Brass Band Music in Naples Between the Ritual Dimension and Innovation: The Case-Study of Madonna dell’Arco’s divisioni musicali

This article examines the musical practices enacted by informal bands active in ritual and festive contexts in the province of Naples (Italy) – in particular, those connected to the Catholic cult of the Madonna dell’Arco and to the Feste dei Gigli popular in several towns around Naples.
My main purpose is to enlighten how the complexity of the stylistic background which characterises local bands’ musical practices undermines a number of supposed dichotomies – between folklore and pop culture; between local aesthetics and that of the wider global sphere –, and musicians emerge as key figures who facilitate the renewal of local aesthetics. Endowed with competences and knowledge that allow them to turn the often generic requests of local actors into clearly outlined aesthetical and stylistic options, they adapt new genres, styles and repertoires to the traditional ritual and festive symbolic frame, creating what local actors call “new traditions”.

symbolic and aesthetical context relative to Madonna dell'Arco rituals allows local actors to include such music, in order to shed light on its diffusion within the ritual it is necessary to go beyond the cult's restricted framework and investigate the wider context of activities and relations within which band members involved with the rituals operate: such complex and composite environments have only recently been surveyed more in depth within ethnomusicology, especially in Italy. 3 The imbalance between the cult's intrinsically urban character and the scientific concerns that characterised ethnomusicological studies until at least the 1990s could be among the reasons for the dearth of material in Italian scientific literature prior to the last ten years. Given that scholars have almost exclusively focused on practices proper to the rural context of peasants and shepherds, band music remained at the margins of ethnomusicological studies for a long time.
If we turn our attention to literature on the cult, we will get substantial confirmation: from this point of view, Roberto De Simone's mandatory writings on Campania traditional music are typical of the approach prevalent at the time they were written (the 1970s). In his work, and specifically where he writes about Madonna dell'Arco's battenti or fujenti, 4 De Simone relayed important details on the ties between ritual and band music, filling an information void on the subject. His reports highlighted very interesting facets: specifically, De Simone analysed a band performance of the patriotic song La Leggenda del Piave which is still included in set lists to this day and which devotees, as we shall see, associate with peculiar homage procedures to the Virgin Mary icon (De Simone 2010, 212-15;De Simone and Jodice 1974, 25-28;De Simone, Rossi and Russo 1974); however, as his focus was almost exclusively on the symbolic systems of the ritual and on those 'traces' of pre-Christian elements they incorporated, he neither examined this thoroughly nor did he investigate the framework in which the bands operate in order to explain his findings. Therefore, to attempt an analysis of the dynamics that characterise this framework one has to start from the present-day background. As we shall see in the following pages, the network of relations and the paths connecting musicians to even widely different educational and performative contexts are extremely tight and branch out to such an extent that it is neither possible nor useful to 3 There has recently been a great surge in the literature on this theme in the Anglo-American sphere: I shall just mention the work of Helena Simonett (2001;, Matt Sakakeeny (2010; and Katherine Brucher (2006), as well as the one by Suzel Ana Reily and Katherine Brucher (2013), which collects essays by various authors. On the other hand, there is little material available within Italian ethnomusicology. With the exception of Giovanni Giurati's research on ensembles playing at Nola's Festa dei Gigli (Giuriati 2007;2009;2017) -analysed in detail in the second part of the present essay -one of the few contributions I am aware of is a MA degree thesis on bands playing during the Holy Week in Trapani (Gianno 2004). 4 'Those who run' in the Neapolitan dialect.
isolate any single 'band music framework' such as pop music, be it neomelodico 5 or otherwise, and separate it from the others.
As will become clearer later on, within these circles, musicians can move amidst quite different contexts. Their competences make the extensive reworking of traditional practices that take place within the cult context possible, and fully demonstrable, However, it is easy for ambiguities or even misunderstandings to arise when using the term 'tradition': therefore, before starting the analysis of this case-study it might be important to clarify how I shall employ such a concept in the present essay. As 'tradition' is the inner element of the conceptual apparatus employed by local actors, it may reflect personal positions and strategies concerning the legitimisation of events and practices that are related to authority received from the past; in other words, it is a highly alterable concept, in relation to which elements such as continuity in the transmission of 'traditional' practices or the resistance to change (of style or of genre, in the case of music) can subsume a central importance, or on the contrary, as we shall see in the last section of this essay, none at all. 6 Therefore, it would be appropriate to start from the emic definitions of 'tradition' -a concept I shall analyse in the last section of this survey -to correctly apply a historically and locally connoted concept, whose negotiable meaning refers to practices subject to change and, occasionally, redefinitions.

