{"id":4179,"date":"2025-10-29T17:31:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T16:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pensarecomeunamontagna.gamec.it\/?p=4179"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T12:10:31","slug":"breath-pauses-in-the-songs-of-the-dossena-mines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pensarecomeunamontagna.gamec.it\/en\/breath-pauses-in-the-songs-of-the-dossena-mines\/","title":{"rendered":"Breath! Pauses in the songs<br>of the Dossena Mines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Breath is the visible sign of our relationship with the mountains, the tangible trace of the encounter between the body and altitude. A mountain landscape can leave us breathless or take our breath away, but fatigue can cause us to lose our breath and force us to catch it again. When it\u2019s cold, we can see our breath running along its own path after a simple exhalation, on while uttering a word or a song, for breathing is also and above all the essential engine that modulates the voice and allows it to be emitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1977, ethnomusicologist Roberto Leydi edited the publication of Bergamo e il suo territorio. <\/em>Mondo popolare in Lombardia<\/em> (\u201cBergamo and its territory. Popular Culture in Lombardy\u201d), a volume accompanied by a vinyl record, the result of field studies and recordings, collecting traditional folk songs from the farming, textile, and mining communities. With regard to the songs sung by the Dossena Miners\u2019 Choir featured in the collection, Leydi speaks of \u201ca strained and voiceless emission that seems typical of mining areas\u201d and adds: \u201cthe way of singing (which in other respects is typical of the Alpine area) is likely determined by the fact that all or almost all of the singers show more or less pronounced symptoms of silicosis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shortness of breath directly impacts the form of singing. History and the environment layered into the mucous membranes. This is the starting point I took, following in Leydi\u2019s footsteps to listen to the songs of Dossena, with the intention of focusing on the pauses and their incredible density.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Leydi\u2019s writings, the singers of Dossena are presented as a \u201cchoir\u201d: so in my mind I form the image of a formal group of singers who meet regularly to rehearse, all dressed up in a particular uniform, but when I meet Luigino and Ermanno for the first time, they tell me that \u201cthere\u2019s no choir, here everything was singing, we sang all the time, after work, in the taverns, always.\u201d Luigino Alcaini and Ermanno Micheli are the sons of miners from Dossena. Luigino worked in a nearby gypsum mine and Ermanno performed various tasks outside the Dossena mine. Both sing and keep the mining songs alive in the village\u2019s social events and in the festival dedicated to Saint Barbara, the patron saint of miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I met them for the first time thanks to Walter Balicco, one of the key figures responsible for reopening the Dossena Mines to the public, the councilor for tourism and a singer himself. After some initial chatter with them, we organize a second meeting inside the mine, together with Filippo Alcaini, Rocco Bianzina, and Gaspare Alcaini. It is a very emotional moment. With great enthusiasm and at the top of their voices, Luigino, Filippo, Rocco, Gaspare, Ermanno, and Walter sing in front of me amid the drops of water falling onto the damp rock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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