My name is Jeremy Frusco. I am a graduate student in musicology at the University of Florida with an interest in Italian social songs and la Resistenza who is looking for opportunities to conduct archival research throughout Italy this summer. My primary archive of interest is the Istituto Ernesto de Martino in Sesto Fiorentino. Founded in part by Cesare Bermani, a seminal figure in the study of social song, the archive comprises one of the more comprehensive collections of documents referring to the use of social songs in myriad contexts. Described by some as a “companion” archive to IEdM, the collection at Circolo Gianni Bosio in Rome contains examples of oral and musical culture of non-hegemonic classes. Similarly, the Canzoniere delle Lame in Bologna will further inform my studies with additional materials. Bologna itself is a cultural epicenter for music and its history, with the university and other educational facilities that promote music scholarship––I have been invited to observe the Scuola popolare di musica Ivan Illich, for example. Other cities, such as Ferrara and Torino, house museums dedicated to the memory of the resistance movements throughout history, and will provide a greater context in which to situate my own studies.
I will be delivering a paper entitled “Performative Concealment: Social Songs and the Senses in Calvino’s Il sentiero dei nidi di ragno ” at the Intersections/Intersezioni 2013 conference in Torino (June 7-8). This paper explores the function of social song in Calvino’s novel, and further posits its significance to the historical resistance movements of WWII. Tracing the genealogy of these songs, examining their uses, and identifying their texts are among my primary objectives in undertaking this study, with the goal to further nuance our understanding of their historical and sociocultural importance.