Bands, maestri di banda, musicians
The cult of Madonna dell'Arco is a devotional phenomenon of significant complexity. For further analysis and in-depth descriptions of its practices I suggest turning to references previously mentioned; 7 nevertheless, a brief summary of some of its essential aspects might be useful in order to better understand the context in which the 'small bands' that accompany battenti (the name given to the devotees who take part) rituals operate. The cult is spread throughout the Province and the city of Naples and is followed by about 150,000 devotees 8 who take part in the annual pilgrimage held on Easter Monday at 5 'Pop neomelodico' is a subgenre of Italian pop music that developed in Naples between the 1980s and the 2000s. 'Neomelodic' songs generally feature a typical mixture of popular music styles marked by distinctively local traits (the lyrics are sung in contemporary Neapolitan and mainly deal with the everyday life of the urban underclass). This genre is currently also very popular beyond the city borders. For further reading see Aiello (1997), Ravveduto (2007), and Pine (2012). 6 The notion of 'tradition' -employed as such by the actors -as a conscious legitimising model has been theorised and debated by many scholars, both in general terms and to refer to various ethnographic contexts -cf. Linnekin (1983); Handler and Linnekin (1984); Ronström (1996, 7-8); Baumann (1996, 80-82). 7 Specifically, see Rizzoni (2017b, 205-09). 8 Generally, police figures on the number of devotees attending are based on estimates determined at the sanctuary during Easter Monday's annual pilgrimage, while the number of battenti is drawn from data collected by the various dioceses where the cult has spread. With the exception of a few figures reported by local newspapers, which oscillate between 150,000 and 200,000, I was unable to find more recent estimates than those given by La Madonna dell'Arco, a quarterly review published by the Dominican Friars who run the Santuario della Madonna dell'Arco in the Santuario della Madonna dell'Arco (Sanctuary of the Madonna dell'Arco) in Sant'Anastasia. Other participants are 30,000 battenti -a segment of devotees joining the pilgrimage -who enact a cycle of extra-liturgical public rites in the months preceding the celebration. The cult is widely spread among lower social strata, whose financial and cultural capital is more limited: people from a working-class background, the lower middle-class and especially the unemployed underclass, which is the most relevant component of Naples' social structure. 9 The practices I am referring to include questue (a ritual form of begging) and a second kind of ritual, called funzione by the local actors, in which devotees of the Virgin perform a public homage in the street that follows strongly codified choreutic sequences. Ritual practices, especially the above-mentioned funzione, take place in the presence of the band, here called divisione musicale -'musical division,' whose role is to accompany the ritual and the battenti's coordinated actions. Funzioni are organised and enacted by more than six hundred associations dedicated to the cult, located in different Neapolitan neighbourhoods and in provincial towns, each organising their own rituals almost completely independently from the others: 10 such circumstances, as well as the commitment to a ritual schedule whereby funzioni must be generally performed by the associations in the period preceding the pilgrimage (Rizzoni 2017b, 207), make it possible to calculate a rough estimate of the number of bands involved in this activity. Although there is no reliable data, bands involved in the ritual may amount to a few hundred; considering that each 'division' is composed of anything between five and twenty musicians, it could be said that this musical practice involves more than one thousand musicians in the whole Province of Naples.
Although they belong to the brass band framework, 11 these groups' line-ups are quite varied, because of the number of musicians involved and their instrumentation: these are brass bands with percussions, without a fixed proportion between different kinds of aerophones. Some instruments -such as flute, clarinet or flugelhorn -are not present at all while others, like different kinds of trumpets, trombones and saxophones, can be found in varying assortments that occasionally include combinations Sant'Anastasia. This review, edited by Centro Studi Arco, reported figures of about 150,000 devotees and 30,000 battenti for 1998 (1998,16); the only figure reported later (2004) indicates an unchanged number of battenti (2004,21) 9 See De Matteis (2011,(22)(23)(24)(25). For further details on the social environment where the cult of Madonna dell'Arco is more widespread, which Italo Pardo called popolino (Pardo 1996, 2), see D' Agostino and Vespasiano (2000, 113-23). 10 Despite many attempts by the diocesan authorities to keep the activity of associations under control, the strong fragmentation caused by their high number makes such a proposition quite unfeasible. Most funzioni are unauthorised and unattended by either civil or ecclesiastical authorities. Therefore, battenti have sole responsibility for checking and deciding on ritual activities. 11 In the next section I shall examine a kind of ensemble which accompanies battenti rituals in Barra -the so-called bande amplificate ('amplified bands') -which cannot be regarded as brass bands in the strict sense. However, in general considerations on Madonna dell'Arco's divisioni musicali this detail can be omitted for the sake of brevity. seldom seen in other brass bands: for example, a group I observed during the 2012 funzioni in the Traiano rione included only one trumpet and four trombones apart from the usual percussions. This scant uniformity should be assessed along with a tendency to aesthetical informality and the general fluidity that marks the management of these ensembles: apart from a few exceptions, these bands have no uniforms; established groups coexist with others whose line-ups are constantly changing or may even be especially assembled just before enacting the rituals.
Although the musicians -usually only boys and men -adhere almost uniformly to the Catholic faith and many among them are Madonna dell'Arco devotees, very rarely are they also battenti, and their participation in the funzioni is very different in nature from the ritual obligation that characterises the actions of the former: performances of divisioni musicali are treated as work shifts and are paid accordingly.
