The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and
instrumental classical music, the traditional styles of the
country's different regions, and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural
markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in society and in politics. Italian innovation in musical scales,
harmony, notation, and theatre enabled the development of opera in the late 16th century, and much of modern European classical music, such as the
symphony and concerto.
Instrumental and vocal classical music is an iconic part of Italian identity, spanning experimental
art music and international fusions to
symphonic music and opera. Opera is integral to Italian musical culture, and has become a major
segment of popular music. The Neapolitan song,
canzone Napoletana, and the cantautori singer-songwriter traditions are also popular domestic styles that form an important part of the
Italian music industry, alongside imported genres like jazz, rock and hip hop. Italian folk music is an important part of the country's
musical heritage, and spans a diverse array of regional styles, instruments and dances.
Like other elements of Italian culture, Italian music is generally eclectic. No parochial protectionist movement has ever attempted to
keep Italian music pure and free from foreign influence, except briefly under the Fascist regime of the 1920s and 30s. As a result,
Italian music has kept elements of the many peoples that have dominated or influenced the country, including Germanic tribes, Arabs, Greeks,
French and Spanish. The country's historical contributions to music are also an important part of national pride. The relatively recent history
of Italy includes the development of an opera tradition that has spread throughout the world;
prior to the development of Italian identity or a
unified Italian state, the Italian peninsula contributed to important innovations in music including the development of musical notation and
Gregorian chant.
Immigrant populations from around the Mediterranean, especially Greece, the Balkans and North Africa, have established large communities
in the southern peninsula over the last thousand years. As a result, folk music on Sicily and the southern Italian mainland display features
typical of elsewhere in the Mediterranean. These include an excessive nasality in the voice and an extremely ornamental approach to pitch.
Lomax's description of southern Italian singing is widely cited: "A voice as pinched and strangulated and high-pitched as any in Europe.
The singing expression is one of true agony, the throat is distended and flushed with strain, the brow knotted with a painful expression.
Many tunes are long and highly ornamented in Oriental style." Melody has typically been important in most Italian musical forms, even
at the expense of lyrics and harmonic complexity. This is true in opera, popular music and even, to some extent, in modern text-centered
styles such as Italian hip hop and the music of the cantautori singer-songwriters.
Social identity:
Italy was not unified politically until the 19th century. The drive towards unification led
to efforts to create a sense of Italian identity,
famously described by the Italian statesman Massimo d’Azeglio: “We have created Italy; now we have
to create Italians.” Abroad, Italian culture
and society are often stereotyped, associating all Italian music with certain styles. For example, some years ago the Mayor of Venice banned
gondoliers from singing Neapolitan songs for the tourists, most of whom requested "‘O sole mio" and other songs typical only of Naples but
widely regarded abroad as characteristic of all Italian music.
Allegiance to music is integrally woven into the social identity of Italians but no single style has been considered a
characteristic "national style". Most folk musics are localized, and unique to a small region or city. Italy's classical
legacy, however, is an important point of the country's identity, particularly opera; traditional operatic pieces remain a popular
part of music and an integral component of national identity. The musical output of Italy remains characterized by "great
diversity and creative independence (with) a rich variety of types of expression".
With the growing industrialization that accelerated during the 20th century, Italian society gradually moved from an agricultural base to an
urban and industrial center. This change weakened traditional culture in many parts of society; a similar process occurred in other European
countries, but unlike them, Italy had no major initiative to preserve traditional musics. Immigration from North Africa, Asia, and other
European countries led to further diversification of Italian music. Traditional music came to exist only in small pockets, especially as
part of dedicated campaigns to retain local musical identities.
Politics of Italian Music:
Music and politics have been intertwined for centuries in Italy. Just as many works of art in the Italian Renaissance were commissioned by royalty
and the Roman Catholic Church, much music was likewise composed on the basis of such commissions—incidental court music, music for coronations,
for the birth of a royal heir, royal marches, and other occasions. Composers who strayed ran certain risks. Among the best known of such cases
was the Neapolitan composer Domenico Cimarosa, who composed the Republican hymn for the short-lived Neapolitan Republic of 1799. When the
republic fell, he was tried for treason along with other revolutionaries. Cimarosa was not executed by the restored monarchy, but he was exiled.
Music also played a role in the unification of the peninsula. During this period, some leaders attempted to use music to forge a unifying
cultural identity. One example is the chorus "Va Pensiero" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera Nabucco. The opera is about ancient Babylon, but
the chorus contains the phrase "O mia Patria", ostensibly about the struggle of the Israelites, but also a thinly veiled reference to
the destiny of a not-yet-united Italy; the entire chorus became the unofficial anthem of the Risorgimento, the drive to unify Italy
in the 19th century. Even Verdi's name was a synonym for Italian unity because "Verdi" could be read as an acronym for Vittorio
Emanuele Re d'Italia, Victor Emanuel King of Italy, the Savoy monarch who eventually became Victor Emanuel II, the first king of
united Italy. Thus, "Viva Verdi" was a rallying cry for patriots and often appeared in graffiti in Milan and other cities in what
was then part of Austro-Hungarian territory. Verdi had problems with censorship before the unification of Italy. His opera Un ballo
in maschera was originally entitled Gustavo III and was presented to the San Carlo opera in Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, in the late 1850s. The Neapolitan censors objected to the realistic plot about the assassination of Gustav III,
King of Sweden, in the 1790s. Even after the plot was changed, the Neapolitan censors still rejected it.
