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JOHN CABOT UNIVERSITY

COURSE CODE: "ITS/MUS 293"
COURSE NAME: "Italian Music: A Modern Cultural History"
SEMESTER & YEAR: Fall 2022
SYLLABUS

INSTRUCTOR: Paolo Prato
EMAIL: [email protected]
 HOURS: MW 4:30 PM 5:45 PM
TOTAL NO. OF CONTACT HOURS: 45
CREDITS: 3
PREREQUISITES:
OFFICE HOURS: by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course will introduce students to Italian music from a social and cultural perspective. The course has a twofold approach: the first part explores the historical developments from national unification to date; the second part has a thematic approach and highlights a few emergent topics within critical cultural studies, at the intersection between Italian and popular music studies. Starting from the assumption that music is able to unveil many aspects of the present society by representing them in unprecedented forms, the aim of the course is that of presenting another perspective on Italy, in order to enlarge its understanding. The central role played by music in contributing to shape national character is tested through a constant comparison with other musical cultures and connections with other media and art forms (cinema, television, radio).
SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENT:
This course will introduce students to Italian music from a social and cultural perspective. The course has a twofold approach: the first part explores the historical developments from national unification to date; the second part has a thematic approach and highlights a few emergent topics within critical cultural studies, at the intersection between Italian and popular music studies. Starting from the assumption that music is able to unveil many aspects of the present society by representing them in unprecedented forms, the aim of the course is that of presenting another perspective on Italy, in order to enlarge its understanding. The central role played by music in contributing to shape national character is tested through a constant comparison with other musical cultures and connections with other media and art forms (cinema, television, radio).
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

By the end of the course students will be:

1        Familiar with the analytic and theoretical perspectives of popular music studies.

2        Asked to analyze, assess, and evaluate songs, poems and other musical forms that belong to a specific national culture. Once they are given the necessary basic information to place these works into national and international context, they will be able to understand what makes them relevant to national identity and at the same time what has made them appreciated and influential outside the national boundaries. An improvement in critical thinking will result from the appreciation of the historical distance and cultural proximity intertwined in cultural artifacts that are at the same time historically determined and timeless.

3        Able to demonstrate knowledge of Italian music cultural history as it relates to the development of the media, tastes, and markets.

4        Able to recognize various trends in the music production of Italy, be familiar with quite a few artists and performers that have characterized specific historical moments.

5        Able to confront expressions of Italian popular music with others coming from the USA and elsewhere.  

6        Able to increase their social responsibility: by being exposed to a significant segment of transnational culture, students will learn how to appreciate styles of storytelling and system of values they may not be familiar with. Approaching a different culture increases the awareness of how varied and interdependent our world is. Looking at how people from different cultures and background have coped with universal issues is critical to advancement in social responsibility.

The course contributes to the following learning outcomes of the Major in Italian Studies:

  • LOS 2:  Identify, interpret, and explain the major developments and forces shaping Italian social, political and cultural history.
  • LOS 4:  Demonstrate extensive knowledge of contemporary Italian culture and society and the ability to function effectively within it.
  • LOS 6: Apply appropriate methodological strategies and information literacy skills to identify, use and document primary and secondary materials in full respect of academic integrity and ethical standards.
  •  LOS 7: Communicate information and analytical interpretations clearly and effectively in written and spoken English.
TEXTBOOK:
NONE
REQUIRED RESERVED READING:
NONE

RECOMMENDED RESERVED READING:
NONE
GRADING POLICY
-ASSESSMENT METHODS:
AssignmentGuidelinesWeight
every three weeks ten per cent

-ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:
AWork of this quality directly addresses the question or problem raised and provides a coherent argument displaying an extensive knowledge of relevant information or content. This type of work demonstrates the ability to critically evaluate concepts and theory and has an element of novelty and originality. There is clear evidence of a significant amount of reading beyond that required for the course.
BThis is highly competent level of performance and directly addresses the question or problem raised.There is a demonstration of some ability to critically evaluatetheory and concepts and relate them to practice. Discussions reflect the student’s own arguments and are not simply a repetition of standard lecture andreference material. The work does not suffer from any major errors or omissions and provides evidence of reading beyond the required assignments.
CThis is an acceptable level of performance and provides answers that are clear but limited, reflecting the information offered in the lectures and reference readings.
DThis level of performances demonstrates that the student lacks a coherent grasp of the material.Important information is omitted and irrelevant points included.In effect, the student has barely done enough to persuade the instructor that s/he should not fail.
FThis work fails to show any knowledge or understanding of the issues raised in the question. Most of the material in the answer is irrelevant.
-ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________
ACADEMIC HONESTY
As stated in the university catalog, any student who commits an act of academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade on the work in which the dishonesty occurred. In addition, acts of academic dishonesty, irrespective of the weight of the assignment, may result in the student receiving a failing grade in the course. Instances of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Dean of Academic Affairs. A student who is reported twice for academic dishonesty is subject to summary dismissal from the University. In such a case, the Academic Council will then make a recommendation to the President, who will make the final decision.
STUDENTS WITH LEARNING OR OTHER DISABILITIES
John Cabot University does not discriminate on the basis of disability or handicap. Students with approved accommodations must inform their professors at the beginning of the term. Please see the website for the complete policy.
SCHEDULE

Premise:

“For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing!”, wrote Jacques Attali, who specified: “Music is more than an object of study: it is a way of perceiving the world”.

This course moves from this theoretical and methodological premise – shared by a long list of social thinkers, sociologists, economists and, more recently, media and popular culture scholars – to offer a different look on Italy.

WEEK 1:  

1.1.        Music and National Character I: Opera, an Italian brand

Music as a source for the understanding of Italian culture, history, and society. Some key concepts: music and cultural studies: politics, gender, ethnicity, and generational issues. What is Italian music: features, genres, and fortunes. Its place within the international context, past and present. Naples, Rome, Milan: musical cities in history. A look from outside: accounts from foreign visitors and observers. The system of opera between art and industry.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Giuseppe Verdi, Va’ pensiero (original vs remake by Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio)

-         Little Opera, a documentary film by Louis Wallecan

Readings:

Marcello Sorce Keller, “Italy in Music: A Sweeping (and Somewhat Audacious) Reconstruction of a Problematic Identity”, in Fabbri-Plastino 2014.

Paolo Prato, “The Italian Character” and “Little Opera”, in ITALIAN AMERICAN REVIEW vol. 6.2., 2016

WEEK 2:   

1.2.        Music and National Character II: sounds to and from abroad

The making of a nation: Risorgimento and the role of opera, hymns, civil and folk songs in constructing an Italian identity. Neapolitan song: a second home for Italians abroad. Migrant music: diaspora and the spread of stereotypes. Shaping Italian American culture: record labels, artists, venues. Caruso and the fortunes of ‘operatic’ pop, from Pavarotti to Bocelli.

Case studies/ audiovisual material shown in class:

-         Andrea Bocelli

-         Renato Carosone, Tu vuo’ ffà l’americano   

Readings:

John Zucchi, excerpts from The Little Slaves of the Harp: Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London, and New York, McGill-Queen's Press, 1998.

Iain Chambers, “Some Notes on Neapolitan Song: From Local Tradition to Worldly Transit”, in

THE WORLD OF MUSIC, Vol. 45, No. 3, Cross-Cultural Aesthetics, 2003.

Simona Frasca, excerpts from Italian Birds of Passage. The Diaspora of Italian Musicians in New York, Palgrave MacMillan 2014.

 

WEEK 3:

1.3.        Italian Pop I: from “radio days” to the economic miracle

The Fascist era: music between escapism and propaganda. The birth of an entertainment industry: records, radio, cinema and the rise of Italian canzone. From Post war to the ‘fabulous’ Sixties: the Sanremo Song Festival and the centrality of TV in shaping a mainstream taste. First signs of a youth culture: Beat music and the cover record mania. Beach songs: a distinctive Italian vogue.