Among band members, the maestro di banda ('bandleader') has a higher hierarchical standing and is in charge of band organisation (taking care of hiring musicians and their wages) and maintaining relations with battenti. The maestro is not necessarily the best or the most qualified musician, although in many cases he may well be: rather, he is a leader, an organiser and a mediator. The maestro enters into negotiations with selected representatives of battenti associations to determine, through annual contracts, all details relative to agreed-upon performances which are also called servizi: during these negotiation meetings, which take place many months before the start of the ritual cycle, the number of such performances, their duration, the number of musicians involved, the repertoires, the exact pay for the band and payment methods are usually defined. Often the battenti's musical knowledge is not so advanced as to allow them to ask technically detailed questions regarding the arrangements; rather, their requests are often generic and limited to non-musical needs: such is the reasoning behind the number of musicians hired, which might be explained in simple terms of quantity (hiring more musicians results in a more imposing and 'spectacular' presence). Essentially, all this means that maestri usually have large margins to make their choices, starting with the selection of the musicians.
This takes place within networks of deeply articulated relations that maestri are part of and from where they pick musicians. Because of the position they hold, maestri themselves are instrumental in giving shape to such networks, which include many professional musicians or people whose main or unique income comes from musical activities; others are semi-professionals, or people who perform in professional environments (such as paid gigs or teaching activities) but whose income is also generated by other means. Almost all maestri di banda are also music teachers; this can take on different aspects, but it is mostly characterised by marked informality: private lessons may be held at maestri's homes. Their pupils, usually 14-20-year-olds, are the most important source of new additions to the divisioni musicali.
Playing with their maestro in his band is often the first performative experience for these young learners; this often comes quite early on in their musical careers and is something they value highly because of its nature and the relations it entails (of a hierarchical nature with the maestro and of an economical nature through an agreed, possibly reduced, fee). It takes the shape of an apprenticeship to becoming a professional musician. In most cases, direct hiring can also co-exist with intermediation by other maestri di banda, who may be pupils recommended by their teacher, sometimes on his own initiative and other times following an explicit request.
What I have just reported can be found in many of the life stories I collected from musicians in divisioni musicali: [when I started going to the association] I was very young -I was five or six years old […] I had been participating in funzioni for years and then in just a year the band changed completely, proper professionals arrived, not just Madonna dell'Arco specialists, they were all qualified working teachers, so they teach how to play […] they teach children, teenagers, people who are interested in learning an instrument… so I met a trumpet teacher. I met him because somehow his job, his way to express his thoughts on music really appealed to me […] Obviously I contacted him, Pasquale, and he immediately accepted me as a pupil.
Basically this was a new thing for him, because it was very rare to have a pupil who was also a fujente, who played for an association in the streets; let's say that our paths crossed, in this case, because the musical journey starts overlapping with that of life, which one leads according to one's religious faith; indeed, it was exactly this, in a way, that pushed me towards studying the trumpet, because whenever I played the trumpet I felt as if I was in my role of fujente, playing those songs made me feel as if I was carrying the banner for my association […] [to study the trumpet] in the beginning I had to make some sacrifices: when the maestro meets you and starts teaching you privately he doesn't train you to play religious songs […] before studying them you must be taught music properly, how to read music and play scales […] to broaden your music knowledge, in a way; I studied, because I liked it, but at the same time I started learning in secret all the religious Madonna dell'Arco songs. I studied them from music sheets that I was given, one a week, by a friend of mine who was playing them […] [When I thought I could play them] I said to my maestro: "Let me play with you." But then he would have had to give me part of his pay. In fact, he said: "The bandleader gives me €500: if I bring you, too, I'll have to give you €100 at least, which means that I'll earn less, and I can't afford that right now." Then he added: "What I can do, I have a friend who is looking for musicians to form a band and I could talk to him and suggest you join them, I could tell him you're one of my pupils and if he likes the idea he could hire you." And then he dismissed me, saying, "Alright, off you go, let me know if you have any problems." So, I was introduced to one Luigi Grassia, who was a bandleader, in a way. And he took me on the spot, because he needed people: "He was in a hurry, he really needed musicians quickly." (Ernesto,19,Aversa) 12 This interview excerpt helps to trace a path that presents some of the recurring elements that have been mentioned on the previous pages: the initial approach to musical practice, followed by private lessons based on classical music teaching procedures (solfeggio, the study of scales), the hiring of a young musician in an ensemble following his maestro's recommendation (after the student's solicitation).
Although such a learning process is a common and recurring element, it is important to note that musicians who have learnt to play music 'by ear' are as commonly found here as those classically trained.
Usually they are self-taught -they only consulted expert musicians to learn a few basic techniques they could not manage by themselves. This approach, particularly common among older musicians, often combines the learning of performative techniques with that of repertoires usually played on ritual-festive occasions. Another element that emerges from the interview is the substantial informality that underpins the organisation and management of divisioni musicali, which provides a rationale for the absolute prevalence of networks of relations as a means of recruitment and of recommendations as a guarantee.
