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Traditional, social, and patriotic songs Since the Middle Ages, and with particular emphasis in the period of the construction of the "Nation Italy", 1850-1945, the repertoire of social, political and patriotic songs have played a role that goes beyond the field of pure musical consumption, involving the public on a broader psychological and political-cultural level. Since these are songs composed by authors often linked to the most popular political and social environment and known to the oral tradition, it is difficult to indicate precisely when this production should start. Michele Straniero indicated a starting point when: «the Latin or lowLatin song ends»; an example of this passage is the song La pastora e il lupo, which dates back, at least for the text, to one of the Latin songs of the medieval Carmina Burana. "The Italian popular song, in fact, is formed and transformed into that melting pot of moods, sounds and culture that was the late Middle Ages, through the dialectic of religious or secular feast, in the same way and at the same time in which it forms the popular drama, that is to say the nucleus of street or square theater from which both sacred performances and parodistic carnival processions will be born.” Giosuè Carducci and Alessandro D'Ancona were in support of popular poetry both an integral part of national literature and also originated in literary art. For this reason, at the beginning of our written literature, we see the case of the flowering of popular traditional poems and songs: frottole, strambotti, songs and lauds, serenades and motets, offered in the widest variety of rhythms and meters on themes that follow from the news to love, from war to pathetic. It was the study of popular traditions, Giuseppe Pitré written by the authors of the songs, generally very humble people, composing the pieces at the end of the work day. When considering this production it is important to pay attention to how the transmission of the songs takes place: by imitation through oral

communication or collective creation when a song is transformed into a composition of collective heritage. Just as it should be kept in account that the music of traditional origin belongs not to a precise author, but “to the social group that preserves and reproduces it through the living memory of people. It is passed on to the younger members of the group through direct practice and not through schools and books. The variants are so numerous that there is no "original" version distinct from its variants ... Finally, popular music is always tied to a purpose shared with the whole community; each song exists to be performed according to a specific social occasion.” This idea is strengthened by Roberto De Simone's reflections when he claims that traditional songs must be collected not as incomprehensible pieces of past cultures, but as fruits of a culture still alive without leaving their functionality and a language to be articulated “time and always to be composed in a new way.” The reflection on the evolution of Italian popular songs must also take into account the studies on folklore that have considered the traditional creative dimension totally independent from that of the author's production. From this point of view, the nineteenth century becomes the fundamental period for the spread of patriotic songs. Also because in this period the works of the folklore scholars mature, both of those who limit their intervention to research, and of those, like Costantino Nigra (1828-1907) who intend to knot the threads with the popular tradition and perpetuate its diffusion. As already mentioned, the other dominant figure in the research on traditional Italian music is that of Giuseppe Pitré (1841-1916), undisputed researcher and master of folklore in our country. After realizing the Library of Sicilian popular traditions, together with Salomone Marino, he set up the periodical publication Archive for the study of popular traditions that quickly became a reference point for scholars and researchers. With Pitré, folkloric material finally acquires a historical dimension. In its wake, many researchers move, such as Ungarelli, Pergoli, Rondini, Congedo, Caliari, Novati, who lay the foundations of ethnomusicology on which Giulio Fara (1880-1949) and Alberto Favara (1863-1923) work at the turn of the century. In particular, Fara takes new steps in the study of musical

folklore. It is precisely from his research that a subdivision of Italy is owed according to an idea of popular song as a sung form. According to this point of view, there are two areas: the alpina, which includes the north, and the Italian, which embraces the center-south. In the first the narrative songs of the Celts would dominate, in the second the lyrical chant, extended however to the whole Mediterranean area. The distinction recalls that between Neapolitan song, from the center-south, dominated by ecstatic song, and song from the north, instead originated from Gregorian chant. After the studies of Pitré, Fara and Favara the research on traditional music has come to a halt when "the Crocian hegemony and the fascist regime have, since the 1920s, weakened the good relationship between academic studies and popular traditions" and began to dominate the Italian cultural scene. If, in fact, fascism favored the interpretation of the folkloric repertoire as a great testimony of our national culture as opposed to the others, Crocianism tended instead to consider traditional culture with a judgment of inferiority compared to the so-called higher cultured art. Apart from the work of Michele Barbi (1867-1941), Francesco Pratella (1880-1955) and Paolo Toschi, we need to get to the observations on the folklore of Antonio Gramsci to witness a revival in research on the heritage of traditional music. In 1948, the same year as the publication of the Quaderni del carcere di Gramsci, the National Center for Popular Music Studies was founded in Rome by Giorgio Nataletti (1907- 1972), which became a point of reference for folklore research. The following year Ernesto De Martino (19081965) developed Gramsci's observations with the formulation of the concept of "progressive folklore", which relaunches the traditional heritage in the light of a new conscious and civil creativity. De Martino's work will find extensive development in the subsequent work of Gianni Bosio and the New Italian Canzoniere, the premise of the great season of folk-revival which will feature Roberto De Simone's research with the New Popular Singing Company. Songs of regional tradition