Later, in the Fascist era of the 1920s and 30s, government censorship and interference with music occurred, though not on a systematic basis.
Prominent examples include the notorious anti-modernist manifesto of 1932 and Mussolini's banning of G.F. Malipiero's opera La favola del
figlio cambiato after one performance in 1934. The music media often criticized music that was perceived as either politically radical
or insufficiently Italian. General print media, such as the Enciclopedia Moderna Italiana, tended to treat traditionally favored
composers such as Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni with the same brevity as composers and musicians that were not as favored—modernists
such as Alfredo Casella and Ferruccio Busoni; that is, encyclopedia entries of the era were mere lists of career milestones such as
compositions and teaching positions held. Even the conductor Arturo Toscanini, an avowed opponent of Fascism, gets the same neutral
and distant treatment with no mention at all of his "anti-regime" stance. Perhaps the best-known episode of music colliding with
politics involves Toscanini. He had been forced out of the musical directorship at La Scala in Milan in 1929 because he refused to
begin every performance with the fascist song, Giovinezza. For this insult to the regime, he was attacked and beaten on the street
outside the Bologne opera after a performance in 1931. During the Fascist era, political pressure stymied the development of
classical music, although censorship was not as systematic as in Nazi Germany. A series of "racial laws" was passed in 1938, thus
denying to Jewish composers and musicians membership in professional and artistic associations. Although there was not a massive
flight of Italian Jews from Italy during this period (compared to the situation in Germany) composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco,
an Italian Jew, was one of those who emigrated. Some non-Jewish foes of the regime also emigrated—Toscanini, for one.
More recently, in the later part of the 20th century, especially in the 1970s and beyond, music became further enmeshed in Italian politics.
A roots revival stimulated interest in folk traditions, led by writers, collectors and traditional performers. The political right in Italy
viewed this roots revival with disdain, as a product of the "unprivileged classes". The revivalist scene thus became associated with the
opposition, and became a vehicle for "protest against free-market capitalism". Similarly, the avant-garde classical music scene has, since
the 1970s, been associated with and promoted by the Italian Communist Party, a change that can be traced back to the 1968 student revolts
and protests.
Sacred music:
Italy, being one of Catholicism's seminal nations, has a long history of music for the Roman Catholic Church. Until approximately 1800,
it was possible to hear Gregorian Chant and Renaissance polyphony, such as the music of Palestrina, Lasso, Anerio, and others.
Approximately 1800 to approximately 1900 was a century during which a more popular, operatic, and entertaining type of church music was
heard, to the exclusion of the aforementioned chant and polyphony. In the late 1800s, the Cecilian Movement was started by musicians
who fought to restore this music. This movement gained impetus not in Italy but in Germany, particularly in Regensburg. The movement
reached its apex around 1900 with the ascent of Don Lorenzo Perosi and his supporter (and future saint), Pope Pius X. The advent of
Vatican II, however, nearly obliterated all Latin-language music from the Church, once again substituting it with a more popular style.
Instrumental music:
The dominance of opera in Italian music tends to overshadow the important area of instrumental music. Historically, such music
includes the vast array of sacred instrumental music, instrumental concertos, and orchestral music in the works of Andrea Gabrielli,
Giovanni Gabrielli, Tomaso Albinoni, Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, Luigi Boccherini, Luigi Cherubini and Domenico Scarlatti.
(Even opera composers occasionally worked in other forms—Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, for example. Even Donizetti,
whose name is identified with the beginnings of Italian lyric opera, wrote 18 string quartets.) In the early 20th century,
instrumental music began growing in importance, a process that started around 1904 with Giuseppe Martucci's Second Symphony,
a work that Malipiero called "the starting point of the renascence of non-operatic Italian music." Several early composers
from this era, such as Leone Sinigaglia, used native folk traditions.
The early 20th century is also marked by the presence of a group of composers called the generazione dell'ottanta (generation of 1880),
including Franco Alfano, Alfredo Casella, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Ildebrando Pizzetti, and Ottorino Respighi. These composers
usually concentrated on writing instrumental works, rather than opera. Members of this generation were the dominant figures in
Italian music after Puccini's death in 1924. New organizations arose to promote Italian music, such as the Venice Festival
of Contemporary Music and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Guido Gatti's founding of the periodical il Piano and then La ressegna
musicale also helped to promote a broader view of music than the political and social climate allowed. Most Italians, however,
preferred more traditional pieces and established standards, and only a small audience sought new styles of experimental classical music.
