ITEM
L’Ha detto Mussolini Item Info
L’Ha detto Mussolini - item
- Object ID:
- demo_0285
- Creator:
- La Voce del Padrone
- Type of Sound:
- Music
- Lyrics Composer:
- Garofalo
- Music Composer:
- Domenico Cortopassi
- Instruments:
- Tenor; Orchestra
- Type of Music:
- Song
- Record Language:
- Italian
- Date:
- 1936
- Identifier:
- HN 1089
- Linked Recording:
- demo_0286
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Description:
- This recording is part of a vast propaganda repertoire of popular songs designed to accompany the political preparation and conduct of the Second Italo-Ethiopian Conflict, followed by the victory of Fascist troops and the founding of the Italian Empire in East Africa. These songs evoke this colonial war and its finality, using a wide range of modes and themes. In addition to the war and the Fascist martyrs, many of these songs assert the legitimacy of Italian colonization of Ethiopia, and more broadly of East Africa, presenting it in particular as a liberating and civilizing mission carried out among indigenous populations who were allegedly enslaved by the Emperor of Ethiopia, the Negus Haile Selassie. Throughout this repertoire, colonized populations are the subject of racist representations. When they evoke the "African woman", these racist representations also become sexual (see Gianpaolo Chiriacò, "Afrovocality – Ethiopia in 1930 Italian Popular Music", https://afrovocality.com/eirpop/ethiopia-in-1930-italian-popular-music/, accessed on February 12, 2025). This recording represents the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) or participates in promoting the leisure policy it implements. Created in 1925 by the regime, the OND was aimed at workers, whose unions it intended to replace (the site of an intolerable socialist policy opposed with great violence) and to organize leisure time ("Dopolavoro"). By bringing together several thousand workers' associations engaged in a wide range of activities, and directing them in line with Fascist policies, the OND enabled the regime to put down roots in the world of work, organize a significant part of Italians' leisure time by mixing politics and culture, and invest a little more of their private lives. In this way, it contributed to the realization of Fascist totalitarianism (see Victoria De Grazia, "Dopolavoro", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 1, A-K, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, pp. 443-447). Referring to Benito Mussolini, this recording is part of a cult of the Fascist leader's personality and disseminates the myth surrounding him (Mussolinismo). The charismatic leader of Italian Fascism and the regime he embodied, Mussolini, nicknamed "Duce" (he who guides), was portrayed as a heroic man, father of the nation, superior in his capacity for work and far-sightedness. His imagination describes him as the "New Man", whose creation from the Italian people is the main objective of the work of regeneration that characterizes Fascist ideology. The manifestation of Italians' love for the Duce is a recurrent theme of propaganda, with the head of government virtually occupying the place of God in the political religion (mass rituals, Fascist faith) that is Fascism in power (see Alessandro Campi, "Mussolinismo", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 2, L-Z, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, p. 200-204).
- Online Resources:
- https://canzoneitaliana.it/en/canzone/lha-detto-mussolini-en/
- Performers:
- Mario Pasqualillo Orchestra Eugenio Mignone
- Lyrics by:
- Garofalo
- Music by:
- Domenico Cortopassi
- Instruments:
- Tenor Orchestra
- Genre:
- Song
- Sound Type:
- Music
- Recording Language:
- Italian
- Related Record:
- demo_0286
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "L’Ha detto Mussolini", REDIRE Database, Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH)
- Reference Link:
- http://localhost:4000/items/demo_0285.html
Rights
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Standardized Rights:
- La Voce del Padrone, Catalogo generale, January 1, 1937