Ecchite maje, the new album by the Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo appears already from the title as a kind of little homage to one of the most important collections of ethnomusicology dedicated to the region of Molise, realized by Alberto Mario Cirese and Diego Carpitella during the first two days of May 1954 at Fossalto, Portocannone and Ururi on behalf of the Centro nazionale di studi di musica popolare (which has become Archivi di Etnomusicologia dellAccademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia) in Rome. The album in fact reassesses three among the most important and famous tracks of the Raccolta 23 - which contains 48 songs recorded by anthropologist Cirese and ethnomusicologist Carpitella  giving it a new interpretation, with the characteristic style of the Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo. (The album Raccolta 23 is today available, along with essays about the argument, on Musiche tradizionali del Molise. Le registrazioni di Diego Carpitella e Alberto Mario Cirese, 1954 edited by Maurizio Agamennone and Vincenzo Lombardi, Squilibri 2005). Another element that bounds this album to the region of Molise is the homage to its oral tradition, represented by seven tracks out of ten belonging to the regional repertoire, in addition to other songs which are in any case popular in Molise.Among these, the new version of Ritorno dalla transumanza (CD/tr.8) is with no doubt very evocative, and it is one of the first folk songs in Molise transposed into notes by the hand of Oreste Conti in Letteratura popolare capracottese (Pierro 1911). The kind tribute that the band  partially native to Molise - dedicates to the Raccolta 23 is already clear at the beginning by the choice, in my opinion very significant, of revisiting one of the few tarantella songs from Molise with a frame drum. This kind of tarantella is not often found in the historical musical documentation. The Ururi tarantella is unique also because of its original structure: a binary rhythm instead of a ternary one, as in other dances of south Italy. It seems suitable to point out how their linguistic and instrumental choice is made clear just at the beginning of this work (Tarantella, CD/tr.1): the tambourine as a soloist; the beautiful and charming female voice, with its typical vocal structure and a particular timbre; the unmistakable melodic line that strongly recalls the Lydian scale; the use of arbëreshe language, historical and cultural emblem of a double difference; the following entrance of the chitarra battente, whose sound is at the same time gentle and harsh, that symbolizes territorial contiguities and musical exchanges between the area of southern Molise and the Gargano one (Apulia).Finally, as an attempt to build a virtual soundscape, the color palette is completed by the interventions of the melodion and the ciaramella; these two recall, with their characteristic sounds, an ancient cultural and musical dialogue typical of the so called middle and passing lands such as Molise, too small to have a full musical identity but too strong not to chose one and express it with intensity and decision. After having established some reference points by marking its sonority with a characteristic timbre, the album moves on  and conducts the listener  to a musical journey between sung dances, ritual, satirical, transhumance and narrative songs  such as the one dedicated to war events of the last World War: Pastorale per Gaspare e Rodolfo, (CD/tr.10) . Very fascinating is also the revisitation of Ecchite maje (CD/tr.3), a May song for the pagliara ceremony in Fossalto. The choice of a solemn and low processional modulation which heightens the original ritual setting, and the use of a zampogna a paro, very similar to the Fossalto zampogna, are very evocative. The use of a zampogna a paro seems to be perfectly suitable, and it recalls the observations made by Carpitella himself, in which he points out the differences with the pastoral style for zampogna in Calabria, Lucania and Campania: « the typical element that () characterizes the style of Fossaltos pagliara is the voice, which moves following consecutive grades with a symmetric and precise rhythmical movement. In the background the zampogna accompanies with a very light continuous drone: that gives the impression of an outward polyrhythm ». The work is crowned by an extempore and improvised creation by Nando Citarella, Fronna e cant pe Musicant (CD/tr.4) dedicated to the Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo; by the presentation of dances recorded in neighbouring regions, like the Quatritara from Corleto Perticara (Pz), originally written for harp, enriched in the album by a beautiful bass line and by the chitarra battente which accompanies all the different variations of the melody (CD/tr.7); by the presentation of new versions of tracks recorded at different places of middle and south Italy by the Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo themselves. But most of all, the album is made valuable by the bands ability of knowing how to create music, a quality that Musicanti del Piccolo Borgo have been able to earn, and even more important to fully return, at this point of their prestigious career as searchers, composers and popularizers of musical culture. Vincenzo Lombardi (University of Molise)