Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

We have some evidence, however, that you may have to pay for the reeds.
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Ciarameddaru
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Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

Hi, I'm in the process of ordering an Italian Organetto with 4 bass keys and 9+4 treble keys from Della Noce company in Italy. I was wondering if anyone on these forums played this kind of music. One thing I have noticed here is that a lot of the 8 Button "Irish" accordions (http://buttonbox.com/instruments-in-stock.html#irish) are the same thing as the 8 bass Organetto and in fact made by Italian brands... I guess the only thing distinguishing them is the playing style. The Organetto is used almost exclusively for playing tarantellas from my experience with it. I have never even touched an Organetto before, but after seeing a lot of my musician friends in Italy playing them I got bit by the bug and really want to learn. I already play the Italian Zampogna (bagpipe) and it's essentially played very similarly to how they play the organetto from a rhythmic and melody standpoint. I just wanted to see if there were other Americans or English speakers out here on C&F that play tarantellas on the Organetto.

A Presto!!
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
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StevieJ
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by StevieJ »

You'll find a few organetto enthusiasts on this forum: http://forum.melodeon.net/

One or two people that used to post here have had one-and-a-half row organetti with the idea of playing Irish music on them. Try a search for Giustozzi or Castiglione in this forum.
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

I'm trying to deiced what tonality i want to get it in and am deciding between C and G. I believe that G is the more common tonality for this instrument and that might be my deciding factor so that I can play with others. However, I wanted to know what tonality had the LOWER pitch. I assume that would be C??? I tend to like lower pitched as opposed to higher pitched instruments. Also since I'll be playing this instrument in the US it seems that most diatonic instruments here tend to be tuned to C and that might be useful if I want to play with other diatonic instruments, but not useful if I take it to Italy.

But basically i want to know what would have a lower pitch DO or SOL????
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
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StevieJ
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by StevieJ »

Normally G would be lower, as in an Italian or French box in G/C.

(When the G row is in the upper octave - with the tonic the G above middle C - as on English-style D/G boxes, the top notes are in the acoustic range of dogs and bats.)

I have played a C/F box with a low C octave, but normally on a C row your tonic is middle C.

If you want more info. on these boxes you would do well to follow the link I gave you above and ask there. You could of course ask the manufacturers too. :)

Cheers
Steve
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

Thank you Stevie for you responses. I also sent a message to the guy in Italy but sometimes he takes a while to get back. Regarding inquiring on the other site, that would probably be prudent but that would require making another profile and another password etc and I'm already spread thin as to the number of forums I'm a part of. So I was hoping I could find my answers here first - it's the one stop shopping theory!

Thanks for you answer though it's good to know that G is lower than C.

David
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

I realize that this forum is mostly dedicated to Irish instruments, but for what it's worth I thought I would update this thread with my Organetto purchase. Today my organetto arrived from Italy. It is a Della Noce model Teramo seen here: http://www.dellanoce.com/organetti/visu ... 2&id_cat=1

It is in the key of G and has 4 bass buttons and 13 treble buttons (9+4). There are 3 reeds per not on the treble keys - 2 of the same pitch with one offset for the tremolo and then a third reed an octave lower. The lower octave reed can be shut off via a register pin you push in. I believe there are 2 reeds for each bass button note.

I payed extra to have BINCI "tipo a mano" reeds put in instead of the Super Durall which is standard. I don't have any basis for comparison, but the organ has a very rich beautiful tone. I don't know how to play it yet so all i'm doing at this point is making noise and getting used to the fingerboards.

