L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano F or us Italians, it i s a f a m i l i a r melody and we a l l k n o w i t s lyrics. Many of us learned it in elementary school, along with the first l i n e s o f o u r n a t i o n a l anthem. But the rest of the world, probably, only got to k n o w i t r e c e n t l y , a f t e r i t became the musical coun- terpoint to the events and people of Netflix's Money Heist. In even more recent days, our Bella Ciao returned to be the embodiment of free- dom and fight against the a g g r e s s o r t h a n k s t o U k r a i n i a n f o l k s i n g e r Khrystyna Soloviy, who readapted it to fit her coun- try's courageous and right- eous fight against Russia. She said she wanted to ded- i c a t e i t t o " a l l t h e a r m e d forces, to our heroes and to all those who are currently fighting for their own land." W h i l e w o r d s h a v e b e e n changed in this new, tragic Ukrainian version, the soul o f t h e s o n g r e m a i n s t h e s a m e : c o m b a t t e r e p e r l a libertà, fighting for free- dom. For us Italian, Bella Ciao means all that and more. It i s t h e s y m b o l o f o u r Resistenza, of our nation- a l u p r i s i n g a g a i n s t N a z i - F a s c i s m . I t h a s b e e n t h e sound and verse of Italy's rejection of any form of dic- tatorship and, in many a w a y , a n i n s t r u m e n t o f c a t h a r s i s , o f e m o t i o n a l cleansing after the tragedies F a s c i s m b r o u g h t t o u s . B e l l a C i a o i s t h e s o n g o f P a r t i g i a n i a n d , t h i s t i m e o f t h e y e a r , j u s t a handful of days away from the Day of Liberation, when we celebrate the end of the Second World War (25th of April), we all have it in our mind. B e l l a C i a o i s I t a l y ' s Resistenza in a nutshell, but we know very little about its history, about who wrote it, and when. And the little we know is quite surprising. Y e s , b e c a u s e , l i k e l y , o u r Partigiani never sang Bella C i a o d u r i n g t h e w a r : i n other words, the song of the R e s i s t e n z a w a s u n k n o w n during the Resistenza. Not that it really makes a differ- ence, when it comes to its meaning and symbolism, but there is that. Its creation, as well as pinpointing the first time it was recorded, is the equiva- lent of an epic saga. Some say that Partigiani of the Val d'Ossola used to sing it, oth- e r s b e l i e v e i t w a s t h o s e fighting in the Langhe or in E m i l i a . T r u t h i s , n o b o d y really knows if any of these groups ever knew it. O n e t h i n g s e e m s t o b e certain: whether Bella Ciao was embraced as a freedom anthem during or after – as we will see later – the war, the music existed already. Here too, however, there a r e a v a r i e t y o f d i f f e r e n t opinions about its prove- nance: some think the origi- n a l s o n g , w i t h d i f f e r e n t l y r i c s , w a s c o m m o n l y i n t o n e d b y P i a n u r a P a d a n a ' s w e e d e r s (our mondine) in the 1940s; o t h e r s t h i n k t h e m e l o d y belongs to an old Genoese song and others still that it comes from Veneto. Many believe it has foreign origins and associate it with an old Dalmatian popular song. As s t a t e d b y C a r l o P e s t e l l i , cited in a 2018 blog post by Dino Messina of Il Corriere della Sera, Bella Ciao is like "a ball of yarn, where many strands of different colors intertwine." Messina also helps us to ascertain where and when the melody was recorded for the first time: on a gramo- phone recording by gypsy a c c o r d i o n i s t M i s h k a Ziganoff, "Klezmer-Yiddish S w i n g M u s i c , " I n 1 9 1 9 . Klezmer music was a multi- ethnic, multi-cultural style that borrowed greatly from Slavic musical tradition, so the idea that the original B e l l a C i a o c a m e , i n f a c t , from Dalmatia, seems to be quite realistic. A n d w h a t c a n w e s a y about its powerful, iconic lyrics? Now, if you know Italian and are familiar with them, you are aware of the fact the references to the Resistenza are many and quite clear: Partigiani are mentioned, the context is definitely that of a war against an oppres- s o r , a n d t h e l a n d s c a p e d e p i c t e d i s t h a t o f o u r mountains where, indeed, much of the guerra parti- giana took place. Yet, as we m e n t i o n e d e a r l i e r , i t i s unlikely our freedom fight- ers ever sang it during the war. There is no written, documental attestation of the versione partigiana of Bella Ciao during the war, nor in the first years after it: n o t r a c e o f i t a m o n g t h e song booklets Partigiani had with them while fighting, nor in the many post-war p u b l i c a t i o n s d e d i c a t e d to musica partigiana that were popular in Italy during t h e l a t e 1 9 4 0 s . P a s o l i n i doesn't mention Bella Ciao in his Canzoniere Italiano, even if a whole section is dedicated to the music of the Resistenza. However, Bella Ciao - the version with the feisty lyrics - was there already, as it was published for the first time in 1953, in the magazine La Lapa. In 1955, it was finally recorded as a canzone partigiana for a musical collection curated by the youth commission of the Italian socialist party. So, what's the truth? T h e t r u t h i s t h a t B e l l a Ciao "the music" has old, Slavic origins and that Bella Ciao "the lyrics" is the result of a post-war creative effort. Our Partigiani never sang it during the war. But does this make it less of a symbol? Does this make its words less significant or any less powerful? Not real- ly, because the song does represent perfectly the sen- timent of those who fought during the civil war against the "invader," powerfully p o r t r a y s t h e s a c r i f i c e o f many and the noble motiva- tion behind it all. In Italy, Bella Ciao is like an alterna- t i v e n a t i o n a l a n t h e m , because it is the embodi- ment of the ideals our coun- try was built upon after the carnage of World War Two. Ideals we shared - and we s t i l l s h a r e t o d a y - w i t h E u r o p e a n d t h e w o r l d . Ideals worth fighting for, so much so, that our Bella Ciao has become a song of free- dom everywhere. GIULIA FRANCESCHINI Walking free on the 25th of April 1945 (Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons agreement. Author: Gius195. License: CC BY-SA 4.0) An Italian song for freedom: the origins and popularity of Bella Ciao HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS

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