Italian folk styles are very diverse, and include monophonic, polyphonic, and responsorial song, choral, instrumental and vocal music,
and other styles. Choral singing and polyphonic song forms are primarily found in northern Italy, while south of Naples, solo singing
is more common, and groups usually use unison singing in two or three parts carried by a single performer. Northern ballad-singing is
syllabic, with a strict tempo and intelligible lyrics, while southern styles use a rubato tempo, and a strained, tense vocal style.
Folk musicians use the dialect of their own regional tradition; this rejection of the standard Italian language in folk song is nearly
universal. There is little perception of a common Italian folk tradition, and the country's folk music never became a national symbol.
Regions:
Italy's folk music is sometimes divided into several spheres of geographic influence, a classification system of three regions, southern,
central and northern, proposed by Alan Lomax in 1956 and often repeated. Additionally, Curt Sachs proposed the existence of two
quite distinct kinds of folk music in Europe: continental and Mediterranean, and others have placed the transition zone from the former
to the latter roughly in north-central Italy, approximately between Pesaro and La Spezia. The central, northern and southern parts of the
peninsula each share certain musical characteristics, and are each distinct from the music of Sardinia.
In the Piedmontese valleys and some Ligurian communities of northwestern Italy, the music preserves the strong influence of ancient
Occitania. The lyrics of the Occitanic troubadours are some of the oldest preserved samples of vernacular song, and modern bands like
Gai Saber and Lou Dalfin preserve and contemporize Occitan music. The Occitanian culture retains characteristics of the ancient Celtic
influence, through the use of six or seven hole flutes (fifre) or the bagpipes (piva). The music of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, in
Northeastern Italy, shares much more in common with Austria and Slovenia including variants of the waltz and the polka. Much of northern Italy
shares with areas of Europe further to the north an interest in ballad singing (called canto epico lirico in Italian) and choral
singing. Even ballads—usually thought of as a vehicle for a solo voice—may be sung in choirs. In the province of Trento "folk choirs"
are the most common form of music making.
Today, Italy's folk music is often divided into several spheres of geographic influence, a classification system proposed by Alan
Lomax in 1956 and often repeated since. The Celtic and Slavic influences on the group and open-voice choral works of the north
contrast with the Arabic, Greek, and African influenced strident monody of the south. In central Italy these influences combine,
while indigenous traditions like narrative and ballad singing remain. The music of the island of Sardinia is distinct from that
of the rest of Italy, and is best known for the polyphonic chanting of the tenores.
Italian folk revival:
The modern understanding of Italian folk music has its roots in the growth of ethnomusicology in the 1940s and 1950s and in the resurgence
of regionalism in Italy at the time. The Centro Nazionale di Studi di Musica Popolare (CNSMP), now part of the Accademia Nazionale di
Santa Cecilia, was started in 1948 to study and archive the various musical styles throughout Italy. In the 1950s, a number of
important field recordings were conducted by American Alan Lomax and Italians Diego Carpitella, Franco Coggiola, Roberto Leydi
among others. Toward the end of the decade, a special effort was made to capture the folk traditions of the meridionale (southern Italy),
including an important study by Carpitella and anthropologist Ernesto de Martino of the tarantella.
The early 1960s saw the rise of social and political popular music, including a vast number of releases by the I Dischi del Sole
label. Several important groups had their birth around the same time, including Cantacronache in 1958 and the Nuovo Canzoniere
Italiano (NCI) in 1962. The NCI was an assemblage of musicians and composers including Giovanna Marini that made its first major
public appearance at the 1964 Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi and generated a large number of records and concerts.
The Italian folk revival was accelerating by 1966, when the Istituto Ernesto de Martino was founded by Gianni Bosio in Milan to
document Italian oral culture and traditional music. With the emergence of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare in 1970, the
notion of a musical group organized to promote the music of a particular region (in this case, Campania) was clearly gaining
momentum. Many of the best known Italian folk revival bands got their start in the following decade, including La Lionetta (1977),
La Ciapa Rusa (1978), Re Niliu (1979), Calicanto (1981), and Baraban (1983).
Northern & central Italy:
The northern regions of Italy historically exhibited Celtic and Slavic influences in their cultures. Roots revivalists have revived
traditional songs, though, from Piedmont (La Ciapa Rusa), Lombardy (Baraban, Pandemonio) and Padua (Calicanto).
The Genoese docks are the home of trallalero, a polyphonic vocal style with five voices, one of which imitates a guitar. It arose in
the 1920s and includes modern groups like La Squadra -- Compagnia del Trallalero and Laura Parodi.
The highly urban provinces of northern and central Italy are also known for the medieval sung poetry ottava rima, especially in
Tuscany, Lazio and Abruzzo. Ottava rima is performed by the poeti contadini (peasant poets) who use the poems of Homer or Dante, as
well as more modern lyrics which address political or social issues. It is often completely improvised, and sometimes competitive in
nature. Tuscan folk poetry is closer in form and style to high-culture poetry than is typical elsewhere in Italy.
The saltarello dance is also popular throughout the region. Canzoniere del Lazio is one of the biggest names from central Italy
during the 1970s roots revival. With socially aware lyrics, this new wave of Italian roots revivalists often played entirely
acoustic songs with influences from jazz and others. More modern musicians in the same field include Lucilla Galeazzi, La Piazza and La Macina.
Southern Italy:
A folk dance called the tarantella is still sometimes performed. It was performed to cure the bite of Lycosa tarentula, usually
with female victims dancing until exhaustion. Performers used varying rhythms according to the exact kind of spider.
Antonio Infantino has explored the percussion-based tarantolati healing rituals since 1975, when he formed the group
Tarantolati di Tricarico.
