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- Volume 17, Issue 1, 2024
International Journal of Community Music - “Musica per tutti”: Community Music in Italy, Mar 2024
“Musica per tutti”: Community Music in Italy, Mar 2024
- Editorial
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- Articles
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Developing community music in Italy: The journey
More LessThis article deals with the relationship between community music and scholarly research within the context of Italian community life, cultural politics, conditions and history. Community music theory and practice activities provide participants with opportunities for growth, development and collaboration, ranging from specific musical skills to social and cultural outreach and the positive challenge of increasing self-awareness and empowerment. After discussing the links between community music projects and social work, music therapy or arts education, the article locates community music in the landscape of Italian music research and, especially, musicology. It summarizes the current state of community music and the efforts to create an Italian network of community music scholars as well as establish a dialogue with similar international networks. The aim is to create the conditions for the establishment of an academic and theoretical framework for community music in Italy that can work as a pathway between music for social change, musicology and music education.
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Community opera: A short introduction and a case study in Italy
Authors: Dinko Fabris and Vania CauzilloAround the beginning of the 2000s, among various responses to the crisis in traditional opera, a few Western theatres and festivals started to propose community operas based on the involvement of professional and amateur performers as co-creators. This article traces the idea back to the pre-Second World War United States and its more general use from the 1950s onwards, although it carried with it the negative connotation of being the naive output of amateur singers and musicians. The term reappeared in the United Kingdom in a series of works put on between 1990 and 2005, especially by the composer Jonathan Dove at Glyndebourne and in other British regions. All of these were presented as ‘community opera’. Among other ventures similar to the ‘new’ community opera in the British style, La Monnaie theatre in Brussels became the first European important opera house to start a program of community operas as a staple part of its season. The first one, Orfeo and Majnun (2018), defined as ‘a participative opera’, assembled myths from both Western and Persian cultures and whose music combined Western and Middle-Eastern elements. Immediately after, the first Italian community opera, Silent City, was produced in 2019 in the then European Capital of Culture Matera, establishing a new model of opera centred on social inclusion and involving people with disabilities. This article is aimed at defining the origins of community opera and at exploring similar phenomena around the globe.
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The impact of community music therapy intervention in older adults’ care home communities: Assessing community music therapists’ views
Authors: Anthony M. A. Mangiacotti, Arianna Masotti and Michele BiasuttiCommunity music-therapy (CMT) service evaluation in older adults’ care home communities is an important process to enhance the quality of therapists’ outputs and the development of client-centred approaches to meet the needs of residents and community. However, administrative limitations that could affect therapists’ contact time with clients may lead to the underestimation of service evaluation within the system. This study aims to explore community music therapists’ perceptions of the impact of their services in older adults’ care home communities using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews. The therapists were asked to reflect on specific aspects of their community music therapy service, potential cognitive-behavioural and physiological effects of therapy, best-practices for assessment in MT and challenges experienced in this particular setting. Participants highlighted the unique value of CMT in care home communities. They demonstrated the ability to detect and assess impacts of CMT using clinical analysis methods, which can improve care plans for the residents. However, certain limitations, such as reduced hours, inadequate funding and a lack of recognition of CMT’s benefits by care home staff, were identified. Moreover, the analysis shed light on how COVID-19 impacted the CMT service in this context, emphasizing the need for adaptability and resilience in providing care. The implications of the results in an Italian community context are further analysed and discussed, stressing the importance of supporting CMT as a fundamental service in care home communities for older adults. By addressing the highlighted limitation and embracing the perspectives of community music therapists, care homes can optimize their services and enhance the well-being of their residents.
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The benefits of choral singing: A study of Italian university choirs (2018–19)
Authors: Johann van der Sandt and Carlo NardiItalian university choirs typically welcome students, employees at the university, alumni and even external people. In fact, they constitute a significant example of intergenerational and intercultural group singing in that they enable interaction between people with different backgrounds in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, place of origin, language and class. This makes them a strategic standpoint from which to investigate group singing activities which are aimed at inclusivity, cooperation and music appreciation. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data collected during 2018–19, shortly before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, this article investigates the positive benefits of singing for members of university choirs. More precisely, it argues that collective singing promotes the emotional, social and cognitive well-being of choristers. It discusses how these benefits are strongly associated with face-to-face interaction and direct personal participation in the choir, including but not limited to singing during rehearsals and concerts.
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Music and community in South Tyrol: Perspectives, projects and research
Authors: Antonella Coppi and Paolo SomigliThis article deals with the importance of music-making within both instrumental and vocal ensembles in South Tyrol based on the results of two different research projects: ‘Cultura musicale e funzione sociale della musica in Alto Adige’ (‘Music culture and the social function of music in South Tyrol’), by Paolo Somigli and Ilaria Riccioni, and ‘Going to the Source’, carried out by Antonella Coppi. Through a reflection on the two research projects, this article aims to provide an image of the role of music in the South Tyrolean community; although the two research projects were carried out between 2011 and 2019 overall, they are still relevant, as they represent ground-breaking research in this region. The two research projects complement each other in a reciprocal contextualization of issues about the role of non-formal musical ensembles in developing the social and cultural fabric in South Tyrol. The different perspectives and objects of the two studies offer a broader view of music-making, not only from a musicological but also from a sociological and pedagogical perspective.
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The musical past revives in the present: An investigation into the cultural heritage of a community
More LessThis article explores how two specific musical performances, drawing respectively on the rich repertoire of Italian sacred music and a specific sound environment of a region, can promote cultural participation and ingenuity in the Italian countryside amidst uncertainty and demographic change due to depopulation and the loosening of traditional communal ties. The first study focuses on a specific case in the town of Ortona dei Marsi in the Italian province of L’Aquila. A seemingly everyday experience – participation in community singing – is considered and appreciated from a musicological perspective, while its importance for the revitalisation of a community is recognised. The rediscovering of a forgotten musical heritage contributes to an evolving, prosaic sense of rural cultural resources. The particular case of the community of the small rural town of Ortona dei Marsi, overcoming isolation, distance and new circumstances through the revitalisation of a musicologically significant object, sheds light on how a community serendipitously uses the opportunity to make and maintain music together to demonstrate social and cultural resilience. The second study looks at the experiences of middle school students in the Italian city of Biella of a specific sound memory that guides and paves the way to a diverse learning environment.
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