Free Essays on Decline Of Italian Folk Music

Music is a form of art that captures the feelings and emotions of its people. In order to do so, it must interact with the listeners and change with the times. Italy’s musical landscape is a perfect example of this. This is seen in the transition from peasant folk songs to commercial pop music during the early nineteenth century to the Nineteen-Nineties. The decline of traditional folk music, not its total disappearance however, and the rise of commercial pop can be culturally linked to the changes in Italian society. This movement can be contributed with the help of technology, musical influence from America and the ascent of the combined singer and songwriter. The beginnings of Italian folk music echo the sounds of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, North Africa and so forth. All these cultural influences have gathered and meet in Italy, â€Å"the cultural crossroads of the Mediterranean†(Stone 1). Folk music was the raw, and natural music of Italy. It captured â€Å"work chants of fishermen and peasants, love songs, courting and wedding tunes, tarantellas (dances of possession), religious and pastoral songs, and lullabies†(3). Italian folk instruments include the accordion, zampogna, which is similar to a bagpipe, flutes, acoustic guitars, violins and fiddles. In 1954, Alan Lomax, an ethnomusicologist, journeyed to Italy to study and record folk music. It was then when he came to the realization that the tradition of folk music began to decline. The following expresses Lomax’s opinion of the scarcity of appreciation for the Italian traditional folk song: So far as the Italian amusement industry is concerned, the only worth while native traditions of those of Naples and the Alps. The combined battery of radio, television and the jukebox pours out a steady barrage of Neapolitan song, American jazz, and opera, day in and day out, as if some unseen musical administrators had resolved to wipe o... Free Essays on Decline Of Italian Folk Music Free Essays on Decline Of Italian Folk Music Music is a form of art that captures the feelings and emotions of its people. In order to do so, it must interact with the listeners and change with the times. Italy’s musical landscape is a perfect example of this. This is seen in the transition from peasant folk songs to commercial pop music during the early nineteenth century to the Nineteen-Nineties. The decline of traditional folk music, not its total disappearance however, and the rise of commercial pop can be culturally linked to the changes in Italian society. This movement can be contributed with the help of technology, musical influence from America and the ascent of the combined singer and songwriter. The beginnings of Italian folk music echo the sounds of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, North Africa and so forth. All these cultural influences have gathered and meet in Italy, â€Å"the cultural crossroads of the Mediterranean†(Stone 1). Folk music was the raw, and natural music of Italy. It captured â€Å"work chants of fishermen and peasants, love songs, courting and wedding tunes, tarantellas (dances of possession), religious and pastoral songs, and lullabies†(3). Italian folk instruments include the accordion, zampogna, which is similar to a bagpipe, flutes, acoustic guitars, violins and fiddles. In 1954, Alan Lomax, an ethnomusicologist, journeyed to Italy to study and record folk music. It was then when he came to the realization that the tradition of folk music began to decline. The following expresses Lomax’s opinion of the scarcity of appreciation for the Italian traditional folk song: So far as the Italian amusement industry is concerned, the only worth while native traditions of those of Naples and the Alps. The combined battery of radio, television and the jukebox pours out a steady barrage of Neapolitan song, American jazz, and opera, day in and day out, as if some unseen musical administrators had resolved to wipe o...