Vitti na crozza - Sicilian traditional song

[alfstone]

Together with "Ciuri ciuri", "Vitti na crozza" (I saw a skull) is surely the most popular Sicilian folk song.

It's an anti-war song (the skull is of an executed man during a war), and its story is rather strange. In fact, even if there are several opinions that its lyrics come from traditional verses in Sicilian dialect, the tune was composed in 1950 by the Sicilian composer Franco Li Causi for a movie by the great neorealist filmmaker Pietro Germi, "Il Cammino della Speranza" ("Path of Hope" in English):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_Hope

The first recordings of "Vitti na crozza" were made in the first half of the Fifties.

Here are the Sicilian lyrics:

Vitti na crozza supra nu cannuni
fui curiuso e ci vosi parrari
idda m'arrispunniu cun gran duluri
murivi senza tocco di campani

Si nni eru si nni eru li me anni
si nni eru si nni eru un sacciu unni
ora ca su arrivato a ottant'anni
chiamu la vita e a morte m'arrispunni

C'è nu giardinu ammenzu di lu mari
tuttu ntenutu di aranci e ciuri
puru l'aceddi nci vannu a cantari
e li sireni nci fannu all'amuri

And here is the English translation:

I SAW A SKULL
I saw a skull on a cannon/
I was curious and so I  started to question it /
It answered with great sorrow/
"I died without the toll of a bell"/

They have all gone,my years have all gone/
They have gone but I don't know where/
Now that I have reached eighty years,
I call for life but death replies/

There is a garden in the middle of the sea/
Full of oranges and flowers/
The birds go there too, to sing/
And the mermaids go there to make love/

***

Guitars & (for ONCE only) vocals: Alfredo.
Piano & harmonica: BIAB

[Oldrottenhead]

(for ONCE only) vocals: Alfredo.

bravo alfredo great song and great to hear you singing, i hope it's not the only time we hear you sing.

[cuthbert]

(for ONCE only) vocals: Alfredo.

bravo alfredo great song and great to hear you singing, i hope it's not the only time we hear you sing.

I agree - this is wonderful. You should sing more, Alfredo!

[Tony W]

amazing Alfredo. I'm so glad to hear you sing! I would have never guessed that harp wasn't organic. This is a very classy post.

[OsCKilO]

WONDERFUL!!!!


I love your voice man!

[alfstone]

amazing Alfredo. I'm so glad to hear you sing! I would have never guessed that harp wasn't organic. This is a very classy post.

Thanks everybody!  The funny thing is that I have absolutely no problem at playing, but I am terribly shy if I try to sing...since my voice to my ears sounds...well...there is surely something better...

BTW, Tony, there is a point to underline. That harp is absolutely organic, in fact it's played by a real musician. Yes, it's true: if you think about the "old" BIAB, well, forget it. Of course you may use it in the old manner, I mean making MIDI backing tracks, but since a couple of years you may use in alternative, or both together (with MIDI), something they call "Real Tracks". I don't know exactly how they did it, but in few words they made thousands of micro-phragments of REAL music, played live by REAL musicians, that I put over a chord sequence. Of course the results are never good at the first take, there is a lot to work over each track, but at the very end you may have something very interesting and more, "natural", since it's REAL music.

Ciao!
Alfredo

[The Gobi Desert Canoe Club]

This is lovely Alfredo and your voice is absolutely fine, you should sing more often............Willie

[maxit]

che bella questa canzone! what a beauty, I almost forgot it, in che lingua devo 'parrari' Italiano, english or dialetto? Un abbraccio!

[alfstone]

che bella questa canzone! what a beauty, I almost forgot it, in che lingua devo 'parrari' Italiano, english or dialetto? Un abbraccio!

Uè, paisà, grazie assai!!! 

Alfredo