THE SONGS OF THE PASSION

POPULAR FAITH OF HOLY WEEK

by Luciano Troiano

WEDNESDAY 16 APRIL 2025 – 8.30 PM – BORGO CASE TROIANO (motorization area – PE)

Info. 331/6796820 – www.fontevecchia.org

In few places in Abruzzo the song of the Passion remains, brought to homes, villages and the countryside, in the first days of Holy Week. The event on Wednesday 16 April 2025 in Borgo Case Troiano is made possible thanks to the collaboration between the Fontevecchia Association of Spoltore (Pe), the Cantori of the Grotta and S. Anna districts of Chieti and the Beato Marco d'Aviano Association.

In other regions the singing of the Passion is also a tradition, it was also performed on Sundays of Lent and the singers, at the end of the song, were sometimes asked to perform other religious pieces.

It is an event of popular music that aims to evoke the traditions and songs of almsgiving, bringing to light the archaic link between faith and culture.

Completely improvised groups, made up of peasants, laborers and women of the people, went to the houses singing the long Calvary of Christ until his resurrection.

Eggs, Easter pizzas but above all the typical dessert "Lu Castelle" (ancestor of the Easter egg soaked in local cooked wine), were the most common gifts that "Li Passijunire" received at the end of Christmas carols.

In particular, the eggs received as a gift from the host are an exquisitely Easter food because they indicate rebirth, God's embrace with man, the reconciliation between heaven and earth and, above all, an apotropaic symbol of cosmogony and birth from which the universe with its vital forces originates.

The Songs of the Passijòne are paraliturgical religious songs. Their archaic nature emerges from the presence of melodic trends rich in melismatic decorations, that is, from the loading of a set of more or less wide and intense notes on a single textual syllable. The result is a style that refers to the sources of late-medieval penitential devotion. These ancient narrative songs, which represent the forms of worship in which the background of pagan rites and conceptions re-emerges, draw inspiration from the hagiographic and moralizing legends of the Middle Ages or from the Bible and the apocryphal gospels. Almost all the prayers performed have a unique melodic structure that is repeated for each of them: this practice has facilitated the learning of long narrative texts.

The songs evoke the hours of the Passion, with the memory of the salient moments of the last twenty-four hours of Christ's life. The singers were accompanied by the two-tone accordion and the triangle, sometimes by the bagpipes. " Lu rellogge della passijone " is one of the songs most adaptable to diatonic instruments such as the accordion. Perhaps this is why he is one of the most listened to during almsgiving: "At five o'clock in the garden Lu buon Gesù ca jò At six o'clock he went from the eternal father to the King of heaven...... At twenty-four o'clock Jesus went to the tomb only for love of us, he saved us all."

No less important are the Laments of Mary, commonly called "the sclame of the Madonna", in which the deep sorrow of the Mother for the death of her dear Son is highlighted: "O fijie fijie me tu mi lasciatePe salvà lu monne mi 'bbandunate... ".

For the people of the countryside, the day of the Songs of the Passijòne was different from the others of Holy Week: the bells were tied and the search for the houses began with begging songs that narrated the Passion of Jesus Christ, from the betrayal of Judas Iscariot to the Resurrection. At the Gloria of the solemn Mass the bells are rung, from this moment the normal operation of the Gloria resumes on the evening of Holy Saturday.

The elders combined the silence of the bells with a very tiring fast "Lu trapasse" which, done for seven consecutive years, so says the religious belief, has the power to eternally purify a dear soul in Purgatory. During these days of silence, the parish priest instructed the young people of the place to go around the streets of the town with the classic popular instrument, lu ciuccule, instead of bells, to announce the various religious functions.

The history and diffusion of the Canti della Passijone are handed down orally, from generation to generation, in the various centers of southern Italy. Some of these songs come from Monte Cassino and are up to a thousand years old. Some, initially, were performed in Gregorian chant and have been transformed over the centuries. This custom affected the whole region and was widespread in every district, on Holy Tuesday and Wednesday, when the Christian drama reached its climax. For Abruzzo it originated from the common religious sentiment, with its roots in the painful Gospel story.

In the rural districts, in these days, popular singers accompanied by a few musical instruments, moved to the villages, to isolated houses to sing the songs of the Passijòne. It was almost a religious rite: in a society deeply permeated by the Christian experience, the theme was dictated by the liturgical deadline that culminated with the death of Jesus and, around the small group of musicians, women, children, men gathered in a circle, and all in silence listened to the words in song that narrated the dramatic events of the flagellation,of the journey to Calvary, of the crucifixion, of the death of Jesus and evoked the excruciating pain of Madonna.Il group was made up of a few people who, to the sound of the accordion or the accordion that accompanied the singers, moved from house to house, stopping in the hallway, at the foot of the stairs, in front of the stable, wherever there was a space frequented by the neighborhood. Imagine how in the most complete darkness that has characterized the past centuries, in the evening, this small group of singers approached a country house, illuminating the path with a few torches, intoning these melodies that became, as they approached, louder and louder. In the end, as mentioned, the singers were offered food, a traditional greeting and moved to another house.

Sources: Sound Archive, Silvestre Background The Songs of the Passion of Christ, Penne's Aria The Song of the Passion, Santino Verna Lu Giuviddì Sante di don Donatangelo Lupinetti, Archivio del Folklore Italiano, Rai Teche.