The 2015 Conference of the ICTM Italy National Committee was held from 29-30 September in Venice, at the IISMC (Istituto Interculturale di Study Musicali Comparati – Intercultural institute of comparative music studies), Fondazione Cini, Isola di San Giorgio. The fourteen papers focussed on different aspects of contemporary research by Italian ethnomusicologists, both “at home” and abroad, and these were  interestingly debated by the colleagues in the hall (every paper was followed by about twenty minutes of discussions, as scheduled in the program).  At the opening, Giovanni Giuriati, Guido Raschieri, Claudio Rizzoni, and Simone Tarsitani  offered a detailed picture of the IISMC’s intense cataloguing and digitization work of the Institute’s large archive. Then, Dina Staro dealt with peasant traditional dances in the Northern Italy urban context; Mauro Balma proposed an update of his extended research on vocal music in the Aosta valley; and Oliever Gerlach presented his methodological reflexions for a history of multipart music. The afternoon session was opened by Vladimiro Cantaluppi with a paper on the Laouto and the cultural relationship between Crete and Venetia, followed by the presentation of the “Sacri Monti” documentary by Nicola Scaldaferri and Lorenzo Pisanello about three mountain pilgrimages in three Mediterranean regions. Then, Paola Barzan displayed  her research on the traditional repertories of the Polesine (the area situated between the lower stretches  of the rivers Adige and Po’) which were recorded by Sergio Liberovici in the 50s. After Ignazio Macchiarella’s  paper on the rhetoric discourses about Bella ciao in the Italian media, Marco Lutzu dealt with the recent contexts of the launeddas tradition, focussing above all on the new music experiences  of the new generations of players. The latter paper was an introduction to a music performance (offered by the IISMC) by two young virtuoso players from Sardinia: Andrea Pisu (launeddas) and Vanni Masala (organetto). The duo (unusual in traditional scenarios) offered a taste of these two musicians’ ability to use the potentiality of the two instruments in their mutual interaction.

The second day of the meeting was opened by Renato Morelli, who updated his research on the historical sources regarding some devotional practices (Lodi spirituali) dating back to the Trento council, followed by Angelo Rusconi’s paper which proposed some significant examples of parodies of liturgical singing from the Alpine area. The  last two papers also concerned religious music making:  Giuseppe Giordano dealt with some examples of Gregorian practices in the oral and written traditions from Sicily, while Maria Rizzuto discussed some points of her research on the liturgical singing of Coptic communities in Rome. The final act of the conference was an open round table on some issues arising during the meeting.