MUSIC FROM ITALY'S ARCHIVES

The following buttons will redirect you to a site in the  Italian archives. Once you are there you can play these songs.

When you choose to return to our American Society of Italian Heritage site please go to the back arrow at the top left corner of the Italian site. Thanks and enjoy.

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Mattinata trasteverina

Mattinata veneziana

Mattinata fiorentina

Mattinata del pastorello

Mattinata

Mattinata calabrese

Mattinata, mattinate 
Mattinata is a famous romance that Ruggero Leoncavallo – known for the opera Pagliacci – wrote specially for the gramophone at the invitation of the Gramophone Company. It was performed by Enrico Caruso in 1904 with Leoncavallo himself at the piano. Since then it has become a warhorse for tenors and male voices of all eras. The title also evokes other “mornings” in the anthology, bearing witness to a popular subgenre similar to the serenade.

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The flower of Naples – vol. 1
This first anthology of Neapolitan songs highlights the best examples of an art that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century and flourished between 1880 and 1930, a period of fifty years during which the city of Naples was the undisputed musical capital of Italy. A song like 'O sole mio (1898) was a worldwide success thanks to Caruso’s recording, and gave way to hundreds of interpretations in many languages, to the point of becoming one of the most famous songs of the entire national vocal heritage.

Piscatore 'e pusilleco

Santa Lucia luntana

Torna a Surriento

Core `ngrato

Marechiare

Passione

'O marinarello

Voce 'e notte

'O sole mio

'O mese d'e rrose

Dicitincello vuje

'Na sera 'e maggio

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Soldato ignoto

La leggenda del Piave

La campana di S. Giusto

Inno al fante

O surdato 'nnammurato

Inno a Trieste

Sulle balze del Trentino

Songs of the Great War 
Military hymns and mountain songs where not the only legacy of the Great War (1915-18): the major conflict also bequeathed a small number of songs written by professionals of the nascent Italian song industry. These tunes enjoyed immense popularity everywhere and not only on the battlefield, including the one providing the title to the anthology and which was adopted by the Bersaglieri corp as their official anthem, or the many creations penned by E. A. Mario including the immortal Leggenda del Piave.