Il Canto degli Italiani

"Il Canto degli Italiani" is a patriotic song written by Goffredo Mameli and set to music by Michele Novaro in 1847, currently serving as the national anthem of Italy. It is best known among Italians as the "Inno di Mameli", after the author of the lyrics, or "Fratelli d'Italia" , from its opening line. The piece, in 4/4 time signature and B-flat major key, has six strophes, and a refrain sung after each. The sixth group of verses, almost never performed, recalls the first strophe's text.

The song was very popular during Italian unification and the following decades. However, after the Kingdom of Italy's 1861 proclamation, the republican and Jacobin connotations of "Fratelli d'Italia" were difficult to reconcile with the new state's monarchic constitution. The kingdom chose instead "Marcia Reale" (Royal March), the House of Savoy's official anthem, composed by order of King Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1831.

After the Second World War, Italy became a republic. On 12 October 1946, it chose "Il Canto degli Italiani" as a provisional national anthem. The song would retain this role as de facto anthem of the Italian Republic, and after several unsuccessful attempts, gained de jure status on 4 December 2017.

Origins


The text of "Il Canto degli Italiani" was written by the Genoese Goffredo Mameli, then a young student and a fervent patriot, inspired by the mass mobilizations that would lead to the revolutions of 1848 and the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849). Sources differ on the precise date of the text's drafting: according to some scholars, Mameli wrote the hymn 10 September 1847, while others date the composition's birth to two days before, 8 September. After discarding all extant music, on 10 November 1847 Goffredo Mameli sent the text to Turin and the Genoese composer Michele Novaro, who lived at the time with the activist Lorenzo Valerio.

The poem captured Novaro and he decided to set it to music on 24 November 1847. Thirty years later, the patriot and poet Anton Giulio Barrili recalled Novaro's description of the event thus: Mameli held Republican and Jacobin sympathies and supported the French Revolution credo liberté, égalité, fraternité. The text of "Il Canto degli Italiani" drew inspiration from the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise". For example, "Stringiamci a coorte" recalls the "La Marseillaise" verse, "Formez vos bataillons" ("Form your battalions").

In the original version of the hymn, the first verse of the first verse read "Hurray Italy", but Mameli changed it to "Fratelli d'Italia" almost certainly at Novaro's suggestion. The latter, when he received the manuscript, also added a rebellious "Si!" ("Yes!") at the end of the final refrain.

Another verse in the first draft was dedicated to Italian women, but eliminated by Mameli before the official debut. It read: "Tessete o fanciulle / bandiere e coccarde / fan l'alme gagliarde / l'invito d'amor. (. English: Weave maidens / flags and cockades / they make souls gallant / the invitation of love.)"

Debut


On 10 December 1847, a demonstration before the Santuario della Nostra Signora di Loreto in Oregina, Genoa, was officially dedicated to the 101st anniversary of the Portoria quarter's popular rebellion during the War of the Austrian Succession, which had expulsed the Austrians from the city. In fact, it was an excuse to protest against foreign occupations in Italy and induce Charles Albert of Sardinia to embrace the Italian cause of liberty and of unity.

On this occasion, the flag of Italy was shown and Filarmonica Sestrese, the municipal band of Sestri Ponente, played Mameli's anthem for 30,000 patriots who had come to Genoa from all over Italy for the event. This event is generally believed to be the song's first public performance, but there may have been a previous public rendition on 9 November 1847 in Genoa, of which the original documentation was lost.

That performance would have been by the Filarmonica Voltrese founded by Goffredo's brother Nicola Mameli, and used a first draft of "Il Canto degli Italiani" that differs from the final version (see above). As its author was infamously Mazzinian, the piece was forbidden by the Piedmontese police until March 1848: its execution was also forbidden by the Austrian police, which also pursued its singing interpretation — considered a political crime — until their empire's dissolution. On 18 December 1847, the Pisan newspaper L'Italia wrote how the song evoked public spirits: "... For many evenings numerous youths have come together in the Accademia filodrammatici to sing a hymn of Mameli, set to music by the maestro Novaro. Poetry ... is full of fire, music fully corresponds to it ..."

Two of Mameli's autographed manuscripts have survived to the 21st century: the first draft, with Mameli's hand annotations, at the Mazzinian Institute, and the letter, from Mameli on 10 November 1847 to Novaro, at the Museo del Risorgimento in Turin.

Novaro's autographed manuscript to the publisher Francesco Lucca is located in the Ricordi Historical Archive. The later Istituto Mazziniano sheet lacks the final strophe ("Son giunchi che piegano...") for fear of censorship. These leaflets were to be distributed at the 10 December demonstration in Genoa. The hymn was also printed on leaflets in Genoa, by the printer Casamara.

