Italian Folk Music. Almost forgotten : The Brigata Pretolana.

They were poor and used spoons, thimbles, pots and brick stones to make the music to accompany their songs:

The “Brigata Pretolana” is a group of men from the tiny village Pretola on the Tiber river, 8 kilometres from Perugia in Umbria, Italy. After the war they sang about their daily live, about women, about wine. A simple life; women who washed the sheets for the city of Perugia on the hills. Men who worked on construction sites and dreamed about marrying one of the women.

Today this tradition lives on. Thanks to a new generation of young men – and one woman. They have found the old songs of the Brigata Pretola and made it even to the Monteverdi Festival in Venice.

This video shows the song: “Buonasera miei signori” ( Good evening, my “signori”) is taken inside the tower of Pretola, along the river. In the village where this Italian folk music group was born. They might look a little more serious today than their predecessors. But they still like the same music. And of course a nice glass of Italian wine.

We are happy these old traditions are kept alive.

ByItaly