Oral and linguistic expressions
Pastoral songs
Improvised verse in Montereale
“I want to sing a verse in terza rima, for my passion calls me to it, to celebrate the lofty peaks of the mountains / I want to sing a more concrete verse, and I hope it will please those who listen and reveal an intimate secret. And now I shape a song in quatrains, a form once used in this area, a practice of these mountains and hills, whose echo still resounds in certain places. I close in terza rima, a form much loved, and here one sings well when there is no wind / to sing in tercets truly, we need an instrument that resonates, and so we go on from evening to morning.”
It is an interweaving of tercets and quatrains that the improvising poet Marcello Patrizi explores as an example of poetic art. He does so after recalling his ancestors — shepherds and refined poets — from whom he inherited a love of words, along with a deep attachment to the practice of extemporaneous poetry.
It is an interweaving of tercets and quatrains that the improvising poet Marcello Patrizi explores as an example of poetic art. He does so after recalling his ancestors — shepherds and refined poets — from whom he inherited a love of words, along with a deep attachment to the practice of extemporaneous poetry.
“The improvising singer does not strain to find rhymes or count the syllables of each line. Their diction is inseparable from the melody. It is often assonance that guides the creation of the octave, and it is also the eager and attentive audience who, sharing with the poet the beauty of the subject, almost helps them to anticipate or avoid mistakes”.
Romolo Trinchieri, 1959
Across the wide territory of Montereale, dotted with numerous hamlets — also known locally as “ville” — on the border with the province of Rieti and the areas of Campotosto, Mascioni and Poggio Cancelli, the use of improvised octaves, quatrains and tercets still survives today in residual forms: a poetic art that once marked the lives of transhumant shepherds. Self-taught and devoted to reading and memorisation, these shepherds drew on epic and chivalric poetry — from the Iliad and the Odyssey to the Aeneid, from Orlando Furioso to Orlando Innamorato, from Jerusalem Delivered to the cycle of the paladins of France — with a particular attraction to the Divine Comedy, the Bible, and the so-called “Book of Maccarone” (La Pastoral Siringa by Angelo Felice Maccheroni). Shepherds in central Italy have long cultivated the art of poetic improvisation. Homer, Ariosto and Boiardo, Tasso, Dante and Tassoni, along with many lesser poets collected in anthologies passed from hand to hand, formed for centuries their daily companionship during long days spent with animals on the high plateaus.
The ottava rima is the most complex form, structured as a sequence of hendecasyllabic lines: six in alternating rhyme followed by a closing couplet in rhyming pairs, according to the metrical scheme ABABABCC. The next improviser takes the final line up to generate a new sequence, which in turn develops the thematic thread, giving rise to true poetic dialogues or contests in rhyme.
Marcello Patrizi of Montereale — a teacher and descendant of a family of farmers and shepherds — is a distinguished representative of this ancient tradition. He learned it at home from his uncle and grandfather, both passionate shepherds, writers and self-taught poets who practised improvisation and were part of the refined milieu of singers performing a braccio. Patrizi describes a pastoral world populated by poets driven by an “insatiable hunger” for knowledge and a deep love of poetry, engaged in a form of spontaneous learning that passed through the great classics and, as in the case of his grandfather, extended to foundational works such as La Pastoral Siringa by Maccheroni or to the refined style of Giacomo Barberini in Il magnifico fonte di Albaneto, ovvero la patria istoria, which he particularly admired. A friend of renowned poets such as Donato Sciarra of Poggio Cancelli, Rinaldo Adriani of Mascioni and Berardino Perilli of Campotosto, his grandfather also published a poem on the life of the shepherd on vinyl, in which he recounted in verse the hardships and disillusionments, but also the joyful moments, of a demanding occupation.
From this fertile background, Marcello Patrizi absorbed from an early age the rhythm of poetic composition — the first essential element in the formation of a poet — necessary to grasp the measure of the hendecasyllabic line, together with the musicality of ottava rima and a valuable repertoire of style and verses. This path gradually led him from playful exchanges within the family to informal gatherings among poets from near and far, and eventually to public evenings and competitions of improvisation a braccio.