Recruitment procedures are not limited to the 'swapping' of learners between maestri, nor do they only involve Madonna dell'Arco's musical divisions. Apart from being teachers, maestri di banda are primarily musicians, who often have extensive experience in playing with different ensembles: their network is structured, incremented by and articulated upon such experiences, as is their reputation as performers and maestri.
Many life stories I collected during my research depict an image of working 'circuits' where these experiences take place which largely transcend the borders of Madonna dell'Arco's 'small bands.' To illustrate this, let me report the words of Stefano, a 54-year-old public worker in Brusciano and maestro di banda: I have been playing with the association for 45 years: when I was 15 or 16, I was brought here by my maestro, who had a commitment to it. Then he got older, he couldn't do it anymore, so I joined. I think that all these continued years of playing set a record unsurpassed by any other band. When I started, as a young kid, I was following my brother, who is in the band as well: I used to pick up his saxophone and pretend to play. He saw me doing these things, trying to make some sounds so he taught me the basics. This is when I started playing, that's before the battenti […] Later, whilst studying, the maestro taught us what we were supposed to play here [at the association]. Then I grew up, had my experiences… it really helped me to start playing at the Gigli, initially with my maestro but then on my own: I am from Brusciano and so it has been natural to find myself playing at the Giglio in Brusciano… in time we did others as well: Nola, Barra […]. (Stefano,54,Brusciano) This excerpt features elements that keep on recurring in the biographies of musicians I have met: apart from the recruitment modalities of the divisioni musicali, which confirm the diffusion of procedures already observed, Stefano's participation at the Feste dei Gigli held in different towns in the Province of Naples makes his experience similar to that of many other musicians who perform at the Madonna dell'Arco rituals.

Many of the musicians I interviewed have had very similar experiences to Ernesto and Stefano.
Accompanying funzioni is invariably how musicians make their debut as members of an ensemble. The recurrence of this element in musicians' biographies can certainly be explained by looking at some characteristics of the Madonna dell'Arco's divisioni musicali: as I previously stated, in the province of Naples, the funzione is the most important event out of all those in which bands or comparable ensembles are involved; it is certainly the one which mobilises the greatest number of musicians at the same time.
The continued request for musicians, coupled with the maestri di banda's substantial autonomy in selecting them, makes divisioni musicali a particularly suitable environment for the debut of teenage performers.
Moreover, many of the musicians I have met have had the chance to play, irregularly or more often in a structured and continued way, with other ensembles such as military bands (composed of musicians enrolled in the army), bands that are hired for public celebrations or private events and municipal bands.
In some cases, the musicians I interviewed were involved in activities that went beyond a strictly band environment: When I was young I wanted to play because I saw the band march through town but I didn't think of doing that for a long time, because at the time the only way to study was to get private lessons and my family couldn't afford it. When I turned 18, I told myself: I have to go to a music school. It was too late to go through the whole Conservatory process, so I went to Acerra's Civica Scuola di Musica. I studied keyboards there for six months, but I didn't like it… it wasn't for me. At school they suggested I try the horn: they said, "learn to play that, we 'll let you join the band then." But it felt like a strange instrument to me… so I ended up studying the saxophone and I realised that to do things properly I would have to go to the Conservatory… so I took lessons from a maestro for four or five months and I took the entrance exam, gaining second place on the pass list. I attended the Conservatory for years, but in the meanwhile I had to work and little by little I ventured into different environments: battenti, then cruise ships… there I played jazz and Neapolitan songs… and I also started playing weddings, because in Naples that's a very good scene; I still do that professionally, along with playing on ships. I also went to Teatro Augusteo in 2003 with Acerra's municipal band for the musical Novecento Napoletano: let's say that I can't complain and that I have a steady job.
[…] Throughout my career I've always played with different people, because if you want to be in this field you have to know a lot of people who might call you to play and sometimes it's you who could be making those calls when you have to find musicians. In all situations you also change musicians according to the caller's requests.
[…] [at weddings] I mostly played piano bar: I would accompany a singer, or if there were a whole band, we would occasionally play Neapolitan songs. At Madonna dell'Arco I initially played percussion instruments, like cymbals, because I was still learning the saxophone, but then I switched. I joined associations through a friend that invited me to a band, and for many years I played in different bands with other maestri. But then the local association in Acerra had to change bands because they were no longer happy with the one they were calling. I had already played with them and I knew them… we were friends… so they nominated me as maestro: I was in charge of finding the musicians, paying them and so forth. Since then I have become the bandleader here, I am the conductor… even though I don't really see myself as that, because I have a very friendly relationship with my colleagues: I never put to them that I am in charge.