The following decades


"Il Canto degli Italiani" debuted with only a few months left to the revolutions of 1848. Shortly before the promulgation of the Statuto Albertino, the constitution that Charles Albert of Sardinia conceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia in Italy on 4 March 1848, political gatherings of more than ten people had become legal, and catchy songs like "Il Canto degli Italiani" could spread by word of mouth. Patriots from the 10 December demonstration spread the hymn all over the Italian peninsula. The hymn was very popular among the Italian people and the ranks of the Republican volunteers. It was commonly sung in most parts of Italy during demonstrations, protests and revolts as a symbol of the Italian unification.

The Savoyard authorities censored the fifth strophe to preserve diplomatic relations with the Austrians; but after the declaration of war against the Austrian Empire and the beginning of the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849), the soldiers and the Savoy military bands performed it so frequently that King Charles Albert was forced to withdraw all censorship. The rebels sang "Il Canto degli Italiani" during the Five Days of Milan and at Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia's promulgation of the Statuto Albertino (also in 1848). Volunteers for the brief Roman Republic (1849) sung it, and Giuseppe Garibaldi hummed and whistled it during the defense of Rome and the flight to Venice.

From the unification of Italy to the First World War


In the 1860, the corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi used to sing the hymn in the battles against the Bourbons in Sicily and Southern Italy during the Expedition of the Thousand. Giuseppe Verdi, in his Inno delle nazioni ("Hymn of the nations"), composed for the London International Exhibition of 1862, chose "Il Canto degli Italiani" to represent Italy, putting it beside "God Save the Queen" and "La Marseillaise".

After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861), the "Marcia Reale" ("Royal March"), composed in 1831, was chosen as the national anthem of unified Italy. "Il Canto degli Italiani" had too radical content, with its strong republican and Jacobin connotations, and did not combine well with the monarchical conclusion to the unification of Italy. Mameli's republican — in fact Mazzinian — creed, was, however, more historical than political, and socialist and anarchist circles also disliked "Il Canto degli Italiani" as too conservative.

The song was one of the most common songs during the Third Italian War of Independence (1866). At the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, the last step in Italian unification, choirs sang it together with La Bella Gigogin and the "Marcia Reale"; and "Il Canto degli Italiani" received bersaglieri fanfare.

After the end of the Italian unification, "Il Canto degli Italiani" was taught in schools, and remained very popular among Italians. However, other musical pieces connected to the political and social situation of the time, such as the Hymn of the workers or "Goodbye to Lugano", addressed everyday problems. These partly obscured the popularity of reunification hymns.

"Fratelli d'Italia", thanks to references to patriotism and armed struggle, returned to success during the Italo-Turkish War (1911–1912), where it joined "A Tripoli"; and in the trenches of the First World War (1915–1918). That time's Italian irredentism found a symbol in "Il Canto degli Italiani", although in the years following he would have been preferred, in the patriotic ambit, musical pieces of greater military style such as "La Leggenda del Piave", the "Canzone del Grappa" or "La campana di San Giusto". Shortly after Italy entered the First World War, on 25 July 1915, Arturo Toscanini performed "Il Canto degli Italiani" at an interventionist demonstration.

During fascism


Fascist chants, such as "Giovinezza" (or "Inno Trionfale del Partito Nazionale Fascista") took on great importance, after the 1922 March on Rome. Although not official anthems, they were widely disseminated, publicized, and taught in schools. Non-fascist melodies, including "Il Canto degli Italiani," were discouraged.

In 1932, the National Fascist Party secretary Achille Starace decided to prohibit musical pieces that did not sing to Benito Mussolini and, more generally, did not link to fascism. "Subversive" songs, i.e. those of anarchist or socialist type, such as the anthem of the workers or "The Internationale", and non-sympathetic foreign nations' official anthems, such as "La Marseillaise", were banned. Sympathetic regimes' anthems, such as the Nazi hymn "Horst-Wessel-Lied" and the Francoist song "Cara al Sol", were contrariwise encouraged. After the 1929 Lateran Treaty with the Holy See, anti-clerical passages were also banned.

In the spirit of this directive, some songs were resized, such as "La Leggenda del Piave", sung almost exclusively during the National Unity and Armed Forces Day every 4 November. The chants used during the Italian unification were however tolerated: "Il Canto degli Italiani", which was forbidden in official ceremonies, received a certain condescension on particular occasions.

During the Second World War, regime musicians released fascist pieces via radio, but very few songs spontaneously arose amongst the population. Songs like "A primavera viene il bello", "Battaglioni M", "Vincere!" and "Camerata Richard" were common. The most famous spontaneous song was "Sul ponte di Perati".

