Feminine Soundscapes / Paesaggi sonori al femminile

Listening Notes accompanies the reading of Feminine Soundscapes, the first issue of Suoni. Journal on Soundscapes and Musico-Literary Studies, with a selection of musical pieces mentioned in its contributions. Alongside compositions explicitly discussed, such as songs by Francesco Guccini and Silvia Colasanti’s Anna A., it offers additional listening suggestions inspired by more general references. Where a composer or musical work is mentioned without reference to a specific piece, the selection is necessarily more interpretative, and the suggested recording should not be taken as a direct match for the discussion in the essay.

The identification of Penso! by Francesco Paolo Tosti, with lyrics by Rocco Emanuele Pagliara, emerged from a comparison with the full text of Nella lava, a story in Matilde Serao’s Romanzo della fanciulla. Serao’s text includes two lines from the song that are omitted from the passage quoted by Loredana Palma: “penso alla prima volta” and, shortly afterwards, “Ma tu, tu l’hai scordato / Dici che un sogno fu…”.

The folk song quoted by Gozzano as “O mio carino, tu mi piaci tanto” exists in several variants. The version included here is Orietta Berti’s Meglio sarebbe, which features the line “O mia Rosina, tu mi piaci tanto”.

Francesca Favaro’s essay refers to the song ’O carcerato, which Ortese describes in Il Monaciello as “la canzone allora tanto in voga che s’intitolava ’O carcerato’” (the song that was so popular at the time, entitled ’O carcerato’). This is likely to be Sto carcerato, set to music by Eduardo Di Capua, although the identification remains tentative. The video presented here features a mandolin performance based on a score associated with two different sets of lyrics: ’O sentimento, by Pasquale Cinquegrana, and Sto carcerato, by Diodato Del Gaizo.