Case studies/ audiovisual material shown in class:

-         Mamma (excerpt from the film by Guido Brignone,1941)

-         Domenico Modugno, Nel blu dipinto di blu (and its many cover versions)

-         Amen Corner, If Paradise (cover of Il paradiso, by Lucio Battisti)

Readings:

Franco Fabbri, “Canzone”, in EPMOW (Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World) 2017

Franco Fabbri, “And the Bitt Went On”, in Fabbri-Plastino 2014

Roberto Agostini, “Sanremo Effects: the Festival and the Italian Canzone (1950s-1960s)”, in Fabbri-Plastino 2014

WEEK 4: 

1.4.        Italian Pop II: the Golden Age

The Seventies: when music became political. Rock, social commitment and new lifestyles. Rise and fall of pop festivals: the denied utopia. Punk and New Wave: Italian underground speaks English. The Eighties: Europop and disco in Italy, when style replaced engagement. First signs of a queer culture. Cantautori (singer-songwriters), between poetry and intimacy.

Case studies/ audiovisual material shown in class:

-         Nudi verso la follia (Parco Lambro 76), a documentary film by Angelo Rastelli

-         Italo Disco

2.4.     The Sanremo Song Festival

The mainstream event which condenses and portrays the major trends of domestic popular music. From its beginnings as a radio show, to its boom in the Sixties: its achievement as a staple of the Italian character.

Readings:

Umberto Fiori, “Rock music and Politics in Italy”, in POPULAR MUSIC 4, 1984.

Peter Sarram, “Punk in Italy”, in EPMOW 2017z

Clarissa Clò, “Disco Fever: Italian and American Diasporic Journeys”, in ITALIAN AMERICAN REVIEW vol. 8 (no. 2), 2019.

Marco Santoro, “The Tenco Effect: Sanremo, Suicide and the Social Construction of Canzone d’autore”, in JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES, vol. 11 (no. 3), 2006.

 

WEEK 5:   

5.1. Into the Digital Age: global vs roots music

Italian artists who made it on the global market, from Zucchero to Pausini, from Eiffel 65 to Maneskin. Techno cultures, rave parties and the Riviera romagnola as the European pleasure drome. Folk cultures: tales of authenticity and resistance. Death and resurrection of traditional music: the Pizzica revival and the making of an autochthonous subculture. Religion and popular music. Tales from the diaspora and the globalization of Italian song: selling sounds, singers, directors and composers from early romanzas to New Orleans Jazz, from slow ballads to operatic pop.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

         -         La Notte della Taranta

-         Maneskin

Readings:

Dario Martinelli, “Lasciatemi cantare and Other Diseases: Italian Popular Music as Represented Abroad”, in Fabbri-Plastino 2014

Ambrogio Sparagna and Paolo Prato, “Pizzica”, in EPMOW 2017

Paolo Magaudda, “Disco, House and Techno: rethinking the local and the global in Italian Electronic Music”, in Practising Popular Music, 12th Biennial IASPM International Conference, Montreal 2003 Proceedings.

Paolo Prato, “Pop goes the Pope: religion and popular music in Italy”, in CHURCH, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE vol. 6 no.2, 2021

 

WEEK 6:   

6.1. National icons I: Mina and Celentano

The career of the most significant singers in the whole history of Italian song, a career begun in the late Fifties and still going on nowadays, with increasing success. Through their recordings, TV and film participations we will shed a closer light on the media system, the music business and the taste evolution of three generations.

 

6.2. National icons II: Fabrizio De Andrè

The “Italian Bob Dylan”: aesthetics and ethics musing around the most loved of Italian singer-songwriters. From his early days as exponent of the Genoese School to his rise to fame as a major contributor to a Mediterranean world music. “De Andrè studies”: the biggest research area within Italian popular music studies.