[…] Musicians often get changed at Madonna dell'Arco, but I tend to avoid that if I can, because I know and trust most of them… but we have changes, occasionally someone can't come, others quit, sometimes they find someone who pays them more… you do think in those terms, too. (Michelangelo,43,Acerra) I shall now attempt to summarise what I have presented in the previous pages and highlight some essential points: -The divisioni musicali that play at Madonna dell'Arco rituals are comparable to brass and percussion bands and are characterised by fluidity in their complement and in their management, which is handled by maestri di banda; -Groups are occasionally stable; more often they are subject to continued changes in band members; maestri hire musicians through informal channels that coincide with networks of relations between teachers-pupils or between colleagues; -Musicians come from varied backgrounds, experience and age groups: a considerable number of members are teenagers (14-20) generally starting out, but there is also an older component (up to their sixties) largely composed of professionals and semi-professionals; -The latter move in extended and diverse 'circuits' of activities that generally include other performative band contexts; they may also be active in very different frameworks (such as jazz, pop and rock music, Neapolitan song).
It is these elements, unsurprising in themselves, that help to account for the quick -and sometimes radical -innovations that invest the musical practices associated to Madonna dell'Arco rituals.

Funzioni and Feste dei Gigli
In their discourses on the ritual's effectiveness, battenti attach great significance to the fact that the funzione has to be 'beautiful.' A strong aesthetic investment imbues the whole ritual system, becoming evident in the attention paid to the choice of coordinated ritual uniforms, the banners and the toselli (imposing shoulder-borne processional structures) carried by the battenti, as well as to the orderly course of the ritual action to pay homage to the Madonna effigy. Apart from being an individual devotional act, this is also primarily a collective rite of self-representation, 13 where the groups involved in the ritual stage their own 13 The funzione can be interpreted as a ritual of self-representation; communities that take part use it to show an image of themselves, somehow giving shape to an imagery that they would want to be associated with and, fundamentally, reflecting their own nature in an objectified way -as noted by Marco Aime, after Benedict Anderson, in his analysis of army parades in Italian celebrations (Aime 2014, 14).
image as a mirror of some of their own values, which are exalted and socially shared. The ritual is perceived as an act through which battenti associations offer a service to the whole neighbourhood community 14 -which includes members of the associations to which they are tied by family, friendships The term 'community' refers to a system of dense social networks which constitutes a 'geography of relations' articulated in a locality framework often coinciding with the neighbourhood or parts of it: in Naples these are highly connected and interacting layers of family, friendships and neighbourly relations, which can influence the structure of other relevant networks. When examining social structures configured by such networks, Thomas Belmonte (1989, 143) identifies actual neighbourhood communities, upon whose insularity he places great emphasis: "[local actors] inhabit a world connected and apart from the main, a dense and crowded urban world." Belmonte's thesis suggests that it is possible to call these groups 'communities,' as they are founded on a strong sense of belonging and of separateness, which informs a basic negative outlook on anything that comes from outside and to which richly articulated internal relationships correspond. This structure is also recognised by Italo Pardo (1996, 3, 83-104), who identifies the connection in networks of family, friendships and neighbourhood, disagreeing with Belmonte on his excessive emphasis on the community's insular character, which Pardo believes to be much more flexible and indeterminate. Conversely, Italo Pardo and Jason Pine (2012, 2-18), carefully reviewing the agency dimension of single actors, emphasise the negotiability of the network of relations and their extending beyond the neighbourhood's confines, constituting structures where familial and neighbourhood networks are only the initial social resource at the actors' disposal. 15 Among the musical practices that characterise the cult and the rituals, vocal music -both traditional devotional songs and new pop songs -has as important a role as brass band music. However, here I will not mention any aspects or phenomena, including musical ones, not strictly connected to the bande musicali. For a detailed analysis of vocal repertories and practices related to the cult, see Rizzoni (2017a, 168-71 This ritual's 'porous' character has become even more evident after the strong innovations that have been affecting ritual practices and the related music since the 2000s (influencing repertoires as well as the choice of instruments). As we shall see, this phenomenon only affected some of the associations active in the Naples area. Since some of these associations are widely renowned across the city, what were initially idiosyncratic initiatives of single groups have progressively spread. This is also due to the common practice of comparing and imitating between associations -which I shall analyse later -and although many actors regard this as unacceptable, it has played a role in making the whole context even more complex. One of the associations that has made the largest contribution to innovating the ritual is Gli Angeli -better known as Associazione Mezzafila after a former president's surname -located in the 16 Battenti's ritual activities are notably heterogeneous, differing in their formal structure from one area to another according to the location of the associations. The structure of the funzione described in this essay is that of the socalled tradizione di Napoli ('Naples tradition'), by far the most common in Naples and in most of the hinterland and towns around Vesuvius. Other versions -which I shall not focus on here -include the tradizione di Aversa ('Aversa tradition'), whose funzioni are significantly different from those enacted in Naples (for example, instead of the tosello or the carro we find the so-called quadri, should-borne structures made from enormous pictures) and the tradizione di Nola ('Nola tradition'), which is quite distinct in that it does not even feature funzioni. 17 It is not possible to summarise here the cult's centuries-old tradition, which can be reviewed in Bronzini (2000). Suffice to say that although the cult originated in the 15 th century, devotional practices historically associated to lower, rural or urban social classes are, as yet, scarcely known. With the exception of some figurative descriptions, there are no other detailed accounts of ritual activities of devotee groups called battenti or fujenti until the 20 th century; more precisely, the funzione has been described only in the work by Roberto De Simone cited previously. Arguably, these ritual activities are the result of a long history, and yet only the most recent decades can be determined with certainty.
