L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, AUGUST 6, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE B efore mass Ital- ian immigration t r a n s f o r m e d American cities, N e w Y o r k e r s already knew one sound from the Italian South: the harp carried through the streets by musicians from Viggiano and nearby Lucanian towns. They were among the first Italian street musicians many Americans ever encountered. Their starting point was Viggiano, in the Agri Valley of Basilicata, where music had become a family trade by the eighteenth century. In a town with few ways to earn a living, children learned early, usually from relatives, and groups left for months or years at a time to perform in Naples, Paris, London, and cities much farther away. The poet Pier Paolo Parzanese caught their identity in six words, Ho l'arpa al collo, son viggianese, "I have a harp around my neck; I am Vig- gianese," and the instrument itself was built to travel. K n o w n l o c a l l y a s t h e arpicedda, the Viggianese harp was a diatonic instru- ment, smaller and simpler than the pedal harp of the concert hall. Early versions could be only three feet tall, with perhaps 12 or 14 strings; l a t e r n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y examples grew larger, often w i t h 3 0 o r m o r e s t r i n g s , while remaining portable enough to carry with a strap. V i g g i a n o a l s o h a d s k i l l e d harp makers, and by the mid- 1800s, some were construct- i n g s o p h i s t i c a t e d p e d a l instruments. Most musicians traveled in small companies, with the harp joined by violin, flute, or voice, and adapted their programs to wherever t h e y s t o p p e d . A l o n g s i d e Lucanian songs and dances, they learned popular ballads and operatic melodies, then c a r r i e d n e w m u s i c h o m e . Because their earnings were i m p o r t a n t f o r V i g g i a n o , returning musicians paid for houses, education, and busi- nesses, especially during the r e b u i l d i n g t h a t f o l l o w e d Basilicata's devastating earth- quake of 1857. Harps and vio- l i n s c a r v e d a b o v e s e v e r a l doorways in the historic cen- ter still identify homes built with the pr oceeds of that work. For all the skill involved, the trade depended in part on child labor, since poor par- ents sometimes placed sons and daughters under contract to a padrone, who took them abroad, supplied an instru- ment, and collected what they earned. Conditions varied, and many children traveled with relatives, but others were beaten, underfed, or forced to remain outside for long hours in winter. Nineteenth-century New York newspapers called them "the little slaves of the harp," a phrase later used by historian John E. Zucchi for his study of Italian child street musicians in New York, London, and Paris. Public outrage brought i n v e s t i g a t i o n s a n d l a w s , including New York's 1874 P a d r o n e A c t , a l t h o u g h reformers were often more i n t e r e s t e d i n c l e a r i n g t h e streets than in improving immigrant children's lives. By the late 1880s, Italian chil- dren had largely disappeared f r o m s t r e e t p e r f o r m a n c e ; some returned home, while others moved into work that could be just as punishing. The harpists had also become entangled in a lasting Ameri- can caricature of Italians as organ grinders and beggars, even though the Viggianese tradition required real skill and produced serious profes- sional musicians. As street performance gave way to theaters and orches- tras, Viggianese and Lucanian instrumentalists found work a c r o s s t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s , w h i l e l a t e r g e n e r a t i o n s entered conservatories and major ensembles. Leonardo De Lorenzo, a flutist from Viggiano, became principal flute of the New York Sym- p h o n y u n d e r G u s t a v Mahler and later taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. The harp con- n e c t i o n i s c l e a r e s t i n t h e Salvi family, beginning with Rodolfo, a Venetian instru- ment maker who settled in Viggiano, married Apollonia Paoliello, and emigrated with his family to Chicago in 1909. Their children grew up with t h e i n s t r u m e n t : A l b e r t o became a celebrated concert harpist, Aida played with the Chicago Opera, and Victor, born in Chicago in 1920, per- formed with the New York Philharmonic and Arturo Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra. Victor Salvi eventually turned from performing to building the instrument itself, completing his first harp in New York in 1954, founding the company that bears his name, and later returning production to Italy. Salvi Harps became one of the leading manufacturers in the field, giving the Viggiano con- nection an unexpected sec- ond life: a tradition once car- ried into American streets helped shape a modern Ital- ian company whose instru- ments entered concert halls around the world. Back in Viggiano, the old circuit of wandering musi- cians faded during the twen- tieth century as migration patterns changed and record- ed music altered street enter- tainment. The town has since r e c o v e r e d t h e r e p e r t o i r e through research, instru- ment-making workshops, an annual harp festival, and the Civic School of Viggianese Folk Harp, where children a n d a d u l t s c a n s t u d y t h e arpicedda without leaving home to earn their keep. The arrangement has changed completely: young players now carry the harp onto a stage, and afterward, they carry it home. T h e V i g g i a n e s e h a r p a n d B a s i l i c a t a ' s wandering musicians in America LUCA SIGNORINI Advancing our Legacy: Italian Community Services CASA FUGAZI If you know of any senior of Italian descent in San Francisco needing assistance, please contact: ItalianCS.org | (415) 362-6423 | info@italiancs.com Italian Community Services continues to assist Bay Area Italian-American seniors and their families navigate and manage the resources needed to live healthy, independent and productive lives. Since Shelter-in-Place began in San Francisco, Italian Community Services has delivered over 240 meals, over 900 care packages and made over 2000 phone wellness checks for our seniors. An imagined scene of Viggianese musicians performing in a Basilicata village, reflecting the tradition of travelling harpists who carried their music from southern Italy to cities across Europe and America (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI)

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