If you are a music passionate or simply want to discover local traditions and folklore, come to Molise to experience them both!
In the Upper Valley of the Volturno River, there is a small village where the ancient handicraft techniques and melodies have been preserved from centuries. Here, the art of the bagpipes is still alive and it echoes in the beautiful borgo of Scapoli.
Persevarance and passion are the keywords for the many craftmen of Scapoli, who constanlty renew and save the unmatched rite of producing bagpipes. “Zampogna” is the Italian name for the traditional instrument used in the past by the shepherds during transhumance.
If “modernity” probably for economic reasons, has imposed on us from West to East some models, stereotypes that would make us a little less different and yet all the same, certain passions, cults and rituals, instead, subversively bring us back out of the box, far from the massification of values and emotions.
This is also a form of revolution. Don’t you think so?
Despite the stifling heat or just sheltered from some mischievous rain, when we first met Guido Iannetta blowing for hours, for days the bagpipe, we exactly understood how this tradition and this instrument survived to the present days with an amazing vigour.
What we felt was a pure joy. Without his and many others’ joy, all this would not have been possible.
In a world full of chaos and unpredictable events, we all feel to lose hope and forget life’s little pleasures. However, when Guido walked away with his faithful friend on his shoulder,nothing else mattered. Whether it is a jaunty tarantella, or the solemn prayer of a novena, that music can only express joy.
Bagpiper since the age of 10, Guido has approached this ancestral instrument in the artisan workshops of Scapoli, considered by many one of Europe’s capitals of bag aerophones.
Forty of the six hundred inhabitants of village still play bagpipes and shawms. A great result for a tiny village!
A real oasis of pipers: there are some firmly bound to tradition, others projected into the future and experimentation. What about Guido? He acts as a glue between the past, present and the future, embracing different musical languages, but always with the feet firmly on the ground of tradition.
An active and generous musician, friendly and extrovert man, he has become over the years a point of reference and a character in the world of the bagpipe and traditional music of Molise.
A life of meetings, friendships, travel, conventions and sometimes booze! Guido remembers and recounts with particular tenderness that in less than a month, he prepared (from scratch) his grandchildren to perform on RAI during The Zecchino d’Oro episode, after a special invitation for two small budding bagpipers.
It’s all about affection and pride.
If you ask him what the bagpipe means to him, he will probably answer “An instrument that never ceases to surprise, fascinate and renew” but we have reasons to believe that it’s much more than that.
Come and visit us. Stop in Scapoli, the last weekend in July, during the Festival and the bagpipe market-exhibition, or in any day. Ask for Guido. Hospitality and joy are still his and our trademark. What are you waiting for contact us for a tailor-made travel experience with Guido and IVO Team!
Want to discover more about Scapoli and the bagpipes? Click here