Tignale Holidays . The band

30 YEARS OF MUSICAL HISTORY...

In 1973 the “Nuova Banda Tignalese” (New Tignale Band) came into being performing concerts of melodic popular music. The Band was formed with the idea of creating some recreational activity for young people from the village. The idea was received with great enthusiasm because villagers remembered with affection the previous village band, which was compelled to disband after a disastrous hailstorm forced many people to move away from the village. At the beginning it was these people who generously and enthusiastically lent their instruments and offered their experience to the new youngsters who had begun to study music in the primary school.

Afterwards, some of these youngsters from Tignale, having had the opportunity to cultivate their natural talent for music, went to Toscolano-Maderno to attend the band school there. When their conductor Cav. Antonio Tomacelli offered to act as conductor to the new band in Tignale, they too joined the new group here. In 1974 the musical body ANBIMA organised a vocational music course with Sig. Tomacelli to run it. The money available was modest, but with some families buying instruments for their children, the generosity of others and a contribution from the village administration, it was possible to revive the musical group in 1975 with the name, “Nuova Banda Tignalese” to indicate the transformation and underline its origins.

The Band had already reached such a satisfactory level of performance in various types of music, that it was able to participate at important interregional band festivals and to perform in some really prestigious events, the most important of which was at the Arena in Verona, a great triumph.

In the middle of the 1990s there was a decline in the group because many musicians, now adults, were busy with work and family activities. The number of musicians in the Band was reduced to such a low number that it was difficult to perform many works, but the perseverance of the few remaining musicians, who managed to run the Band themselves under the leadership of Roberto Milesi, first clarinet, and the competence of the conductors who suceeded him ( Aldo Rosina from 1997 – 1999, then the present conductor Giacamo Casadei) have brought the Band back to the prestigious levels of the past. In fact they have played in important theatres, such as S. Barbara in Brescia and the local theatre in Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mantova). They have also performed in many other musical events both civil and religious and at choir festivals organised by the Comunità Montana Alto Garda Bresciano and other organisations.

In the year 2000 a new ambitious project was started with the idea of the “Banda dei Piccoli” (the small children’s band), which introduces very young musicians (only 6 years old), to the fascinating world of music. This acts as a natural source of recruitment for the band.

The Band’s musical repertory varies from classical marches for bands to exotic pieces of music, jazz and film theme music, composed by Italians and others. It is certainly true to say that the “Nuova Banda Tignalese” is a source of pride for all here in Tignale.