ITEM
Rataplan delle Camicie Nere Item Info
Rataplan delle Camicie Nere - item
- Object ID:
- demo_0468
- Creator:
- Parlophon
- Type of Sound:
- Music
- Lyrics Composer:
- Carlo Ravasio
- Music Composer:
- Virgilio Ranzato
- Instruments:
- Tenor; Choir; Orchestra
- Type of Music:
- Song March
- Record Language:
- Italian
- Date:
- 1936
- Identifier:
- GP 91815
- Linked Recording:
- demo_0467
- 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 Milizia volontatria per la sicurezza nazionale (MVSN), or Blackshirts/Squadrists, a militia founded a few months after Benito Mussolini came to power, from the Fascist militias that between 1919 and 1922 attacked opponents of the Fascist movement, led by socialists and communists, with extreme violence, using sticks and castor oil (a laxative and potentially lethal oil). Institutionalized by Benito Mussolini, the MVSN became a paramilitary corps which, in addition to controlling the violence of certain squadrists, carried out political policing and anti-dissent missions. It took part in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War and the Spanish Civil War, eventually being integrated into the army (see Mauro Canali, "Milizia volontatria per la sicurezza nazionale", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 2, L-Z, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, pp. 129-132).
- Online Resources:
- -
- Performers:
- Vincenzo Capponi Orchestra Cetra
- Lyrics by:
- Carlo Ravasio
- Music by:
- Virgilio Ranzato
- Instruments:
- Tenor Choir Orchestra
- Genre:
- Song March
- Sound Type:
- Music
- Recording Language:
- Italian
- Related Record:
- demo_0467
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Rataplan delle Camicie Nere", REDIRE Database, Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH)
- Reference Link:
- http://localhost:4000/items/demo_0468.html
Rights
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Standardized Rights:
- Dischi Parlophon, January 1, 1937