"In Campania there is a beautiful and disturbing legend about the origin of popular songs. One sings of revenge, balcony serenades, transporting wine, venting/lamenting, carrying loads by donkey, etc.” If the Roman and Neapolitan singing traditions offer an endless repertoire made up of songs of various historical and geographical origins, the other Italian regions also have a rich "catalog" of songs and ballads developed according to the distinction proposed at the start of this chapter dedicated to popular songs: the north of Italy, more tied to the Celtic roots, mostly presents narrative songs, while the south is tied to the creative and love song in which the development of the form has a central weight. However, these are general indications, susceptible to wide exceptions, due to the influence of dance music or local ethnic cultures which propose specific repertoires linked to extra-national traditions. In Piedmont, for example, the culture of work influences narrative songs, including La monferrina, which has always been one of the most popular, and in the Occitan and Valle d'Aosta border areas there are different traditions with profound influences - the language above all - which they come from beyond the Alps: among the titles, Montanaro emigrato, Bella rosa, Pastora fedele, Mugnaio. There is also a large production of more typically Turin songs, both author and non, mainly related to small episodes or city characters; here are some titles: Primavera a Türin, ‘N barca ‘n sel Po, Marieme veui Marieme, ‘L bel alpin, Totina, etc. Still speaking of exceptions from the general lines, Liguria, especially in Genoa, offers the vocal tradition of the trallallero, "Multi-voice singing style, where these human voices become instrument, organ, choral, very fine texture of colors and sounds / a song in which / the text is more than anything else a pretext, a vague thematic suggestion.” The origins of this polyvocal song are obscure, although scholars are inclined to believe that he was born at sea, on ships, where it was difficult to bring instruments and to make music one had to resort to the voice. It is a distant tradition, but revived in the nineties of this century when the Genoese groups

of the Atrocious Voices and Sensasciou used the technique in a pop context. One of the richest regions of popular songs is Lombardy, both in the repertoire of those typically Milanese and in songs of peasant origin. Among the latter, the queen of all epic-lyrical ballads, not only from Milan but from all over northern Italy, is Donna Lombarda, of whom Costantino Nigra, a great scholar of Italian folklore, lists sixteen versions. Then we must remember the long list of songs of the famous Barbapedanna, a legendary character of the Lombard tradition that would have handed down - since the seventeenth century according to Alessandro Visconti - the songs linked above all to the peasant tradition, including El piscinin, la Marianna la va in campagna, Crapa pelada (later reworked by Gorni Kramer), El risott. But the amount of songs is enormous and, as happened in Naples and Rome with the collections of Roberto Murolo and Sergio Centi, Nanni Svampa, musician, researcher, and member of the group of Owls, has collected a large number of Lombard and Milanese songs in an anthology of twelve LPs. The great dialectal repertoire of author developed with the compositions of artists from different backgrounds such as Giovanni D’Azi deserves a special mention - he will celebrate his Madunina and Nostalgia de Milan-, I Gufi, Fiorenzo Carpi and Dario Fo, who gave life in different ways to a real re-foundation of the Milanese song.