Pendino area. Associazione Mezzafila is currently known in Naples for being one of those with the capacity for staging the most 'majestic' and 'spectacular' funzioni. In contrast with the most common variations of the ritual, the one progressively elaborated by this association lasts longer (about two hours, as opposed to thirty minutes) due to the introduction of a long preliminary phase which precedes the homage itself.
During this phase the squadra -organised in groups that perform the saluto -parades in the ritual space, Rather, what is of great interest is the recontextualisation of this procedure within a Marian ritual characterised by a dense and articulated symbolic apparatus, with strong references to a 'tradition' whose foundations are of a devotional kind.
Apart from specific repertoire items, other elements call for close observation. As already seen, the rite's traditional bipartition is also highlighted by the prominent adoption of diverse rhythm and tempo choices: a slow 12/8 for primo saluto religious hymns and a faster 2/4 march in the second half.
Both the tempo and rhythm employed for the performance of 'modern songs' are heterogeneous, being different for each song; nevertheless, a fast 2/4 time is prevalent (120-160 bpm), with samba accentuations (indeed called "samba" by local actors).
18 Homage rituals that employ choreutic motions usually feature a standard-bearer moving towards the Virgin icon and dipping the banner towards the icon itself. Choreographies are complex elaborations and interpolations of these basic actions undertaken by battenti groups that comprise various standard-bearers.
Within Mezzafila, these new additions to the ritual are accompanied, as we have seen, by the reconfiguration of some of its parts; this process has been facilitated by the continued collaboration of battenti with a single divisione musicale which has been playing for them for 45 years; Stefano, their maestro di banda for some twenty years, is the saxophonist from Brusciano whose career I recounted in the previous section. According to Stefano there is no incongruity between respecting devotional and 'traditional' character of funzioni and the innovations brought to the ritual, also through the music performed by the band: With his words, Stefano clarifies why, as I mentioned in the introduction, it is necessary to frame the cult's musical practices within a broader framework. To sum up the elements necessary for the present analysis: -Innovations in music (and more generally in rituals) are explained as a sign of devotion and 'passion' for the cult, which are signs of distinction from other associations, whose rituals instead feature more conservative practices and who perform funzioni 'listlessly' or as if they were a chore to be done with; -Moreover, innovations are part of the dynamic between associations and neighbourhood communities, where the former offer a 'service' -whose nature is also recreational and spectacular -to the latter, at the same time showing that they are capable of fulfilling their role as ritual mediators and representing communities through their action; -Innovations in musical practices are largely borrowed from practices developed within the context of the Feste dei Gigli, flatteringly described as "the best in Neapolitan music." This analysis might conveniently start from such 'borrowings,' before moving to examining the other points in the following section. The Local actors succinctly label the outcome as stile giglistico. These practices, initially only found in Nola, were later adopted in Barra and, in the 2000s, in other towns (such as Brusciano and Crispano).
It is particularly difficult to ascribe these groups and their repertoire to the brass band category: ensembles playing at Gigli cannot be labelled as brass bands in the strict sense. Having said that, their direct lineage from the old fanfares active at the Gigli until the 1980s (Giuriati 2009, 155) and the presence of musicians active playing first and foremost in brass bands (trumpet players, saxophonists, percussionists) facilitate the placing of Gigli within a broad backdrop where brass bands and other groups find themselves coexisting both temporally (because of the genre affiliation just mentioned) and contextually (as they operate in a related environment and partly share the same musicians). Within the brass bands framework, groups playing at the Gigli -generally called divisioni musicali, like the bands that accompany the battenti or, even, bande amplificate ('amplified bands') -play a key role. As emerges from Stefano's words -whose accuracy is reflected in the interviews I carried out -groups playing at the Gigli are considered to be among the most technically proficient, an ideal goal for musicians who belong to the brass band environment in the Naples area.
The music produced for the Gigli is widely appreciated, not just in 'Gigli towns' but in Naples as well. Therefore, it is not only musicians who love it, but the great majority of Madonna dell'Arco devotees as well. This appreciation is not only expressed by the widespread attendance of celebrations by people from Naples and other towns, but also by the sales of CDs featuring new Gigli music, regularly released a few months before the celebration each year, and in the number of visualisations of videos shot during the parade and shared on a number of social networking platforms (Facebook, YouTube, etc.). During my research I have been able to ascertain that Gigli music and the 'Gigli style' is a very common feature among band members, and that the innovations that have characterised (and continue to characterise) Feste dei Gigli are seen as a point of reference by Madonna dell'Arco devotees, as well as by associations where the appropriateness of ritual practices similar to those enacted by Mezzafila is not sustained or is at the centre of debates and negotiations.

