Evivva la banda!: The Wind Band and the Italian Festa Tradition in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area

During the summer months, if one finds himor herself in certain pockets of Toronto or the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) from late May through early September, they just might hear the echoes of an Italian wind band. There are currently several such bands for hire in the area. Among these is the Complesso Bandistico Guiseppe Verdi (CBGV), under the direction of Maestro Guiseppe “Joe” DiGirolamo. As a saxophonist in Maestro DiGirolamo’s band, I have had the opportunity to perform at a number of feste over the the past four years. Having been a part of the band for quite some time, and having participated in a number of feste, I became interested in exploring the relationship between the band and the festa further. Through participant-observation and a series of formal and informal interviews, my research culminated in a major research paper as part of my recently completed master's degree in ethnomusicology. The main point of interest I sought to understand was the role and significance of the band in the festa tradition. The festa, also referred to as the festa patronale, is the celebration of a town or village’s patron saint. Although the tradition may be found throughout Italy, it is especially prominent among the Italians of the Mezzogiorno. The Mezzogiorno, literally meaning “mid-day”, refers to the southern part of Italy, consisting of the regions Sicilia, Sardinia, Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, Abruzzi, Molise, and Lazio. The inhabitants of this southern area are called the meridionali, and are of particular importance to the festa tradition in Toronto and the GTA, since they comprise the majority of the Italian wave of immigrants who came to Toronto from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. The Complesso Bandistico Guiseppe Verdi has been a part of the festa tradition among the Italian community of Toronto and the GTA for the past several decades. In the early 1990s, Maestro DiGirolamo, a local music teacher and previous director of the Toronto Italian Band (another local Italian wind band), was invited by Maestro Giovanni Giannone to conduct the CBGV, and eventually to also become director. As the new maestro for the CBGV, DiGirolamo has since been responsible for contracting the band for various feste; establishing, arranging, and sometimes composing repertoire for the band; and organizing the hiring and participation of musicians (Figure 1). Figure 1: The Complesso Bandistico Guiseppe Verdi, 2012. Photograph courtesy of the author.

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