Dialect and Music: A Journey Through Neapolitan Song

“Dialect and Music” is the seventh event of the “Meetings on Dialect”, curated by the Committee for the Safeguarding and Valorization of the Neapolitan Linguistic Heritage and organized by the Campania Festival Foundation. On Monday, April 8, at 4 pm at the Musap-Foundation Circolo Artistico Politecnico Ets of Piazza Trieste e Trento in Naples (Zapata Palace), the famous poet Salvatore Palomba, author of Neapolitan song classics such as “Carmela” and “Amaro è ’o bene” and scholar of the Neapolitan song, and Professor Salvatore Iacolare from the University of Udine, will guide the audience through an excursion full of charm and suggestions. The starting point will be the sixteenth century, with its “songs of the people”, but space will also be immediately given to opera buffa and the meritorious operation of Guillaume Cottrau, who in his “Musical Pastimes” collected, transcribed, and printed memorable pieces like “Michelemmà” and “Lo guarracino”, which have come down to us today, in the form now known, thanks to his work. A separate chapter will obviously be dedicated to the seasons of the classical Neapolitan song, in whose first phase extraordinary poetic talents, such as Salvatore Di Giacomo, Ferdinando Russo, Giovanni Capurro, Vincenzo Russo, and Pasquale Cinquegrana, and musical talents, such as Mario Costa, Eduardo Di Capua, and Salvatore Gambardella met. In this season, music will often adapt to the poetic verse, unlike what will happen in the twentieth century, where characters like Libero Bovio, Ernesto Murolo, and E.A. Mario will write their songs mainly in function of the notes. Space will also be given to the transition between the happiest phase of the history of the Neapolitan song and the more contemporary manifestations, emphasizing the phenomenon of contamination and the crisis due to the spread of the Italian song and some danceable melodies of foreign origin. The program of the entire cycle of meetings, which will be held until May 27 at the same place and time, is available on the website of the Campania Festival Foundation.