'New traditions': rhetoric and strategies between ritual and recreational-spectacular dimensions
The rituals enacted by Mezzafila are not the only instance of appropriation of musical practices within the Feste dei Gigli framework; on the contrary, I have come across such procedures several times, albeit with different outcomes. It is worth noting that Mezzafila is not the only association that has modified the ritual to facilitate the introduction of the Gigli repertoire; another association which has developed comparable concepts is Pescatori di Mergellina ('Mergellina Fishermen'). In the last few years, in the wake of these large associations which are both so popular in Naples, 22 many capi battenti have started requesting 'Gigli music' or more generally 'modern songs' from maestri di banda when signing contracts and agreeing on set lists for the following year; musicians have started highlighting -truthfully, other times falsely -their participation at Feste di Gigli on their own CV as this may actually get them higher wages, compared to non-Gigli performers. Another original Gigli feature the Mezzafila association introduced to the ritual is the samba rhythmic pattern, later adopted by other groups; lastly, and beyond a strict musical framework, Mezzafila has also elaborated a specific coordinated step called mezzopasso, to be performed during some choreographies with the tosello, which enhances the oscillation of the shoulder-borne structure. Some of the associations located in Ponticelli, San Giovanni a Teduccio and especially in Barra differ from the others mentioned so far: for the last eight or ten years, groups which are quite similar to 22 Chiaia's 'Pescatori di Mergellina' has been active since the 1980s and it is one of Naples' most popular associations.
those playing at the Gigli, 23 albeit with a reduced line-up, have replaced the 'traditional' divisioni musicali.
These groups, called bande amplificate, 24 play traditional funzioni repertoires but in the style of Gigli ensembles. As a result, the overall sound of their performances is quite similar to that of Gigli celebrations, as is the style adopted by the musicians, even though they play the same repertoire.
As we have seen, this phenomenon varies from one area to another and has spread in a very diverse fashion. As for the innovation of repertoires, two very well-known associations in Naples have spurred many imitations; in the case of Barra's bande amplificate, the innovations have been adopted only within the confined borders of one neighbourhood and its adjacent areas, becoming an identity marker of locality in a short period of time, recognised (and emphasised) as such by local devotees (Rizzoni 2017a, 166-68).
The assessment of such dynamics clarifies how musicians may have increasingly taken on such a central role, which becomes particularly evident when analysing the mediation, as they operate between different performative and musical contexts, in terms of genre and style. Such centrality has its roots both in the foundations of the phenomena analysed in these pages and in the individual experiences of learning and professional growth, which in many cases are at least partially beyond the experiential framework of brass bands. More specifically, studying an instrument privately and -especially -at the Conservatory is an educational route that compels musicians to deal more swiftly with different repertoires and styles, 23 When I made contact with some associations from Barra in 2012, many informants told me that bande amplificate were a very recent innovation, "from the last five years or thereabouts." Nonetheless, people I talked to could not agree on the specific year when these groups were introduced. 24 As we have seen, divisioni musicali are both groups that play for battenti and groups that play at the Gigli. I only heard people use the term banda amplificata in Barra, to distinguish groups that use electrophones and amplifiers.

Madonna dell'Arco is different from
Gigli: on the one hand, the Festa dei Gigli is a celebration that involves people from every social strata in the towns where it is enacted, prompting maestri di festa and private investors (mostly local bigshots) to deploy consistent resources (Ballacchino 2015, 134-135 is a matter at the centre of continued negotiations between the different actors involved, that is battenti, devotees and musicians, with the latter playing once more a central role.
We have already seen how the relationship between Madonna dell'Arco associations and divisioni musicali is basically of a professional nature: services are provided in exchange for money and are regulated by negotiations, at times lengthy ones, that precede a final agreement on the details of the musical 'services' to be offered during the rituals. In this context, maestri di banda are essentially freelancers who have to find new ways to distinguish their offer from their competition and justify fees charged to battenti: 25 some of the recent updates to their offer have seen expansion of the bands' repertoires to include 'modern songs' and specifically Gigli music, or, for Barra and neighbouring areas, the chance to accompany funzioni with a banda amplificata. On this note, it is important to bear in mind that the actual band members are quite heterogeneous: we have already seen how the age of musicians, their musical education and their technical proficiency are wide-ranging range: teenagers and middle-aged men or Conservatory-graduate professionals and self-taught amateurs may all be part of the same performance.
