♪ The Musical World In Italy ♪

Italy has long been a center for European classical music, and by the beginning of the 20th century, Italian classical music had forged a distinct national sound that was decidedly romantic and melodic. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in society and in politics. Italian innovation in musical scales, harmony, notation, and theatre enabled the development of opera in the late 16th century, and much of modern European classical music, such as the symphony and concerto. Instrumental and vocal classical music is an iconic part of Italian identity, spanning experimental art music and international fusions to symphonic music and opera. Italian music has kept elements of the many peoples that have dominated or influenced the country, including Arabs, Greeks, Slavic Peoples, French and Spanish. The country's historical contributions to music are also an important part of national pride. Immigrant populations from around the Mediterranean, especially Greece, the Balkans and North Africa, have established large communities in the southern peninsula over the last thousand years.As a result, folk music on Sicily and the southern Italian mainland display features typical of elsewhere in the Mediterranean.Many tunes are long and highly ornamented in Oriental style. Melody has typically been important in most Italian musical forms, even at the expense of lyrics and harmonic complexity. This is true in opera, popular music and even, to some extent, in modern text-centered styles such as Italian hip hop and the music of the cantautori singer-songwriters.Music also played a role in the unification of the peninsula. During this period, some leaders attempted to use music to forge a unifying cultural identity. Music and politics have been intertwined for centuries in Italy. Just as many works of art in the Italian Renaissance were commissioned by royalty and the Roman Catholic Church, much music was likewise composed on the basis of such commissions—incidental court music, music for coronations, for the birth of a royal heir, royal marches, and other occasions. Composers who strayed ran certain risks. Among the best known of such cases was the Neapolitan composer Domenico Cimarosa, who composed the Republican hymn for the short-lived Neapolitan Republic of 1799. When the republic fell, he was tried for treason along with other revolutionaries. Cimarosa was not executed by the restored monarchy, but he was exiled.

The music instruments that are found in Italy:

Under wind instruments:

Ocarina

The ocarina is an ancient flute-like wind instrument.While several variations exist, an ocarina is typified by an oval-shaped enclosed space with four to twelve finger holes and a mouth tube projecting out from the body. It is often ceramic, but many other materials, such as plastic, wood, glass and metal may also be used.The ocarina is a very old family of instruments, believed to date back some 15,000 years.

How an ocarina works:
1. Air enters through the windway
2. Air strikes the labium, producing sound
3. Air vibrates throughout the inside of the ocarina
4. Covering and uncovering holes lowers and raises the pitch

Zufolo

Zufolo is an French fipple flute. First described in the 14th century, it had a rear thumb-hole, two front finger-holes and a conical bar, with a range of over two octaves.
In Sicily, zuffolo refers to a larger flute with a wider mouthpiece and six finger-holes.

Under string instruments:

Guitars-Chitarra battente

The chitarra battente (Italian: lit. "beating guitar") is a musical instrument, a chordophone of the flute family. At a casual glance, it is similar to the everyday classical guitar, but larger and typically strung with four steel strings. Nowadays it is typical of folk music mainly in Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata, as well as in other areas of southern Italy; in previous centuries was common in most of central and southern Italy.There is great variation in the size of the bouts (the rounded “hourglass” curves of the body of the instrument), kinds of wood, shape of the back, decorations, number of frets, etc. The strings are tuned in what is called a “re-entrant” system; that is, unlike a modern classical guitar, the progression from the bottom string to the top string does not simply go up in pitch, progressively. Here, in the four-string instrument, the third string (from the bottom) is lower than the second. Thus, a typical tuning of the four-string chittara battente, bass to treble, is A-D-B-E, where the third string, the B, is lower than the second string, the D.
The instrument is played without a plectrum, and the fingers achieve a wide of effects through plucking, strumming, beating the strings or the sound board, etc. The chitarra battente is typically used to accompany songs and dancing and is not used as a solo instrument. The most important center of production is in Bisignan in the province of Cosenza.