DOWNLOAD THE LYRICS OF THE CHANTS.

This work documents part of the repertoire of the informal choir Canta che non passa (Our Singing Will Stop It). The choir is a spontaneous group of middle age/old people who are active in the NO TAV* movement in Valsusa, northern Italy. The choir’s repertoire consists mainly of protest songs adapted from preexisting musical sources, with new lyrics that have been created from scratch.

I recorded the choir during one of their rehearsals. Rather than positioning the microphone at a certain distance from the group and capture the multiplicity of voices, I chose to keep the microphone in my hands and point it to the individual voices of those members standing around me. This strategy was designed to stress the fallible and imperfect nature of the chorale and place emphasis on: 1) the singular/plural dimension of collective singing; 2) the vulnerable beauty of non-professional voices.

* The NO TAV movement is an Italian grass root struggle that, since the early 2000s, has opposed the construction of the second high-speed train line between Turin and Lyon. More info: brief history of the no tav movement and notav.info.

Thanks to Mariano, Renato, Fulvio, Gianni, e tutt*.