Italian Songs

The Italian songs include ballads, lyrical songs, lullabies and children’s songs, seasonal songs based around holidays like Christmas, life-cycle songs that cerebrate weddings, baptisms and other significant occasional, dance songs, cattle calls and occupational songs, tied to professions like fisherman, shepherds and soldiers. Ballads (canti epico-liric) and lyric songs (canti lirico-monostrofici) are two significant classes. The ballads are most common in the northern Italy, while the lyrics songs prevail further in the south, ballads are more closely tied to the English way, with some British ballads existing in exact correspondence with an Italian song. Other Italian ballads are more closely based on the French modes, lyrics songs are a different class that consist of lullabies, serenades and work songs and are frequently improvised, though based on the traditional range.

Other Italian traditional song traditions are less common than ballads and lyrics songs, strophic, religious laude, sometimes in the Latin, are still occasionally performed and epic songs are also known especially those of the Maggio festivities. Professional female performers perform dirges similar in pattern to that elsewhere in Europe. Yodeling exists in the northern Italy; however this is most commonly associated with the folk music’s of other Alpine nations. The Italian Carnival is associated with many song types, especially the carnival OF Bagolino, Brescia. Choirs and brass groups are a segment of the mid-Lenten holiday, while the begging song tradition extends through several holidays throughout the year.