Readings:

Rachel Haworth, “Mina Celentano: Le Migliori. Popular Cultural Icons in Contemporary Italy”, in The Last Forty years of Popular Culture in Italy, ed. by Enrico Minardi & Paolo Desogu, Cambridge Un. Press, 2020.

Rachel Haworth, “Mina as a Transnational Popular Music Star”, in MODERN LANGUAGES OPEN 2018 (no. 1), 25

Guendalina Carbonelli, “Fabrizio De André’s La buona novella: A Social Revolution in Disguise!” In La memoria delle canzoni. Popular Music e identità italiana, ed.by Alessandro Carrera, Pasturana: Puntoacapo, 2017.

Paolo Prato: “Virtuosity and Populism: the everlasting appeal of Mina and Celentano”, in Made in Italy: Studies in Popular Music, ed. by F.Fabbri e G.Plastino, Routledge, 2014.

 

WEEK 7:   

7.1. Course review

7.2. Mid-term exam

  

WEEK 8: 

8.1. Italian in music I: Poetry and Engagement

Italian as the international language of music, since Renaissance. Poetry and popular song: literary and linguistic approaches to canzone. The “alternative” experience of Cantacronache, bringing together poets and musicians. Pasolini and Giovanna Marini. Iconic singer-songwriters: Luigi Tenco, Francesco Guccini, Francesco De Gregori, Paolo Conte, Franco Battiato, Fabrizio De André.  

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Cantacronache

-         Fabrizio De André, Non al denaro, non all’amore né al cielo (from E.L. Masters’ Spoon River Anthology)

Readings:

Goffredo Plastino, “Inventing Ethnic Music: Fabrizio De Andre’s Creuza de Ma and the Creation of Musica Mediterranea in Italy”, in Goffredo Plastino (ed.) Mediterranean Mosaic: Popular Music and Global Sounds, Routledge 2003.

Tony Mitchell, “Paolo Conte: Italian ‘Arthouse Exotic’”, in POPULAR MUSIC vol. 26 (3), 2007

     WEEK 9

9.1. Neapolitan dialect and postcard songs

The evolution of Italian language through songs’ lyrics, from Franciscan laudi to rap. The persistence of dialects and stereotypes. Neapolitan as a lingua franca for Italians. The Anglo-Neapolitan of Di Capri and Carosone. Updating local traditions with new sounds and rhythms: the example of Roman song and other “postcard-songs”.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Pino Daniele and “Neapolitan Power”

-         Ghali, Oh Happy Days

Readings:

Paolo Prato, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Transatlantic Stereotypes 1880s–1950s”, in G.Plastino and J.Sciorra (eds), Neapolitan Postcards: the Canzone napoletana as transnational subject, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham-Boulder-NY 2016.

Marco Santoro, “What Is a “cantautore”? Distinction and Authorship in Italian (popular) Music”, in POETICS 30, 2002.

9.2. Folk, civil and political songs

Dialects and regional songbooks. From national anthems to protest songs. World War I and the making of a national songbook. From Resistenza to students movements: partisan songs to new political chants.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Bella ciao, song of rebellion from Italy to the world

Readings:

Franco Fabbri, “Five Easy Pieces: Forty Years of Music and Politics from Bella Ciao to Berlusconi”, in FORUM ITALICUM Vol. 49 (no. 2), 2015

    WEEK 10:

10.1. Gender, identity and subcultures

Articulating images of masculinity and femininity from musical practices. Mondine (riceweeders): an early female subculture. From divas to starlets: women in Italian music (classical to rock). A female look at record industry: Caterina Caselli, entrepreneur and talent scout. Queer pop: untold stories of forgotten talents. Urban subcultures: negotiating group and local identity from Beats to neo-Melodics.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Renato Zero

-         Raffaella Carrà

Readings:

Clarissa Clò, “Dagli Appennini alle risaie: Italian Glocal Soundscapes, Memory, History, Performance in the Voice of Women”, in Graziella Parati and Anthony Julian Tamburri (ed.by), The Culture of Italian Migration. Diverse Trajectories and Discrete Perspective, Farleigh Dickinson Un. Press 2011.

