THE MUSICAL PAST AND THE FORMATION OF THE ITALIAN NATION – “OLD MUSIC” AS A HISTORICAL AND MUSICAL CONSTRUCT 1897-1943
THE MUSICAL PAST AND THE FORMATION OF THE ITALIAN NATION – “OLD MUSIC” AS A HISTORICAL AND MUSICAL CONSTRUCT 1897-1943

Summary/Abstract: Taking the example of Italy, the article discusses the close relationship between the “rediscovery” of the musical past and the search for a national identity starting with the late nineteenth century. This connection according to the thesis of the article led to the formation of a true historical and musical construct; that of the so-called “old music”. A very selective review of past eras of music crystallized: past has been rewritten to form the nation. But precisely this bias, strange to us today, of historical and musical literature was the one that made it possible to adapt the discourse about music to the cultural policy problems of the young Italian national state. From liberal Italy until including fascism, the construct functioned continuously without verification. Only when the existing national self-view was obliterated by the moral and political decay of fascism was the historical and musical construct canceled, and the past was released from the too manifest spirit of the nation.

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