After the 8 September 1943 armistice, the Italian government provisionally adopted as a national anthem "La Leggenda del Piave", replacing the "Marcia Reale". Cooperation with the fascist dictatorship was now egg on the monarchy's face; a song that recalled the Italian victory in World War I could infuse courage and hope to the Royal Italian Army troops who now fought against Mussolini's Social Republic and Nazi Germany.

"Fratelli d'Italia" resounded in Allies-freed Southern Italy and partisan-controlled areas to the north. "Il Canto degli Italiani", in particular, had a good success in anti-fascist circles, where it joined partisan songs "Fischia il vento" and "Bella ciao". Some scholars believe that the success of the piece in anti-fascist circles then was decisive for its choice as provisional anthem of the Italian Republic.

Often, "Il Canto degli Italiani" is wrongly referred to as the national anthem of the Fascist era. However, Mussolini's Republic had no official anthem, playing "Il Canto degli Italiani" and "Giovinezza" equally often at the ceremonies. "Il Canto degli Italiani" retained value to the fascists only for propaganda.

So Mameli's hymn was, curiously, sung by both partisans and fascists.

From provisional to official anthem


In 1945, at the end of the war, Arturo Toscanini directed a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's 1862 Inno delle nazioni in London, including "Il Canto degli Italiani". However, even after the birth of the Italian Republic, "La Leggenda del Piave" remained the temporary national anthem.

For the new anthem, a debate arose. Possible options included "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco; a completely new piece; "Il Canto degli Italiani"; the "Inno di Garibaldi"; and confirmation of "La Leggenda del Piave". The government then approved Republican War Minister Cipriano Facchinetti's proposal to adopt "Il Canto degli Italiani" as provisional anthem.

"La Leggenda del Piave" thus served as national anthem until the Council of Ministers meeting on 12 October 1946, when Facchinetti officially announced the provisional anthem for the 4 November National Unity and Armed Forces Day celebrations. The press release stated:

"... On the proposal of the Minister of War it was established that the oath of the Armed Forces to the Republic and to its Chief would be carried out on November 4th p.v. and that, temporarily, the anthem of Mameli is adopted as the national anthem ..."

Facchinetti also declared that a draft decree would be proposed to confirm "Il Canto degli Italiani" as the provisional national anthem of the newly formed Republic, but did not follow up on this promise. Instead, he proposed to formalize "Il Canto degli Italiani" in the Constitution of Italy, then being drafted.

The Constitution, finished in 1948, determined the national flag, but did not establish a national anthem or emblem; the latter was adopted by legislative decree on 5 May. A draft constitutional law prepared immediately afterwards sought to insert, after discussion of the national flag, the sentence "The Anthem of the Republic is the 'Il Canto degli Italiani'". This law, too, stalled.

"Il Canto degli Italiani" nonetheless had great success among Italian emigrants: "Fratelli d'Italia" scores are sold in Little Italies across the Anglosphere, and "Il Canto degli Italiani" is often played on more or less official occasions in North and South America. In particular, it was the "soundtrack" of post-WWII fundraisers in the Americas for the Italian population left devastated by the conflict.

President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, began, from 1999 to 2006, to revive "Il Canto degli Italiani" as a national symbol of Italy. Ciampi declared that: "... It is a hymn that, when you listen to it, makes you vibrate inside; it is a song of freedom of a people that, united, rises again after centuries of divisions, of humiliations ..."

In August 2016, a bill was submitted to the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to make "Il Canto degli Italiani" Italy's national anthem, and passed out of committee in July 2017. On 15 December 2017, on Gazzetta Ufficiale law nº 181 of 4 December 2017, was published after passing both houses of Parliament, and the law came into force on 30 December 2017.

Lyrics
This is the complete Italian anthem text, as commonly performed on official occasions. Goffredo Mameli's original poem includes neither repetitions nor the loud "Sì!" ("Yes!") at the end of the chorus.

The first strophe presents a personification of Italy who is ready to war to become free, and shall be victorious as Rome was in ancient times, "wearing" the helmet of Scipio Africanus who defeated Hannibal at the final battle of the Second Punic War. It also alludes to the ancient Roman custom that slaves cut their hair short as a sign of servitude: hence the Goddess of Victory must cut her hair and enslave herself to Rome (to make Italy victorious).

In the second strophe the author complains that Italy has been a divided nation for a long time, and calls for unity. In this strophe Mameli uses three poetic and archaic words: calpesti (modern Italian: calpestati), speme (modern speranza), raccolgaci (modern ci raccolga).

