Having started my research project in March, I could not but document the use of sounding objects during Lent and the Holy Week. In fact, in many villages in Calabria, the Lent and Holy Week celebrations include various ritual sounds, often produced by instruments and objects that hold strong symbolic signification.
This is a short report of my documentation in Verbicaro, a village in the northern Tyrrhenian Calabria. I documented the rituals that occur in the night between Holy Thursday and Good Friday, and include the “battenti” (flagellants), the wake in the church of San Giuseppe and the procession. In Verbicaro, a group of hooded members of the Brotherhood of San Giuseppe lead the night procession playing four types of instruments: a drum, a “trucculedda”, a “raganella” and two “trummette”.
The sound component of the procession is very pervasive. The hooded group plays non-stop during the over five hours of the procession, alternating instruments in a call-and-response fashion. The sound resonates in the narrow alley of Verbicaro and can be heard from afar. It is a powerful performance that permeates the soundscape of Verbicaro.
