The Bagpipe Society

The Italian Zampogna

The purpose of this article is to give a brief overview of the regional variations of the southern Italian zampogna as well as some of its primary social uses. Due to the diversity of different types of zampognas found throughout southern Italy, the term “zampogna” can be thought of as more of a category of southern Italian pipes than a specific bagpipe.

Within this category are roughly a dozen different types of pipes all with varying organological characteristics, tunings, musical repertoire, and cultural uses. Like most matters of Italian provincialism, such as the case with dialects, food, and even saintly patronage, the different zampogna types are associated with different ethno-geographic regions. All these different regional bagpipes make it difficult to distinguish them from each other even for the people who play the instrument.

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