The ottava rima is the most complex form, structured as a sequence of hendecasyllabic lines: six in alternating rhyme followed by a closing couplet in rhyming pairs, according to the metrical scheme ABABABCC. The next improviser takes the final line up to generate a new sequence, which in turn develops the thematic thread, giving rise to true poetic dialogues or contests in rhyme.
Marcello Patrizi of Montereale — a teacher and descendant of a family of farmers and shepherds — is a distinguished representative of this ancient tradition. He learned it at home from his uncle and grandfather, both passionate shepherds, writers and self-taught poets who practised improvisation and were part of the refined milieu of singers performing a braccio. Patrizi describes a pastoral world populated by poets driven by an “insatiable hunger” for knowledge and a deep love of poetry, engaged in a form of spontaneous learning that passed through the great classics and, as in the case of his grandfather, extended to foundational works such as La Pastoral Siringa by Maccheroni or to the refined style of Giacomo Barberini in Il magnifico fonte di Albaneto, ovvero la patria istoria, which he particularly admired. A friend of renowned poets such as Donato Sciarra of Poggio Cancelli, Rinaldo Adriani of Mascioni and Berardino Perilli of Campotosto, his grandfather also published a poem on the life of the shepherd on vinyl, in which he recounted in verse the hardships and disillusionments, but also the joyful moments, of a demanding occupation.
From this fertile background, Marcello Patrizi absorbed from an early age the rhythm of poetic composition — the first essential element in the formation of a poet — necessary to grasp the measure of the hendecasyllabic line, together with the musicality of ottava rima and a valuable repertoire of style and verses. This path gradually led him from playful exchanges within the family to informal gatherings among poets from near and far, and eventually to public evenings and competitions of improvisation a braccio.
And I sing a tercet for Emanuele.
Marcello Patrizi, voice; Enrico Mariani, two-bass diatonic accordion.
Montereale (AQ), April 14, 2024.
Recording by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Montereale (AQ), April 14, 2024.
Recording by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Listen to the track
Watch the video
Here beside Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Marcello Patrizi improvises in ottava rima, dedicating part of his verses to the author of the recording.
Montereale (AQ), April 14, 2014.
Footage by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Montereale (AQ), April 14, 2014.
Footage by Emanuele Di Paolo,
Don Nicola Jobbi/Bambun Study Centre Archive.
Cultural transmission and protection
As Romolo Trinchieri recalls in his writings, it is precisely “in the mountains of the L’Aquila Apennines and in the evocative area of Montereale and its surroundings” that, within the pastoral milieu, “the ancient tradition of improvised singing has been preserved and continues to flourish”, forming a heritage of “pastoral songs” shared among shepherd-poets, both past and present, as he also noted in his well-known volume Life of Shepherds in the Roman Countryside (1953). The situation he described in the mid-twentieth century has, however, profoundly changed today, as the specific context that once sustained improvisational poetry has almost completely disappeared. Improvised singing in ottava rima, quatrains and tercets — performed solo or accompanied by instruments such as the zampogna zoppa (the so-called ciaramelle, still used in the Upper Sabina and Montereale area) and the two-bass diatonic accordion — was transmitted in the Montereale area up to the generation of Marcello Patrizi. Still, it is now difficult to foresee a possible continuity, above all due to the severe depopulation that has affected mountain communities over the past fifty years, a phenomenon further aggravated in recent times by the earthquake.
Marcello himself has fully embodied the continuity of improvised poetry with respect to his predecessors, having learned the art of improvisation mainly from his uncle and grandfather, but also through close contact with the many shepherds of the area and through the indirect transmission of their stories, which form an essential part of the knowledge base of an extemporaneous poet. In his view, the practice of improvised singing has survived more strongly in the northern part of the province of L’Aquila thanks to the spread of poetic competitions from the 1930s onwards, which created new occasions to practise and sustain this form of expression. In the Montereale area, one of the main figures behind the organisation of poetic competitions was Romolo Trinchieri himself, who conceived the idea of bringing back to their places of origin the contests traditionally held among improvising poets of different backgrounds during Roman festivities in Trastevere, such as the “Festa de’ Noantri”. Locally, the poetic evening gradually became the central and most eagerly awaited moment within patronal celebrations, offering poets not only the opportunity to perform publicly but also to meet regularly, exchange ideas and practise the art of improvisation.
