The ‘Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo’ can be considered a historical band in the Italian folk revival. In fact, it was formed in the middle of the 70s, with the aim, still unchanged, of collecting and re-interpreting the heritage of the folk music tradition from Central-Southern Italy. Particularly in the first period of their activity, the ‘Musicanti’ have carried out field research, particularly in the regions Molise and Lazio, which has produced a vast documentation on the traditional musical repertoire. These initial campaigns of ethno musical recordings have later transformed into a more general contact with peasant culture, and therefore into a deeper knowledge not only of the examples, but also of the meanings of musical expression within that culture and the ways in which it is articulated.
One of the areas where the ‘Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo’ have committed themselves the most during their long activity is that of organology, having learned to use the musical instruments most closely linked to our agropastoral world, like the piffero (a kind of shawm), the zampogna (the Southern Italian bagpipe), the chitarra battente (a kind of folk guitar from Southern Italy), the melodeon and, recently, the bufù, the big friction drum from Molise.
The repertoire proposed by the ‘Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo’ includes all traditional musical forms typical of Southern-Central Italy, from lullabies to stornelli (a kind of lyrical song), from religious songs to saltarelli and tarantella. It presents both lyrics and melodies collected during field research, and pieces taken from the existing discography, in a respectful re-interpretation, which makes their enjoyment possible in different contexts from the original one. The ‘Musicanti’, in their CDs and even more so in their concerts, propose a journey through the sounds of the traditions of Molise and Lazio in particular, but also, crossing borders that often make little sense in cultural terms, of those of Campania, Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. Evidence of this and of the variety of colours and musical impact, is the range of the instruments used: mandolin, mandola, mandoloncello, guitar, chitarra battente, bass guitar, piffero, bagpipe (with a key and ‘lame’, surdulina), recorder, violin, melodeon (with two, four and eight bass keys), castanets, traccole (a percussion instrument), drums and tambourines (from Campania, Apulia and Calabria), bufù from Molise.

The ‘Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo’ today are:

Marika Spiezia: vocals
Silvio Trotta: mandolin, mandola, mandoloncello, chitarra battente, violin, vocals
Franco Giusti: guitars, vocals
Stefano Taraglia: recorder, piffero, zampogna, tambourine, vocals
Alessandro Bruni: acoustic bass guitar, bufù
Mauro Bassano: accordion

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