In the three Venetian regions and in Friuli, the dialectal song takes the form of "strambotto, which is called villotta, lyrical, monostrofic and amorous", a musical composition used above all to narrate stories of love and related to daily life. Among the author's Venetian ones we mention El gondolier, Do cori ‘na gondoa, Dove ti va Nineta, Soto el ponte de’ l’abacia. In Friuli, for historical and geographical reasons, there is also the influence of German and Slovenian singing, which has been strongly affected by religious music. Among the popular songs of Emilia Romagna many are dedicated to work and related to the economic development of the Po Valley: very famous in this regard is Gli scariolanti, which recalls the reclamation work of the Ferrara area made around 1880. Romagna, then, in addition to the enormous patrimony of dance music known under the term "smooth", has also developed an autonomous repertoire of political and anarchist songs. In general, the entire Po Valley has seen a catalog of farmers' songs and protest animated by interpreters in many cases then become protagonists of the folk-revival of the sixties: among these, Giovanna Daffini, extraordinary interpreter of political song and songs of work of the mondine (L’amarezza delle mondine, Sciur padrun da li beli braghi bianchi, Amore mio non piangere) e il Duo di Piadena (L’uva fogarina, La santa Caterina dei pastai, etc.).

Tuscany is part of the stornello area, sometimes called "Respect", a singing form used above all in rural and suburban areas. But there is no lack of ballads, lullabies, songs of May(labor day in Italy) - known nationally thanks to the recovery work of Caterina Bueno and Dodi Moscati - but also songs in eighth rhyme, an ancient singing technique present throughout central-southern Italy. Livorno, Pisa, Siena, Florence boast a specific tradition of urban songs dedicated to local events and the typical characters of the places, narrated with the proverbial Tuscan irony. Like in Milan, Turin, Venice, Trieste, there is also a traditional and author's repertoire of dialectal songs immortalized by the beloved voices of Odoardo Spadaro and Carlo Buti. In the Amiata and Grosseto area, a song similar to the Ligurian trallallero is practiced, here called "il bei". In Umbria the stornello is used, which in the near Abruzzo becomes "canzune", while the songs of spite are called "canzune suspette" and the one of religious origin "canzungina". In the nearby Molise there is still the stornello and also the ballads, among which we must remember Tutte le funtanelle e la celebre, ma d’autore, Vola vola vola (by Dommarco and Albanese). To complete the discussion on this geographical area, it must be remembered that in some areas of Umbria, Marche and Abruzzo the "vatoccu" song is still alive, the probable inheritance of a polyvocal style present in the area in ancient times. The regional traditions of central-south Italy Popular dance music, which in the central-Lazio area is called saltarello and in Campania tarantella, unites numerous traditions from southern Italy to Sicily. We must not forget the richness of the repertoire present in other areas of southern Italy, in particular Puglia and Calabria. Puglia broadly presents two distinct cultural realities. The internal one is marked by a Gargano tradition more tied to the vocal dimension and immortalized by the voices of Carmelita Gadaleta and the "peasant poet" of Apricena, Matteo Salvatore;

but it should not be forgotten that Domenico Modugno himself, also from Puglia, started his career by interpreting the folk of his land. Particularly relevant is the work of Matteo Salvatore who, through his reworkings of lullabies and ballads, has made the peasant musical tradition of the Apulian lands and his compositions known to the whole world (San Michele del Gargano, Lu vecchiu, Vorrei cantar con te, La nascita, Lu grillu e la formica, etc.). The peninsular Puglia, Salento, however, presents a completely different story, marked by the great tradition of the pizzica tarantata, a raging rhythm of Mediterranean origin that has maintained an extraordinary vitality over the years. It is sufficient to remember the rock and rap version of the pizzica made in the nineties by numerous groups of the new generation. Also in Puglia, but in some areas of Calabria as well, the Albanian singing tradition is present with various types of songs, which in recent years has seen a revival through the recovery work of Silvana Licursi. The Lucanian and Calabrian folk entrusted the recovery of the songs of the peasant tradition to the work of new interpreters, including Antonello Ricci, and to the revival of forgotten instruments such as the bagpipe. Another world rich in singing tradition is the Sicilian one where the so-called carts and storytellers' songs have maintained great vitality thanks to the work of artists such as Ciccio Busacca (Lu trenu de lu suli, Lamentu pi la morti di Turiddu Carnevali, Lu piscaturi sfortunatu), Otello Profazio and Rosa Balistreri, who have reworked, sometimes recreated from scratch, the repertoires starting from ciuri (the Sicilian stornelli with two or three verses) or from traditional songs. It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the work of artists so important for Sicilian politics and culture. Otello Profazio and Rosa Balistreri together have created a fundamental rereading for the knowledge of traditional Sicilian music; among the common works we mention Levatillu stu cappeddu, La barunissa by Carini, Mi votu e mi rivotu. In other cases their work was based instead on the lyrics of the Sicilian poet Ignazio Buttitta. Finally, the Sardinian musical reality deserves a separate discussion, a true sound continent for its richness and variety of

