ITEM
Lili Marleen Item Info
Lili Marleen - item
- Object ID:
- demo_0727
- Creator:
- Cetra
- Type of Sound:
- Music
- Lyrics Composer:
- Hans Leip
- Music Composer:
- Norbert Schultze
- Instruments:
- Mezzo-soprano; Orchestra; Conductor
- Type of Music:
- Song March
- Record Language:
- German
- Date:
- 1942
- Identifier:
- DC 4013
- Linked Recording:
- demo_0728
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Description:
- This song belongs to a group of songs, the "Canzoni del tempo di guerra" (Wartime songs), conceived by the Ministry of Popular Culture (Minculpop) and the Ente italiano per le audizioni radiofoniche (EIAR), the agency responsible for Italian radio and radio propaganda, to enhance the propaganda deployed by the regime to bolster the morale of troops and civilians during the Second World War. This repertoire, made up of new and already popular songs, was intended to replace other songs repeatedly broadcast by the EIAR, whose reception by the public was negative. Launched in the summer of 1942, the "wartime songs" were the subject of an intense promotional campaign. They appeared in the press, were broadcast at prime time on the radio, were distributed in the form of sheet music and were recorded, notably by Cetra, the EIAR's regime-controlled daughter label (see Pietro Cavallo & Pasquale Iaccio, Vincere! Fascismo e società italiana nelle canzoni e nelle riviste di varietà (1935-1943), Napoli, Liguori editore, 2003, p. 122-136). A German love song from the late 1930s, "Lili Marleen" had no success before the Second World War, and only became a worldwide hit after its outbreak. It was translated into Italian and recorded several times by different record companies between 1941 and 1943. Carlo Ravasio, vice-secretary of the National Fascist Party, helps us to understand not only this success, but also why "Lili Marleen" became part of Italian war propaganda. Calling for the composition of new, more popular and effective war songs, he instructed "that compositional themes must be free, that no programmatic constraints should bind the inspiration of artists, and that the fact of war, instead of being the subject of songs, should only constitute the ‘climate’ of the thoughts and feelings that the songs express (typical example: Lily Marlen)" (cited in Pietro Cavallo & Pasquale Iaccio, Vincere! Fascismo e società italiana nelle canzoni e nelle riviste di varietà (1935-1943), Napoli, Liguori editore, 2003, p. 133). A slow, nostalgic song, Lili Marleen has thus taken on the status of a model of the song of the time - that is, of the climate, impressions and atmosphere - of the war. It accompanies the war, and can serve to regulate the feelings of sadness or despondency that the war arouses.
- Online Resources:
- https://canzoneitaliana.it/en/canzone/lili-marlen-4-en/
- Performers:
- Vivi Gioi Orchestra della Canzone Angelini
- Lyrics by:
- Hans Leip
- Music by:
- Norbert Schultze
- Instruments:
- Mezzo-soprano Orchestra Conductor
- Genre:
- Song March
- Sound Type:
- Music
- Recording Language:
- German
- Related Record:
- demo_0728
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Lili Marleen", REDIRE Database, Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH)
- Reference Link:
- http://localhost:4000/items/demo_0727.html
Rights
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Standardized Rights:
- Cetra, Catalogo dischi, 1942