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During the 19th century, nearly every Italian community had its own 'Banda' - a popular wind orchestra performing at public places. Usually a Banda consisted of 50 to 60 instruments including several tubas and french horns, lots of trumpets and trombones, 15 and more clarinets and even bassoons, oboes, and flutes. The largest part of the Banda's bandbook would consist of instrumental arrangements of famous opera songs, and it was only through Banda that many people in Italy (especially on the countryside) came to know Italian opera. Today's Bandas are known for their special intonation that gives them a 'dirtyness' comparable to the brass bands of early jazz.
With Banda widely neglected by Europe's official cultural life, the performance at Germany's prolific Donaueschinger Musiktage was a rare occasion to meet the living tradition of Banda music. The ensemble from Ruvo di Puglia, a small town in Apulia, Southern Italy, where important composers of Banda music hail from, is best known for its yearly performances at processions in the Holy Week. They not only present traditional opera transcriptions for Banda (on CD 1), but are also open to meet new challenges from original jazz musicians and composers Michel Godard, Jean-Louis Matinier and Willem Breuker who have been familiar with the Banda tradition for many years (on CD 2). Based on Banda-inspired melodies by Fellini's soundtrack composer Nino Rota, Bruno Tommaso's suite "Sacra Romana Rota" serves as a heavy finale for a performance that was considered one of the most important events in European music in 1996.
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