La Canzonetta di Salerno

Of the literary-musical magazine La Canzonetta a Salerno [RIPM code LCS], published by the Stabilimento tipo-litografico Unione in Vietri sul Mare in June-July 1912, we have a single issue, number 1, which consists of four pages.

The would-be periodical was founded at the behest of a group of young literati, amateurs who devoted themselves mainly to poetry: Antonino Longo (director), Luigi Buonandi (editor-in-chief), Edoardo De Reviziis, Francesco Carella, Aristide Troja, Domenico Avallone, Michele Pinto and others[1]. Longo and Buonandi are also authors of several poetic texts published in the journal. The intent is to revive the attention of their colleagues in Salerno to the genre of the canzonetta, in veiled competition with the Neapolitan school that was its main producer.

Unlike in other European countries, there had not been a strong folkloric music tradition in nineteenth-century Italy. It had been replaced by “light music” (waltzes, polkas, mazurkas) of Austrian origin and by the extremely popular repertoires of songwriters' songs in vernacular (especially the Neopolitan) of a highly sophisticated creation and written tradition. However cultivated and widespread among all social strata, Neapolitan song belongs to a higher cultural sphere. In it, the folk tradition is mixed with elements derived from nineteenth-century melodrama and salon romance, typified by composers such as Luigi Denza and Enrico De Leva. La Canzonetta a Salerno publishes almost exclusively poetic texts, almost all of them with dedicatees.

The journal editorial team declares its intention to continue with more issues: in fact, on page 4 it publishes the announcement “The Rules for Contributors,” containing names of new contributors and titles of texts soon to be published. However, no further issues appear to have been published. Indeed, this single issue appears to be a unica, held only by the Library of Congress, from which this RIPM Index was created.

[1] Listed on the first page alongside the publications intentions.