Puglia is also home to brass bands like Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia; this tradition has led to collaborations with jazz
musicians like Matteo Salvatore, Battista Lena, Eugenio Colombo and Enrico Rava.
Ethnic Greeks:
The ethnic Greeks living in Salento (Puglia) and Calabria have their own distinct dialects (Griko and Grecanico, respectively). They
have lived in the area for an undetermined amount of time, possibly as early as Ancient Greece or as late as the Middle Ages. The
community has been largely assimilated by the Italian nation, but there remain speakers of the dialects and other aspects of the
culture. There was a roots revival in the 1970s in this area, paralleling similar developments across continental Europe, including
Brittany and Catalonia.
Folk musical traditions in the area include a religious piece, Passiuna tu Christù, which recounts the Passion of Christ. The
Passion is performed by street accordionists with two singers.
Sicily:
Sicily is home to a great variety of Religious music, including a cappella devotional songs from Montedoro and many brass bands
like Banda Ionica, who play songs from a diverse repertoire. Harvest songs and work songs are also indigenous to the agricultural
island, known as "Italy's granary". Franco Battiato, Fratelli Mancuso, Luciano Maio, Taberna Mylaensis and Ciccio Busacca are
among the most popular musicians from Sicily. Busacca has worked with Dario Fo, like many Italian musicians, but is perhaps best-known
for his setting the poems of Ignazio Buttitta, a Sicilian dialect poet.
Fratelli Mancuso (brothers Enzo and Lorenzo Mancuso) have fused traditional Sicilian peasant songs (lamentazioni), monodic chants
(alla carrettiera) and other indigenous forms to create a uniquely Sicilian modern song style.
Folk music of Sardinia:
Probably the most culturally distinct of all the regions in Italy, Sardinia is an isolated island known for the tenores'
polyphonic chant, sacred songs called gozos, and launeddas, a woodwind instrument similar to the Greek aulos. Launeddas are
used to play a complex style of music that has achieved some international attention, especially Dionigi Burranca, Antonio Lara,
Luigi Lai and Efisio Melis; Burranca, like many of the most famous launedda musicians, is from Samatzai in Cagliari. An ancient
instrument, dating back to at least the 8th century BC, launeddas are still played during religious ceremonies and dances (su ballu).
Distinctively, they are played using extensive variations on a few melodic phrases, and a single song can last over an hour.
The otava, or eight-line stanza, is a common lyrical form in Sardinia, one which allows the performer a certain amount of
improvisation and is not unlike the stornello of south-central mainland Italy.
Rural polyphonic chanting of the tenores is related to Corsican music and is sung with four vocal parts. They are bassu (bass),
mesa boghe (middle), contra (counter) and boghe (leader and soloist). The most popular group is Tenores di Bitti.
Sacred gozos, or sacred songs, can be heard during religious celebrations, sung by choruses like Su Cuncordu 'e su Rosariu.
Other influential Sardinian musicians include Totore Chessa (organetto), Maria Carta (singer), Mauro Palmas, Elena Ledda and
Suonofficina, Cordas et Cannas, Paolo Fresu (trumpet) and Gesuino Deiana (guitar).
Noticeable musical differences in the southern type include increased use of interval part singing and a greater variety of folk
instruments. The Celtic and Slavic influences on the group and open-voice choral works of the north yield to a stronger Arabic,
Greek, and African-influenced strident monody of the south. In parts of Apulia (Grecìa Salentina, for example) the Griko dialect
is commonly used in song. The Apulian city of Taranto is a home of the tarantella, a rhythmic dance widely performed in southern
Italy. Apulian music in general, and Salentine music in particular, has been well researched and documented by ethnomusicologists and by Aramirè.
The music of the island of Sardinia is best known for the polyphonic chanting of the tenores. The sound of the tenores recalls
the roots of Gregorian chant, and is similar to but distinctive from the Ligurian trallalero. Typical instruments include the
launeddas, a Sardinian triplepipe used in a sophisticated and complex manner. Efisio Melis was a well-known master launeddas player of the 1930s.
Songs:
Italian folk songs include ballads, lyrical songs, lullabies and children's songs, seasonal songs based around holidays such as
Christmas, life-cycle songs that celebrate weddings, baptisms and other important events, dance songs, cattle calls and occupational
songs, tied to professions such as fishermen, shepherds and soldiers. Ballads (canti epico-lirici) and lyric songs
(canti lirico-monostrofici) are two important categories. Ballads are most common in northern Italy, while lyric songs prevail
further south. Ballads are closely tied to the English form, with some British ballads existing in exact correspondence with an
Italian song. Other Italian ballads are more closely based on French models. Lyric songs are a diverse category that consist of
lullabies, serenades and work songs, and are frequently improvised though based on a traditional repertoire.
Other Italian folk song traditions are less common than ballads and lyric songs. Strophic, religious laude, sometimes in
Latin, are still occasionally performed, and epic songs are also known, especially those of the maggio celebration.
Professional female singers perform dirges similar in style to those elsewhere in Europe. Yodeling exists in northern Italy,
though it is most commonly associated with the folk musics of other Alpine nations. The Italian Carnival is associated with
several song types, especially the Carnival of Bagolino, Brescia. Choirs and brass bands are a part of the mid-Lenten holiday,
while the begging song tradition extends through many holidays throughout the year.
Home,
Italian Folk Music,
Italian Songs,
Italian Music
References
- Surian, Alessio, "Tenores and Tarantellas." World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Ed. Simon Broughton, Mark Ellignham, and Richard Trillo. London: The Rough Guides., 1999, 189-201. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
