ITEM
Canto del Fronte (Ta-Pum) Item Info
Canto del Fronte (Ta-Pum) - item
- Object ID:
- demo_1264
- Creator:
- Columbia
- Type of Sound:
- Music
- Lyrics Composer:
- Francisco Balilla Pratella
- Music Composer:
- Francisco Balilla Pratella
- Instruments:
- Tenor; Choir
- Type of Music:
- Song
- Record Language:
- Italian
- Date:
- 1936
- Identifier:
- DQ 1805
- Linked Recording:
- demo_1263
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights
- Description:
- This recording belongs to a repertoire of popular songs relating to the First World War, sung by Italian soldiers or written to celebrate their heroism. They predate the creation of the Italian Combat Fascists (Fasci italiani di combattimento) in March 1919, which became the National Fascist Party in November 1921. They were not designed for Fascist propaganda, but were part of it because of the extreme importance of the Great War in the history and imagination of the Fascist movement and regime. For the latter, it represented a purifying and regenerating nationalist ordeal, during which heroes and martyrs were created, and which ended in victory for Italy, but a "mutilated" victory that ignored its territorial claims, frustrated Italian nationalism and generated powerful resentment in the country. The remembrance and commemoration of the war through song are thus frequently used as a means of exploiting its immense deposit of symbolic and emotional resources. It was also at the heart of the historical process of entering and waging this war that Benito Mussolini set his political activity on the course that would lead to the creation of the Fascist movement and regime. Two songs from this repertoire feature prominently: "Leggenda del Piave" and "Canzone del Grappa". They refer directly to the Battles of Piave (between December 1917 and October 1918), in which the Italian and Allied armies repelled the invasion of Austro-Hungarian forces into Italy, culminating in a decisive victory for the outcome of the war, lost by the central empires in November 1918 (see Angelo Ventrone, "Grande Guerra", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 1, A-K, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, p. 624-627 ; Oliver Janz, "Memoria della Grande Guerra", in Victoria De Grazia & Sergio Luzzatto (eds), Dizionario del fascismo. Vol. 1, A-K, Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 2019, p. 627-630). 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).
- Online Resources:
- https://canzoneitaliana.it/en/canzone/canto-del-fronte-en/
- Performers:
- Pino Savio Società Corale Dopolavoro Ferroviario di Milano L. Erba
- Lyrics by:
- Francisco Balilla Pratella
- Music by:
- Francisco Balilla Pratella
- Instruments:
- Tenor Choir
- Genre:
- Song
- Sound Type:
- Music
- Recording Language:
- Italian
- Related Record:
- demo_1263
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Canto del Fronte (Ta-Pum)", REDIRE Database, Bonn Center for Digital Humanities (BCDH)
- Reference Link:
- http://localhost:4000/items/demo_1264.html
Rights
- Rights:
- metadata-only record, please check the publication for rights