Silvio and Cristina Peron, along with Mathieu Aymonod, practice the art of spontaneous singing in the Western Alps. This type of singing is a form of polyphonic singing that is typical in Northern Italy and involves launching a song with a single voice (called the “primo”), which naturally determines the tonality towards higher registers, followed by other voices that merge into a “second” line, usually at a lower third interval, and occasionally a third lower line with a pedal or mobile drone function.
This form of singing is still alive today, surviving the frenzy of modern times, and during the workshop, they will teach some songs from the Piedmont region with lyrics in Italian, Piedmontese, Occitan, and French.
The spirit of spontaneous folk singing is captured in these sentences, taken from the book “Grido e controgrido. Il canto popolare raccontato dal di dentro” by Diego Anghilante (ed. arabAFenice 2019):

What does it mean to sing together with other voices? And what if this happens not in a “normal” choir, with written texts, musical scores, and under the guidance of a director, but in a group of farmers, among mountain people who shout at the top of their lungs, clinging to bottles of wine in smoky taverns? The veins in the neck tense up; the face turns reddish; the mustache drips drops of red wine like blood; the fists clench on the temples. The glasses in the tavern tremble, and the narrow ceilings resonate with sonic energy. An electric shock runs through and unifies the singers, intoxicated by their own song. It’s not just a matter of volume, which is impressive, but of a wild, primitive tone: as if familiarity with animals – the mooing of cows, the bleating of sheep, the crowing of roosters, the honking of geese, the whistling of marmots… – as if all of this has kept the ferocity of those human voices alive.

Artists:
Silvio Peron
Cristina Peron
Mathieu Aymonod