Canto dei gondolieri - Venetian folksong, by Jan-Paul van Spaendonck

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August the 16th, 2013. On vacation in Brittany we were walking through the wooded valley of the Tréguer river, near the tiny village of Trégrom, when we were surprised by a sudden shower. We had arrived at the point were the now deserted railroad to Brest crossed the river and sought shelter under the old mossy viaduct. The mysterious atmosphere of the place and the sound of the rushing water underneath made me curious as to how the acoustics would be. I started to sing the first thing that came into my mind, which happened to be the ancient Venetian gondolier song based on the first four lines of Torquato Tasso's epic Gerusalemme liberata. I had sung this haunting chant many times during performances by the duo La Passione, specialized in Italian folksong, that I formed with Vincent de Lange for many years. My daughter had her camera ready and pushed in the recording button. It was not until we had come home and were viewing our holiday pictures that I realized she had recorded the entire song. I was delighted by the velvety sound, that I imagined to be quite similar to that of the gondoliers, rowing their boats slowly under the resounding bridges of Venice. This being an entirely spontaneous performance I apologize for its shortcomings, such as the mispronunciation of the second word, which should be 'l'armi' instead of 'l'arme'.