I plan on using it to play tarantellas. If anyone is out there who plays the organetto feel free to contact me. I dont believe there are too many people in the US who play this sort of set up. And it doesn't surprise me because it was a lot of leg work to get it ordered and shipped here, and required my ability to speak Italian. But It was worth it :)
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
Don Roberts
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Don Roberts »

Congrats on your new organetto. The Italians make fine instruments, I have a Castagnari Dinn II and am really having fun with it. I am learning mostly Irish, French Canadian and Contra dance tunes so far.
Are you learning to play by ear or by reading the music ? I am wondering where you find the
Italian music suitable for the organetto ?
Any way good luck and have fun
America Dammit
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

Hi Don, thanks for your reply. I see you are not too far from KC. I play by ear and I am only playing italian folk music - tarantellas and waltzes, muzurkas etc. I believe that most italians learn the tunes by ear. The organtto style is more rhythmic based as opposed to melody driven music like that of the irish. I have a TON of italian orgentto music recordings. IN addition to that, type in "organetto" in youtube and you will get a million more videos. There are even instructional videos.

I'm not real familiar with the 8 button Castagnari, but I know that the Southern Italian organettos are set up in a specific way that I believe to be different than how they set the boxes up for Irish music. Just because a button box has an Italian name on the front of it doesnt mean that the reed/button set up is traditional for playing Italian music. Most southern Italian tunes can be played on 2 or 4 basses - but you can get an 8 bass set up to play similar to the 2 and 4 basses. The half inner row of buttons contains alternates of the outside buttons so you can play notes w/o having to change bellow directions. In Sardegna they play with 8 basses.

Since I've been playing Italian folk music on the two-chantered Italian bagpipe (zampogna) for the past 2 years, the Organetto is somewhat intuitive for me to learn. Today I played Italian folk music at the KC "Festa Italiana." People got a big kick out of it and they asked me to come play next year up on the stage. I wasn't sure how people to would respond to "real" Italian music - since most people are used to listening to "that's amore" and other obnoxious italian-american pop songs. But everyone liked it. The tarantella is infectious. :)
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
susi2
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by susi2 »

4 bass keys, that's not very common!!!
Hi btw, I'm another organetto player. I'm not learning very fast since I have a lot of other things to do, but I started out this summer and really love it. I have a Bompezzo D organetto that I bought used from England, and one Dino Baffetti C organetto that I bought in italy in August.
I aim at playing mainly Italian stuff on it, but I've learned a few Irish polkas as well on it, and you can play Old Joe Clark with the modal tone on it..:) Just that in the "more-than-two-chord-tunes" you'll have to leave out the bass part, so I try not to play other than 2-chord tunes on it, that's what it's made for after all.
Notice that the term organetto refers to the 2-bass one as far as I know, to separate it from other boxes. In Italian organetto simply means diatonic accordion and they refer to the 2-bass box as the due bassi (2 basses) or ddu botte (same thing in abruzzese dialect, I think it is).

However, the most fun instrument I've ever played!!!!
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

Hi Susi2,
Good to hear that you're enjoying learning this instrument. I've come a long way with it since I began playing last spring. Are you Italian-American? What got you interested in the orgenetto? I'm just curious as I'm still baffled by the fact that in a country with so many Italian-Americans- I am having such a difficult time finding people that play this amazing instrument. Where are you located?

Also- the term organetto applies to any small sized button accordion, not just two bass versions. And yes, the term "due botte" is used to refer to the 2 bass versions. The 4 bass version is identical to the two bass except that it plays the 4th on the draw on the lower two bass buttons - which then play the 1st again on the push, except with an added third in the chord. Also there is one more alternate button on the inner row.
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
Ciarameddaru
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Re: Anyone play the Italian Organetto??

Post by Ciarameddaru »

Below are a couple of "behind the scenes" clips from the filming of my documentary feature film, Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy.
The link to the film's trailer is in my signature. While the documentary is principally about zampognas, when one searches for zampognas they are likely to encounter organettos as well :)

Both clips filmed in Catanzaro in Southern Calabria in Summer 2008.

Principe playing organetto and singing. They told me that this organetto was over 100 years old. Still sounds and plays great. I love this clip and regretted not being able to put it in the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omFlshHtlM0

Chiarella Domenico on the organetto with percussion accompaniment. This guy is really good at the 4 bass organetto. After seeing him play I decided I had to get one of these. Well, I've been playing it for a year and starting to get pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOiuZd0AmuM
Zampogna: The Soul of Southern Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pa4W7iA5So
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