The persistence of improvised singing between the Upper L’Aquila area and the Upper Sabina is closely linked to the continued use of the ciaramelle, a form of zampogna zoppa used to accompany poets during serenades for the bride. Marcello Patrizi highlights a valuable, though fragile, continuity in the use of this instrument in the Montereale area thanks to the passion of young people such as Enrico and Alessio Mariani, from the hamlet of Castiglione, who have renewed the tradition by carrying it into the present day.
A certain vitality of the poetic practice, cutting across different contexts, is currently sustained by groups of improvising poets from the areas of Bacugno and Cittareale, in the province of Rieti, who animate evenings and contests also in the neighbouring L’Aquila territory, such as the competition dedicated to the memory of Rinaldo Adriani, which every summer brings together improvisers from Abruzzo, Lazio and Tuscany in Mascioni. Similarly, poetic competitions are often organised in Castiglione di Montereale during the celebrations for Saint John the Baptist at the end of June. Marcello Patrizi himself has also taken part in further initiatives aimed at promoting improvised singing, including an event held in 2024 at the Chamber of Deputies in the Sala della Regina at Montecitorio.
Improvised poetry in central Italy has, moreover, been the subject of continuous ethnomusicological research since 1948, when Giorgio Nataletti, founder of the National Centre for the Study of Folk Music (later the Archives of Ethnomusicology), recorded in Rome one of the great twentieth-century masters of improvised poetry from the Upper L’Aquila area, the poet Donato Sciarra of Poggio Cancelli, who grazed his flocks in the Roman countryside near Marcello Patrizi’s grandfather.
Marcello himself has fully embodied the continuity of improvised poetry with respect to his predecessors, having learned the art of improvisation mainly from his uncle and grandfather, but also through close contact with the many shepherds of the area and through the indirect transmission of their stories, which form an essential part of the knowledge base of an extemporaneous poet. In his view, the practice of improvised singing has survived more strongly in the northern part of the province of L’Aquila thanks to the spread of poetic competitions from the 1930s onwards, which created new occasions to practise and sustain this form of expression. In the Montereale area, one of the main figures behind the organisation of poetic competitions was Romolo Trinchieri himself, who conceived the idea of bringing back to their places of origin the contests traditionally held among improvising poets of different backgrounds during Roman festivities in Trastevere, such as the “Festa de’ Noantri”. Locally, the poetic evening gradually became the central and most eagerly awaited moment within patronal celebrations, offering poets not only the opportunity to perform publicly but also to meet regularly, exchange ideas and practise the art of improvisation.
The persistence of improvised singing between the Upper L’Aquila area and the Upper Sabina is closely linked to the continued use of the ciaramelle, a form of zampogna zoppa used to accompany poets during serenades for the bride. Marcello Patrizi highlights a valuable, though fragile, continuity in the use of this instrument in the Montereale area thanks to the passion of young people such as Enrico and Alessio Mariani, from the hamlet of Castiglione, who have renewed the tradition by carrying it into the present day.
A certain vitality of the poetic practice, cutting across different contexts, is currently sustained by groups of improvising poets from the areas of Bacugno and Cittareale, in the province of Rieti, who animate evenings and contests also in the neighbouring L’Aquila territory, such as the competition dedicated to the memory of Rinaldo Adriani, which every summer brings together improvisers from Abruzzo, Lazio and Tuscany in Mascioni. Similarly, poetic competitions are often organised in Castiglione di Montereale during the celebrations for Saint John the Baptist at the end of June. Marcello Patrizi himself has also taken part in further initiatives aimed at promoting improvised singing, including an event held in 2024 at the Chamber of Deputies in the Sala della Regina at Montecitorio.
Improvised poetry in central Italy has, moreover, been the subject of continuous ethnomusicological research since 1948, when Giorgio Nataletti, founder of the National Centre for the Study of Folk Music (later the Archives of Ethnomusicology), recorded in Rome one of the great twentieth-century masters of improvised poetry from the Upper L’Aquila area, the poet Donato Sciarra of Poggio Cancelli, who grazed his flocks in the Roman countryside near Marcello Patrizi’s grandfather.
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