World Music of the Month: Italy

 

Italy has a lively tradition of music and dance stemming from folk traditions, many of which are based on older forms adopted from neighboring countries. Again, regional differences create a lot of variety, so you can find Italian folk music with Celtic, Spanish and even Arabic influences. Performers of Italian folk music use old-fashioned instruments like simple flutes and even a bagpipe-like instrument called the piva. Opera is a major Italian music tradition, achieving its greatest popularity in the 1800s. In fact, opera was created in Italy, evolving from raucous performances of singing and dancing with exciting stage effects meant to entertain Roman crowds in between acts of the actual play. They were known as intermezzi. The word opera simply means, "A work," and the form involves a distinct style of singing more melodic and dramatic than speech, but not as focused on melody and harmony than other musical styles. Today, many of the best-known opera singers in the world are Italian. Italian pop music is similar to pop music in the rest of the world, however, Italian pop stars incorporate traditional Italian music into their works as well, such as Andrea Bocelli, who fuses pop music with classical and opera. The most famous Italian dance is the tarantella. (Source: How Stuff Works)