Jacopo Tomatis, “Rediscovered Sisters: Women (and) Singer-Songwriters in Italy”, in The Singer-Songwriter in Europe, ed. by Isabelle Marc and Stuart Green, Ashgate 2016.

Jason Pyne, excerpt from The Art of Making Do in Naples, Un. of Minnesota Press 2012.

    WEEK 11:  

11.1. Geopolitics I: Americanization

The impact of American music, between reception, assimilation, and rejection: jazz and Latin American dances and rock & roll. Hippy counterculture and the international opposition to Vietnam War exported rock music to Italy. In the Eighties it was disco fever. Eventually, hip hop took over while Italian pop tended to be global.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Zucchero at Royal Albert Hall

-         Claudio Baglioni to Mario Biondi: Christmas songs revisited

Readings:

Alessandro Carrera, “Italy’s Blues: Folk Music and Popular Song from the Nineteenth Century to the 1990s”, in THE ITALIANIST 21-22, 2001-02.

Paolo Prato, “Santa Claus is Coming to Italy: Updating the Debate on Americanization”, in The Last Forty years of Popular Culture in Italy, ed by Enrico Minardi & Paolo Desogu, Cambridge Un. Press 2020.

 

    WEEK 12:

12.1. Geopolitics II: Europe and Latin America

The influence of other countries on domestic song: England, France, Spain and Latin America (Brazil especially) played a major role each in different decades. Music appreciation of cover versions of international hits recorded by Italian artists, compared to the originals.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Ornella Vanoni, covering Brazilian auteur’s songs

-         Iva Zanicchi, covering Greek songs

-         Milva, covering German songs

-         Various artists, covering English, Spanish and French songs

 

Readings

Paolo Prato, “Selling Italy by the Sound: Cross-Cultural Interchanges through Cover Records (1920s-to date)”, in POPULAR MUSIC 26: 3, 2007.

 

    WEEK 13:        

13.1. Classical and film music

Italian trademarks in the pre-industrial age: Naples and Venice as two main music centres in Europe. Avantgardes in the early XXth century: Futurism and the ‘art of noise’. Electronic and experimental music from the Post World War II to date. Soundtrack Italian style: Nino Rota and Fellini; Ennio Morricone from Cinecittà to Hollywood.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Luciano Berio, Laborintus II (text by Edoardo Sanguineti)

13.2. Italian jazz

How and when jazz came to Italy. Jazz and Fascism: Swing time on radio. From a mimicry phase to an original contribution: Italian musicians and the international jazz community. Umbria Jazz and other festivals. Jazz, rock and canzone: the multifaceted scene of nowadays.

Case studies/audiovisuals shown in class:

-         Stefano Bollani and Chick Corea

Readings

Marcello Piras, “Jazz and Black Music in Italy from 1900 to 1940” (unpublished work, provided by the teacher)

Gianmarco Borio, “Music as Plea for Political Action; the presence of musicians in Italian protest movement”, in B. Kutschke and B. Norton (eds), Music and Protest in 1968, Cambridge Un. Press, Cambridge 2013.

Anna Harwell Celenza, excerpts from Jazz Italian Style. From Its Origins in New Orleans to Fascist Italy and Sinatra, Cambridge Un. Press, Cambridge 2017.

 

    WEEK 14:  

14.1. In class presentations 

14.2. Final review

 

REFERENCES                                                                           

EPMOW 2017: Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Genres: Europe vol. XI, Bloosmbury: London-New York, 2017 – eds. Paolo Prato & David Horn

Franco Fabbri & Goffredo Plastino, Made in Italy: Studies in Popular Music, Routledge: London-New York, 2014.