traditions, where ancestral practices of ancient memory are still very popular. The virile polyvocality performed by the formations of the tenores barbaricini and of the Gallura area is still widespread on the island, a millennial heritage that has experienced an extraordinary international revival also in the field of pop music, thanks to the interest of artists such as Peter Gabriel. Still very alive are the lyricmonostrofic songs - muttos, muttettos, battorina -, the religious ones and above all the practice of folk dance with accompaniment of accordion or launeddas, the extraordinary triple Sardinian clarinet that works like a bagpipe even if it uses the reserve d air supplied by the player's oral cavity instead of the skin skin. Finally, it should not be forgotten that the Sardinian island also had its Rosa Balistreri, its Giovanna Daffini, in the voice of the singer of Siligo (Sassari) Maria Carta. His interpretations of songs from the areas of Logudoro, Gallura and Campidano are very famous. Nursery rhymes and religious songs Even if we do not want to divert the discussion from the main topic which is the song, the report would not be complete if we did not at least mention a wide repertoire of different songs, styles and features, which however influenced the song in various ways. These are, for example, «tales, nursery rhymes, merry-go-rounds, songs and any other form of popular poetry that insiders understand in the global definition of" childhood rhymes, which are one of the most important components in the field of oral communication study.” It is no coincidence that extensive studies and research have been dedicated to them. In 1920 Elisabetta Oddone published the volume Popular songs of the children of Italy, in 1937 the editor Rispoli published How children of Italy play, then in 1941 the songbook of the children by Achille Schinelli was released. More recently (1969) the Besso Foundation published Conte, cantilene and nursery rhymes described and illustrated by children, edited by Maroni Lumbruso, and Canti per Gioca (1980) by Goitre and Seritti, followed, in 1981, by O che bel castello of AV Savona and Ninne Nanne by Tino Saffiotti. The wide publicity shows that there is a large production of chants and nursery rhymes all over the country,

from the Friulian lullaby Sdrindulaile to the Tuscan children's lullabies. Bovi, bovi, dove andate? and Fate la nanna coscine di pollo, to the Lazio love song then transformed into the song for children O bell ache dormi, or finally to the Sicilian ones Figlio mio ti voglio bene and Er alavò. Different discourse regards the nursery rhymes functional to the game and the socialization, among which it is sufficient to remember the famous Giro giro tondo, O quante belle figlie, È arrivato l’ambasciatore, Al canto del cucù, La fiera di mast’André, because, for the their own characteristics of repetitiveness and cantability, have been the ones most subjected to reworkings and reinventions and therefore have more often crossed the path of the songs, as in the case of Girotondo by Fabrizio De André and of the Area or ballads by Angelo Branduardi, where they are present extensive quotes from popular nursery rhymes and songs. The sector of children's songs should be approached that of ecclesiastical songs or inspired by religious rites and moments, because it too consists of songs with a moral purpose and with nonconsumerist functions. This area includes the songs of Christmas and Easter and those that celebrate the figures of faith. It should not seem strange that motifs dedicated to sacred subjects are included in this research, if you think, for example, that Bianco Natale (White Christmas), by the famous American interpreter Bing Crosby, is the absolute best-selling and most popular song in the history of the world song. The songs dedicated to these topics, both of secular and religious origin, are very numerous (some famous examples are Tu scendi dalle stelle, by Alfonso Maria de ’Liguori; Astro del ciel, Mira il tuo popolo, etc.). To these must be added the songs and ballads from the rich dialectal tradition, such as the famous Sant'Antonio del deserto,...