joined at the bottom, while a second crosspiece h i g h e r u p k e e p s t h e t w o outer ones moving in the right direction and prevents them from swinging too far. To play the triccheballac- che, you take hold of the t w o m o v i n g h a n d l e s a n d strike their wooden heads against the fixed one in the middle, either together or alternately, depending on the rhythm you want. Each b l o w p r o d u c e s a s h a r p c l a c k , f o l l o w e d b y t h e metallic rattle of the disks, which continue jingling for a moment after the wood h a s s t r u c k . E x p e r i e n c e d players can also shake the instrument to set the disks r i n g i n g w i t h o u t b r i n g i n g the hammers fully together, and between the two move- ments they can get a sur- prising variety of sounds out of what is, after all, a f a i r l y s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d arrangement of wood and metal. H o w t h e i n s t r u m e n t looks depends very much on who made it and what it w a s i n t e n d e d f o r . S o m e t r i c c h e b a l l a c c h e a r e n o m o r e t h a n p l a i n w o o d e n shafts fitted with pieces of m e t a l , w h i l e o t h e r s a r e painted, carved and deco- r a t e d w i t h r i b b o n s o r rosettes. The Italian Min- istry of Culture's national c a t a l o g , f o r i n s t a n c e , includes an example made i n A m a l f i , w i t h r e d - a n d - white ribbons, metal flow- ers and burgundy-colored pompoms attached to the hammerheads, to show how c o m p l e x a n d c r e a t i v e i t s m a k i n g c a n b e c o m e . T h e decorations did nothing to improve the sound, natural- ly, but they made quite a difference when the instru- ment was carried through the streets in a procession, where being seen was just as important as being heard. F o r a l l t h a t e l a b o r a t e workmanship, though, the triccheballacche belonged to a family of instruments t h a t c o u l d b e m a d e f r o m i n e x p e n s i v e m a t e r i a l s , repaired by someone with a l i t t l e p r a c t i c a l s k i l l a n d played without years of for- mal training. Although the tricchebal- lacche is most closely asso- ciated with Naples, related instruments have long been used elsewhere in southern and central Italy, particular- ly during popular celebra- t i o n s a n d s t r e e t p e r f o r - mances. It was often played alongside other instruments t h a t m u s t h a v e s e e m e d equally peculiar to anyone unfamiliar with them: the putipù, also known as the c a c c a v e l l a , p r o d u c e s i t s deep, rather comical sound t h r o u g h a s t i c k r u b b e d a g a i n s t a m e m b r a n e stretched over a pot or simi- l a r r e s o n a t o r , w h i l e t h e scetavajasse uses a toothed wooden strip rubbed with another piece of wood, often with metal jingles added for g o o d m e a s u r e . N o n e o f t h e s e i n s t r u m e n t s w o r k s quite like the others, but played together they could p r o v i d e a l l t h e r h y t h m a group of singers or dancers needed, without requiring a n y t h i n g r e s e m b l i n g t h e i n s t r u m e n t s o f a c o n c e r t orchestra. And this is, in the end, the very reason they were so useful: because music per- formed in the street has to compete with people talk- i n g , f e e t m o v i n g a n d dancers who are not neces- sarily inclined to keep their enthusiasm under control. A s t r o n g , r e p e a t e d b e a t gives everyone something to follow, and the tricchebal- lacche is particularly good at providing one: by varying the speed and force of the blows, a player can empha- s i z e a p a r t i c u l a r a c c e n t , answer a singer or keep an entire group moving. It is h a r d l y t h e m o s t d e l i c a t e s o u n d i n t h e w o r l d , b u t then nobody ever brought three wooden hammers to a street celebration expecting the refinement of a violin! By the twentieth century, t h e t r i c c h e b a l l a c c h e h a d become familiar enough in Neapolitan festive culture t o a p p e a r i n i m a g e s p r o - m o t i n g t h e c e l e b r a t i o n s themselves. A poster pro- duced for the Piedigrotta festivities in 1958, now preserved in Italy's national cultural heritage catalog, s h o w s t h e i n s t r u m e n t alongside a tambourine, the B a y o f N a p l e s a n d f i r e - works, placing it among the recognizable symbols of an e v e n t c l o s e l y a s s o c i a t e d with Neapolitan songs and p u b l i c e n t e r t a i n m e n t . Another twentieth-century e x a m p l e , c a t a l o g e d i n Naples, is identified specifi- c a l l y w i t h d a n c e m u s i c , i n c l u d i n g t h e t a r a n t e l l a , which tells us something about the practical uses of an instrument that might otherwise seem little more than a curiosity. T h e T r i c c h e b a l l a c c h e : N a p l e s ' n o i s i e s t musical invention LUCA SIGNORINI California State License no. C-13951

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