The third strophe is an invocation to God to protect the loving union of the Italians struggling to unify their nation once and for all. The fourth strophe recalls popular heroic figures and moments of the Italian fight for independence: the battle of Legnano, the defence of Florence led by Ferruccio during the Italian Wars, the riot started in Genoa by Balilla, and the Sicilian Vespers. The fifth strophe unequivocally marks Habsburg Austria as the Italian cause's primary enemy. It also links the Polish quest for independence to the Italian one.

The sixth and final verse, almost never performed, is missing in Mameli's original draft but appears in his second manuscript. However, it was omitted in the first printed editions of the text on the leaflet. The verse joyfully announces the unity of Italy and goes on to close the song with the same six lines that conclude the initial verse, thus giving the poem a circular structure.

Music


Novaro's musical composition is written in a typical marching time (4/4) and the key of B-flat major. It has a catchy character and an easy melodic line that simplifies memory and execution. On the harmonic and rhythmic level, the composition presents greater complexity.

From a musical point of view, the piece is divided into three parts: the introduction, the strophes and the refrain.

The twelve-bar introduction is an instrumental at allegro martial pace, with a dactyl rhythm that alternates one-eighth-note two-sixteenth-notes. The introduction divides into three four-bar segments, each alternating between a tonic chord and its dominant. The first four bars are in B♭ major; the second in G minor; and the last four bars return to B♭ to introduce the verses.

The strophes, therefore, attack in B♭. They repeat the same melodic unit, in various degrees and at different pitches. Each melodic unit corresponds to a fragment of the Mamelian hexasyllable, in accordance with the classical bipartite scheme ("Fratelli / d'Italia / ' Italia / s'è desta"). However, the usual leap of a diatonic interval does not match the anacrusic rhythm: on the contrary, the verses «Fratelli / d'Italia» and «dell'elmo / di Scipio» each begin with identical notes (respectively F or D). This weakens the syllable accentuation, and produces an audibly syncopated effect, contrasting the natural short-long succession of the paroxytone verse.

As written, the basic melodic unit combines a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note:

Some performances soften this rhythmic scan by equalizing the note durations (as an eighth note), for ease of singing and listening:

At bar 31, the song undergoes an unusual shift for the refrain recognizable in the most accredited recordings of the autograph score. It accelerates to an allegro mosso, and permanently modulates to E♭ major, yielding only to the relative minor (C minor) during the tercet "Stringiamci a coorte / siam pronti alla morte / L'Italia chiamò". Also, the refrain is characterized by a repeated melodic unit; in the last five bars, it grows in intensity, passing from pianissimo to forte to fortissimo with the indication crescendo e accelerando sino alla fine ("growing and accelerating to the end").

Recordings
The two authors have been dead for more than 70 years, and the copyrights have lapsed; the work is public domain. Novaro disclaimed compensation for printing music, ascribing his work to the patriotic cause. Giuseppe Magrini, who made the first print of "Il Canto degli Italiani", asked only for a certain number of printed copies for personal use. At Tito Ricordi's 1859 request to reprint the text of the song with his publishing house, Novaro ordered that the money be directly paid in favour of a subscription for Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Nevertheless, the publisher Sonzogno has attempted to collect royalties for use of the "Il Canto degli Italiani" score. It also has the possibility of making the official prints of the piece.

The oldest known sound recording of "Il Canto degli Italiani" (disc at 78 rpm for gramophone, 17 cm in diameter) is a 1901 recording of the Municipal Band of Milan under the direction of Pio Nevi.

One of the first recordings of "Fratelli d'Italia" was that of 9 June 1915, which was performed by the Neapolitan opera and music singer Giuseppe Godono. The song was recorded for the Phonotype label of Naples.

Another ancient recording received is that of the Gramophone Band, recorded in London for His Master's Voice on 23 January 1918.

During events
Over the years a public ritual has been established for the anthem's performance, still in force. According to the custom, whenever the anthem is played, if in an outdoor military ceremony personnel in formation present arms while personnel not in formation stand at attention (unless when saluting during the raising and lowering of the national flag, as well as the trooping of the national flag for service or unit decorations). If indoors (including military band concerts), all personnel stand at attention. Civilians, if they wish, can also put themselves to attention. On the occasion of official events, only the first two stanzas should be performed without the introduction. If the event is institutional, and a foreign hymn must also be performed, this is played first as an act of courtesy.

In 1970, the obligation, however, to perform the "Ode to Joy" of Ludwig van Beethoven, that is the official anthem of Europe, whenever "Il Canto degli Italiani" is played, remained almost always unfulfilled.