Songs in Italian

I love it too, for its sweet melancholy...

"fiumi azzurri e colline e praterie
dove corrono dolcissime le mie malinconie
l' universo trova spazio dentro me
ma il coraggio di vivere quello ancora non c'è."

From the gardens of March to the flowers of April...from melancholy to still searing although quiet heartbreak..."Ballad of Lost Love"-Fabrizio de Andre. I have to be in a good place to even listen to this. (The English translation is on screen for non Italian speakers and they're good.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpwZGVRutVA

 
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From the gardens of March to the flowers of April...from melancholy to still searing although quiet heartbreak..."Ballad of Lost Love"-Fabrizio de Andre. I have to be in a good place to even listen to this. (The English translation is on screen for non Italian speakers and they're good.)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpwZGVRutVA

I like the style very much. Never heard of Fabrizio de Andre. I will check out some more of his songs :)
 
His style actually varied quite a bit over the years and depending on the subject matter. It's part of what makes him great. This one, "Winter", you might like although it has a more jazzy, bluesy sound. I love the lyrics, as I love all his lyrics...one of our greatest ever singer-songwriters.

There are about five translations floating around on the internet for this song as we all try to get it right. This is the best I've seen; better than mine, I have to admit. :) The translator doesn't do a word for word translation, as I'm sure you'll see, but he captures the poetry of it. The visuals are quite lovely too.

"The fog is rising on snowy mounds,
as does a cypress on burial grounds;
a hazy-looking, tall church belfry
marks out the border between earth and sky.


But you are leaving, why don’t you stay:
the snow’ll be gone in just one day,
past happiness will bloom once more
as the warm winds of Summer soar.


And even light looks dead and glum
in the faint shadow of times to come,
where even dawn is growing dull
and every face is a waxen skull.


But you are leaving, why don’t you stay:
you’ll see, the snow will die away,
we’ll love once more, we won’t be sour,
in the blithe season of the mayflower.


The weary land beneath the snow
is sleeping quietly in its deep woe,
and Winter reaps toil and travail
since ancient times of weep and wail.


But you who linger, why are you staying?
Another Winter will soon be preying,
more snow will fall to console this field,
to a frosty Winter you can’t but yield

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sarqCMpwPTs
 
His style actually varied quite a bit over the years and depending on the subject matter. It's part of what makes him great. This one, "Winter", you might like although it has a more jazzy, bluesy sound. I love the lyrics, as I love all his lyrics...one of our greatest ever singer-songwriters.

You are right he does change styles. Very interesting
 
A beautiful song from Francesco DeGregori: "BelAmore", Beautiful Love. It has an old folk song quality and the visuals of beautiful women are lovely.

"Bellamore Bellamore do not leave me,
Bellamore Bellamore do not forget me.
Rose of Spring, island in the sea,
lamp in the evening, Polar Star.
Bellamore Bellamore, let me watch you,
in the moon and in the sun let me watch you.
Crumbs on the snow, fireflies in the glass,
Bellamore Bellamore, let me see you.
Come and sit here, come and rest here,
on this chair shaped like a flower.
This coming night will not give pain,
This night will pass without hurting you.
This night will pass, or we will let it to pass.
Bellamore Bellamore, do not go away.
You know the tears and how handle them.
Bellamore Bellamore do not leave me,
You do not believe in miracles, but you make them.
Bellamore Bellamore let me sing you,
in the rain and wind, let me sing you.
Paradise and poison, sugar and salt,
Bellamore Bellamore, let me consume you.
Come here and cover, came here and heat,
on this chair shaped like a flower.
This coming time will not give pain,
This time will pass without harming us.
This time will pass and we or we will let it to pass."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb5ocG0MQKA&list=PLa3pQvnJLLvoMWTQpEFFhkFZvSp2kPCgs&index=27
 
Beautiful ballad by songwriter Gigi Restagno from Turin, performed by two members of the band Subsonica from Turin, who were friends with him (Restagno died 20 years ago).
 