Even the ability of maestri di banda to accommodate requests for specific repertoire items is quite variable: being able to play Gigli music or to be backed by a banda amplificata are distinctive elements in the varied backdrop of brass bands performing for battenti. if they have a good relationship with the association), there are many factors at play: the ritual is viewed as a symbolic capital which involves overlapping family, neighbourhood, friendship or even business relations that bind together different components of the neighbourhood community and it is inextricably tied to events that involve the associations, mainly due to the mutable 'geography of relations' that ensures their existence. Such events -especially when partial or total overlaps in their areas of reference take place 26 -can easily lead to the development of mutual competition; conversely, the prestige enjoyed by associations such as Mezzafila or Pescatori di Mergellina may induce smaller associations to imitate their approach. To assume the role of representing the neighbourhood or part of it can result in the cultivation and emphasis of micro-identity elements, filtered through the ritual and its formal elements. In the case of Barra, for example, members consider some associations' use of bande amplificate as an identity element that implies their belonging to Barra, as well as an element of distinction from other associations in the same area that employ 'traditional' divisioni musicali instead.
The overlap in the nature of funzioni between the devotional and the aesthetical-recreationalspectacular characteristics is strictly connected to the previous point. As the interview excerpts show, the funzione is not only enacted to represent the neighbourhood, it is also performed for the neighbourhood itself. As a service offered to local devotees, it has an 'entertaining,' spectacular undercurrent (the funzione has to be beautiful), although all aesthetical choices have to fall within the ritual's religious remit and its symbolic system: thus, battenti proposing changes to the ritual explain that such changes are devotional acts and part of their homage to the Virgin; they interpret the 'updating' of tradition as the staging of an aesthetically successful performance (a beautiful funzione) that features something new not just to the devotees but to the Madonna herself, as part of the ritual. I have heard this argument voiced many times by all the battenti involved in such processes, and it is generally connected to the strategies of distinction mentioned in the previous point: according to this line of reasoning, an association which does not update the ritual and does not offer anything new to the Madonna is not truly devoted and will perform ceremonies with little enthusiasm.
The last central element is how devotees interpret the term 'tradition,' whose different meanings are negotiable, contextual and at times contrasting. 'Tradition,' meant as a positive quality for the ritual and as a mark of authority linking the present to the past, is a founding element of the rhetoric underpinning the authority of the cult and of the battenti as mediators. All the subjects involved consider funzioni a 'traditional' ritual. What such 'traditionality' is actually made of is a matter for frequent debate and discussion. The concept of tradition is sometimes interpreted through a formal and conservative perspective (something is traditional because it retains formal elements from the past), while at other times it is a matter of procedure (testifying one's own devotion by staging a constantly renewed show is traditional). Such projection into the past is, nonetheless, extremely pliant, to the point that innovations proposed in the present may be expected to turn into legitimate future practices: indeed, that innovations may introduce -by their virtue of being good -'new traditions' that will be maintained and transmitted onwards.
Arguably, the elements listed above are part of widely diverse rhetorical strategies: due to the extreme fragmentation of the world of associations and the scant relevance of forms of centralised organisation in the cult, they can be mutually opposed. Associations that consider themselves to be 'more devoted' than others, because of their eager search for ways to renovate the ritual every year and start 'new traditions,' coexist with others who condemn this orientation, regarding it as "an excuse to turn funzioni into music hall or a circus" and considering the observance of practices already established in the 1960s as signs of devotion and respect of tradition.
In such dynamics, decisions are clearly deferred to battenti: musicians -hired hands paid in exchange for a service -have to adjust to their client's requests. However, they have wide margins to influence the choices of associations through suggestions and proposals. It is essentially the bands that put in place forms of mediation through the different contexts that I have presented here, to elaborate new musical languages and to adapt them to different circumstances. Some of the most radical changes implemented in the funzione ritual are the result of long and intense cooperation between battenti and musicians, as seen in the case of Associazione Mezzafila.

Conclusions
I have sought here to highlight connections and correlations between different frameworks (ritual and festive systems, institutional and informal initiatives for the transmission of musical knowledge and recruitment networks of musicians within the brass bands environment and other contiguous or related music environments) which, if taken individually, would make it difficult to understand the spread of the phenomena described in this essay. The highly articulated and dynamic context presented here undermines a number of supposed dichotomies -between the ritual and the festive dimension of some events; between tradition and pop culture; between local aesthetics and that of the wider global sphere -which in the current context of the Province of Naples can only confuse or obstruct the study of musical phenomena in its quest to understand their dynamics.
Although I have illustrated -albeit not exhaustively -only part of the background that characterises brass band music (and the music environments somehow connected to it, like those found at the Feste dei Gigli) in the province of Naples, what I have presented is sufficient to outline elements worthy of further study: more specifically, if we consider both the ritual's local symbolic framework and the multiple codes employed to constantly rework the forms of the ritual itself, musicians emerge as key figures that facilitate the renewal of local aesthetics. Endowed with competences and knowledge that allow them to turn local actors' often generic requests into clearly outlined aesthetical and stylistic options, they have codified musical aspects of 'new traditions,' by means of which one can understand the selfrepresentational need of local actors. After thorough analysis, this apparently incoherent bricolage-style approach is revealed as a form of cultural reworking, which employs codes from other contexts and recontextualises them by giving them new meanings.
I thank Ruggero Bianchin for the English translation.