Page 7 - VOLUME1-WORKSONGS

C. Have a heart the size of a hazelnut/I go searching for a beautiful girl/it doesn’t matter if
she’s very young/I will make her a mantle and a skirt/stockings as she wishes them/and shoes
with bells/I’ve been walking for three days /three days that I haven’t seen my betrothed/my
betrothed is angry with me/because she wants a dress of silk/and now that I’ve finished my
singing/it’s Nino Baggianu who’ll give me an answer/

Recorded:
1. A at Monroi, near Altavilla Milicia (Palermo), on December 2, 1972, by Maria Grazia
Torrisi.
1.B and 1.c at Bagheria (Palermo), on November 8 1970, by Elsa Guggino and Gaetano
Pagano.

7. SONGS OF THE TUNA FISHERS a - h

These accompany the fishing of tuna and are sung when the tuna are killed and hoisted into the
waiting boats.

These songs have been recorded partly during the actual fishing and partly during the course of
special recording sessions; in the first case precedence is given to the scientific exactness of the
document, and in the second, to better comprehend of the text. The documents recorded during
the actual fishing are marked with and asterisk (*). These are in the following order: a prayer on
board the muciara raisi (*) (the boat of the rais, which is recited in the moment in which the boat
leaves the port and heads towards the tonnara; cialoma and ignanzo (*); zza monac; cialoma (*);
gnanzo; mpugna ca zampugna; era affacciatea a lu barcuni (she was leaning over the balcony). A
transcription has been made of the first and last songs.

The subject matter of the cialoma usually consists of invocations to God and to the Saints,
recollections of dangerous encounters with pirates, and reference to various
episodes regarding fishing. The gnazo, with different rhythmic patterns, take up the same subject
matter. Za monaca and mpugna ca sampugna are clearly ambiguous in meaning. The final song is
interesting because of its reversal of the actual rapport between employer and worker. The
fishermen, in fact, exchange one for the other, describing various physical attributes and the
“daughter of the boss,” whom they finally reject.

Among the songs recorded during the fishing one can hear, in the midst of the shouts of the
fisherman, the orders given by the rais: the aisa (hoisting of the nets); the trasi (return to work);
the anguanta (to grab or stop); and the assumma (lowering of the nets).

a. A Salvo Regina to the Madonna of Trapani/…of the Rosary;…of Calvary;…to Saint
Teresa;…to the Madonna of Fatima; a pater noster to the Patriarch San Giuseppe;…to San
Francesco of Paola;…to the Sacred Heat of Jesus;…to Saint Anthony;…to Saint Peter that he
pray for an abundant haul, (everybody) so be the will of God; requiem eternam, Holy Creator, for
our dead.

b.-c.-d. Cialoma, gnanzo, zza monaca (recorded during the fishing).

e. Aiamola and go ahead/aiamola aiamola (thrice) Jesus Christ and the Saints/aiamola aiamola
(thrice)/who created the moon and the sun/aiamola (thrice)/aiamola (thrice)/who created all the
peole/aiamola (thrice)/Holy Birth giving Virgin/aiamola aiamola…

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