Domenico Corrado plays Italian Bagpipe (Zampogna a chiave 'Romanella') for the NLA Collection

Recorded for The National Library of Australia
Domenico Corrado (b. 1937) comes from the province of Catanzaro in the region of Calabria. He plays a particular bagpipe from Central Calabria (classified in Italy as zampogna a chiave) that he calls 'romanella'. In Italy he was a shepherd, a trade that he learned from his father. He learned to play the bagpipe by imitation at the age of 10 from his uncle Domenico Corrado. At the age of 14 his father bought him his first instrument that he learned to play by imitation. In his family almost every male plays a folk instrument: his brother that lives in Melbourne plays the organetto (button accordion) and the other two brothers (in Calabria) play zampogna.
In his hometown his uncle also taught him how to make bagpipe reeds from cane, cane flutes and become passionate about woodwork. During work he used to carve wood collars for his sheep. He improved his skills as wood carver in Switzerland, where he worked for 2 years before he migrated to Australia. He still makes his own tools to carve the wood and a different range of home wares that he sale in markets and local businesses.
He migrated to Australia with his wife and a young daughter in 1965, at 28 years of age. His wife’s family, from a town close by, was already in Melbourne. They settled in Melbourne where Domenico worked for 34 years as miner, mainly in the sewers. The instrument that he plays was his cousin’s and it was shipped without the air bag (made of goat skin). He then assembled the instrument and made himself the bag from scratch.
He played and stills plays the instrument for many community events, even tough it has become more difficult for him.
In his interview for the NLA he played a tarantella tune (accompanied by Felice Paone) and a Christmas song (novena).
Thanks to Domenico Corrado for allowing to film this video. More information on Mr. Corrado's life can be found on https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/7...