- Performer Name:
- Performance Venue:
- Rome
- Performance Date:
- Author:
- [Müller, Wilhelm]
- Date Written:
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- Blackwood’s Magazine
- Article Title:
- Sketches of Italy and the Italians, with Remarks on Antiquities and Fine Art: XIII. Popular Improvisatori
- Page Numbers:
- 25: 181
- Additional Info:
- Publisher:
- William Blackwood and Sons
- Place of Publication:
- Edinburgh
- Date Published:
- 1829
Text:
The improvisatori of the people, whose lutes vibrate in the streets of Rome on fine summer evenings, are not unworthy of notice. Sitting near my open window, I was observed by one of these wandering poets, who struck a few chords, waved his hat, and requested my commands. "Commanda qualche cosa di serio, di malinconico, o una canzone graziosa a dilettevole? Io le passo servire con tutto!" Meanwhile all my neighbours of both sexes grouped themselves around him, and awaited in pleasurable excitement my determination. I ordered him to make a declaration of love to the finest woman in the assemblage, and the people shouted with delight at the proposal. The cunning improvisatore, however, unwilling to offend the fair ones present, avoided any serious enactment of the character of Paris. Selecting the oldest and ugliest woman, he addressed to her a most fervent declaration of his passion, accompanied with gestures and grimaces of extravagant absurdity. The old lady betrayed no tokens of displeasure, and the younger ones were convulsed with merriment. "Bravo, bravissimo! Voi siete l'asso di tutti gli Improvisatori d'Italia!" was the universal shout as the poet concluded.
I then requested, as a specimen of his tragic powers, the lamentation of a young woman for the death of her lover, who had lost his life in a shipwreck. "Sarà servita, Signoria!"— Commencing with a slow and melancholy prelude, he sighed deeply several times, and then he wept, and sang, and screamed his tragic poem with such effective pathos, that his listeners stood aghast with wonder and sympathy. The women began to shed tears, while the men laughed at them, and the poet, after reprobating the hard-heartedness of the men, thanked the tender fair ones for their sympathy. The indefatigable singer now proposed to find subjects for given rhymes, and even after I had rewarded his exertions with a silver coin, he celebrated the Generosità de' Forestieri in a valedictory poem.
Most of the popular ballads of Italy are the creations of these itinerant improvisatori. It is the just and natural privilege of oral delivery, to lay a stronger hold of the memory than manuscript and printed poems. How greatly have the retentive faculties of nations, as well as individuals, declined since the inventions of writing and painting! And how much it is to be feared, that the continually increasing mass of printed works will eventually sacrifice the ends to the means, and crush, under its weight, the learning which it is intended to preserve and assist! To return, however, to the Italian ballads; whenever the song of an improvisatore fits the measure of a popular aria, or is associated with a new striking melody, it is often repeated and improved upon by the poet, and becomes gradually current amongst the people. It experiences various alterations in its progress; is at length printed, and, ere long, forgotten, unless retained in the popular memory, by some powerful charm in the melody, in which alone resides the real spell,—the preserving salt of song.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- CB