Both the opera stage and the piazza outside, where elite and popular cultures
mixed, were forums for popular patriotic songfests in 1848-49. In the piazzas especial
ly, the nerve center of the revolutions, popular music was created, heard and circulated
by individuals, departing army volunteers or revolutionary factions of various political
perspectives. Operatic music was brought the piazzas from the local opera houses by
artisan and peasant members of the chorus to which patriotic verses were often spontaneously
set. As one music theorist wrote in April 1848 in the pages of the journal, Gazzetta
Musicale di Milano, published by Ricordi the leading musical publisher, all music
was the "patrimony of the people." In 1848 circulation of the patriotic song generated
from Milan to Palermo found in Ricordi's in Milan a willing vehicle which promoted song
competitions. The demand for heroic songs to educate the people caused a rush to print
the collection of songs that the publishing house so readily encouraged. Many contributors
such as Goffredo Mameli, Luigi Mercantini, Gaetano Magazzari of Giuseppe Novella, who saw
his songs as "gift to the country," were prolific and popular. With the waves of republicanism,
many songs of 1848-49 were revived from the 1796-99 period, especially Jacobin songs which
hailed the planting of liberty trees or spoke to Italian fraternity, but many reflected local
and regional events which became transformed as they crossed the frontiers of the Italian states
carried by armies and volunteers and adapted to new heros, villains or events. Operas such as
Auber's "La Muette de Portici" based on the 1647 Neopolitan uprising remained
popular in 1848, and audiences enthusiastically created patriotic demonstrations during certain
arias and choruses of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, or especially Verdi operas. His "La
Battaglia di Legnano" produced in January 1849 on the eve of the Roman Republic and based
on the 12th century Lombard League's fight against the Holy Roman Empire was proclaimed the "opera
of the revolution." The opening chorus of that operas "Viva Italia", just as the
famed chorus "Va pensiero" of his earlier opera, "Nabucco," roused enthusiastic
patriotic audiences. The opera house hosted many benefit concerts for such events as the
defense of Venice, to support families left destitute by the revolutions or its widows. Many
opera houses closed in 1849 for financial reason, their lack of audiences too involved in
political events, or depleted of musician and staff who vacated the orchestra pit or
backstage to join the revolution. Many librettists such as Antonio Ghislanzoni
and Francesco Piave expressed republican sentiments and fought the Austrians in Lombardy and
Venetia. Revolutionaries like Giuseppe Mazzini, who loved music and arranged patriotic songs
to play on his guitar, saw the propaganda value of the patriotic song. Many of his and
Garibaldi's followers served as conduits for the mixing of both operatic and patriotic songs
and their survival into the 20th century. The national anthem of the Italian republic today,
written by the poet, Goffredo Mameli in Genoa in September 1847 attests to such popularity
and the political significance of musical culture in the revolutionary phase of the Italian Risorgimento.
Marion S. Miller
Amiconi, Tullio. Il Risorgimento Italiano attraverso i canti. Roma: Tip. Armellini, 1962.
Miller, Marion S. "Popular and elite musical culture in a revolutionary context," History of European Ideas, 11 (1989) 565-71.
Monterosso, Raf faello. La musica nel Risorgimento. Milano: Francesco Vallardi, 1948.
jgc revised this file (http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/~chastain/ip/musitaly.htm) on October 23, 2004.
Please E-mail comments or suggestions to chastain@www.cats.ohiou.edu
© 1997, 2004 James Chastain.