Ballet:
Italian contributions to ballet are less known and appreciated than in other areas of classical music. Italy, particularly Milan,
was the European center of court choreography as early as the 1400s in the form of such things as ritual masked balls. Early
choreographers and composers of ballet include Fabrizio Caroso and Cesare Negri. The style of ballet known as the "spectacles
all’italiana" imported to France from Italy caught on, and the first ballet performed in France (1581), Ballet comique de la
Royn, was composed by an Italian, Baltazarini di Belgioioso, better known by the French version of his name, Balthasar
de Beaujoyeulx. Early ballet was accompanied by considerable instrumentation, with the playing of horns, trombones, kettle
drums, dulcimers, bagpipes, etc. Although the music has not survived, there is speculation that dancers, themselves, may have
played instruments onstage. Then, in the wake of the French Revolution, Italy again became a center of ballet, largely
through the efforts of Salvatore Viganò, a choreographer who worked with some of the most prominent composers of the day.
He was made the balletmaster of La Scala in 1812. The best-known example of Italian ballet from the 19th century is
probably Excelsior, with music by Romualdo Marenco and choreography by Luigi Manzotti. It was composed in 1881 and is a
lavish tribute to the scientific and industrial progress of the 19th century. It is still performed and was staged as recently as 2002.
Currently, major Italian opera theaters maintain ballet companies. They exist to provide incidental and ceremonial dancing in many
operas, such as Aida or La Traviata. These dance companies usually maintain a separate ballet season and perform the standard
repertoire of classical ballet, little of which is Italian. The Italian equivalent of the Russian Bolshoi Ballet and similar
companies that exist only to perform ballet, independent of a parent opera theater is La Scala Ballet, which is under the
direction of Frèdèric Olivieri. Since 1979 there has existed in Italy a modern dance company, the Aterballetto, based in
Reggio Emilia. The company performs worldwide under the leadership of choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti.
Experimental music:
Experimental music is a broad, loosely-defined field encompassing musics created by abandoning traditional classical concepts
of melody and harmony, and by using the new technology of electronics to create hitherto impossible sounds. In Italy, one
of the first to devote his attention to experimental music was Ferruccio Busoni, whose 1907 publication, Sketch for a
New Aesthetic of Music, discussed the use of electrical and other new sounds in future music. He spoke of his
dissatisfaction with the constraints of traditional music:
“We have divided the octave into twelve equidistant degrees…and have constructed our instruments in such as way that
we can never get in above or below or between them…our ears are no longer capable of hearing anything else…yet
Nature created an infinite gradation—infinite! Who still knows it nowadays?”
Similarly, Luigi Russolo, the Italian Futurist painter and composer, wrote of the possibilities of new music in his 1913 manifestoes
The Art of Noises and Musica Futurista. He also invented and built instruments such as the intonarumori, mostly percussion, which
were used in a precursor to the style known as musique concrète. One of the most influential events in early 20th century music
was the return of Alfredo Casella from France in 1915; Casella founded the Società Italiana di Musica Moderna, which promoted
several composers in disparate styles, ranging from experimental to traditional. After a dispute over the value of experimental
music in 1923, Casella formed the Corporazione delle Nuove Musiche to promote modern experimental music.
In the 1950s, Luciano Berio experimented with instruments accompanied by electronic sounds on tape. In modern Italy, one important
organization that fosters research in avantgarde and electronic music is CEMAT, the Federation of Italian Electroacoustic Music
Centers. It was founded in 1996 in Rome and is a member of the CIME, the Confédération Internationale de Musique Electroacoustique.
CEMAT promotes the activities of the “Sonora” project, launched jointly by the Department for Performing Arts, Ministry for
Cultural Affairs and the Directorate for Cultural Relations, Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the object of promoting and
diffusing Italian contemporary music abroad.
Classical music in society:
Italian classical music grew gradually more experimental and progressive into the mid-20th century, while popular tastes have
tended to stick with well established composers and compositions of the past. The 2004-2005 program at the Teatro San Carlo
in Naples is typical of modern Italy: of the eight operas represented, the most recent was Puccini. In symphonic music, of
the 26 composers whose music was played, 21 of them were from the 19th century or earlier, composers who use the melodies
and harmonies typical of the Romantic era. This focus is common to other European traditions, and is known as postmodernism,
a school of thought that draws on earlier harmonic and melodic concepts that pre-date the conceptions of atonality and
dissonance. This focus on popular historical composers has helped to maintain a continued presence of classical
music across a broad spectrum of Italian society. When music is part of a public display or gathering, it is often
chosen from a very eclectic repertoire that is as likely to include well-known classical music as popular music.
A few recent works have become a part of the modern repertoire, including scores and theatrical works by composers
such as Luciano Berio, Luigi Nono, Franco Donatoni, and Sylvano Bussotti. These composers are not part of a distinct
school or tradition, though they do share certain techniques and influences. By the 1970s, avant-garde classical
music had become linked to the Italian Communist Party, while a revival of popular interest continued into the next
decade, with foundations, festivals and organization created to promote modern music. Near the end of the 20th century,
government sponsorship of musical institutions began to decline, and several RAI choirs and city orchestras were closed.
Despite this, a number of composers gained international reputations in the early 21st century.
Home,
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