Dalida - Quelli erano giorni


It's a beautiful song in any language. Of course, I love it, being a queen of nostalgia.:) It always makes me emotional.

@Mars,
I hadn't heard that song before...very nice.
 
@Mars,
I hadn't heard that song before...very nice.
Yes, it's not a popular song, because Restagno died just before releasing a real album. He was very popular as an "alternative" chansonnier in the mid 90s Turin (and neighboring areas) only. A very unlucky guy.
 
A German tenor singing an old Italian song in Iceland with Icelandic subtitles (I assume?) on screen, and here I am writing about it in English.

Jonas Kaufman-Non ti scordar di me-Don't forget me

I'm very critical in general, but in my opinion he does a very nice job...technically good and very expressive and emotional.

"The swallows have gone
from my cold and bleak country
looking for spring and violets,
nests of love and happiness.
So has my little swallow gone
without leaving me a kiss
without a good-bye.


Do not forget me.
my life is bound to yours
I love you more and more
You're always in my dreams.


Do not forget me.
my life is bound to yours
there is always a nest
in my heart for you.


Do not forget me
my life is bound to yours
there is always a nest
in my heart for you.


Do not forget me!
Do not forget me!"

He does an even better job of Core 'Ngrato-Ungrateful heart.

"
Catherine, Catherine, why do you tell me these bitter words?
why do you tell me these words that torment my heart, Catherine?
Don't forget that I gave you my heart, Catherine, don't you forget

Catherine, Catherine, why do you say these words that make me angry?
You don't think about my pain. You don't think about it, you don't care.

Ungrateful heart, you have stolen my life
Ungrateful heart, all is finished and you don't care any more.

Ungrateful heart, You have stolen my life.
Ungrateful heart, All is finished and you don't care

Catherine, I even went into the church and prayed to God.
And I spoke to the confessor:
I am suffering because of her...
I am suffering,
I am suffering, you can't believe my suffering
And the confessor, such a holy man,
told me "My son
let her go!."


Non Ti Scordar di Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm-8oSylij8


Core 'Ngrato-A romantic, handsome tenor, as they so often aren't, and with the emotive power of an Italian tenor. I may be in love. :)

Franco Corelli he isn't, but he's way up there. (As someone commented before me, I don't know if even he knew he could do it that well. He's extremely pleased with himself, as he should be...and as the orchestra was...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDXm-8oSylij8&v=yUoIeSsCG6I
 
This is the great Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling, one of my personal favorites, performing Mattinata, or "Morning", an Italian popular song written around the turn of the century and dedicated to Caruso. Bjorling wouldn't have been a singer I wanted to see on stage as his acting is wooden, and he has very little facial expression, but he had a voice made for audio recording, pure, silvery yet still warm and soft all the way up to high C, technically wonderful but seemingly effortless, and with the ability to transmit the emotion by caressing each sound with his voice. He never had the power of a Pavarotti, and couldn't have carried very well on stage, but a really wonderful singer in his own way. I also like the vibrato he uses, as did my father's favorite tenor, Beniamino Gigli, but I realize tastes have changed a bit.

I learned one new thing about him this year. One critic maintains that one of the reasons he was able to maintain the quality of his voice into the higher registers, with his voice never becoming strident or thin, is because the umlauted vowels of Swedish are quite pronounced, and this helps in reaching the high notes and trimming away the roughness.

Anyway, here is Mattinata: (The context is that a man has been serenading the lady of his choice all night, and here it is dawn, and she still won't arise and respond to him. )

"Dawn, wearing a white dress,
Is already allowing the sun to cross the threshold;
With her rosy fingers she is already caressing
The masses of flowers

All around her creation
Seems to tremble
But you don't rise, and
I'm sadly singing in vain.

Put your white gown on as well
and let your cantor cross the threshold!
Where you are not, there is no light
Love is born where you are.

Where you are not, there is no light
Love is born where you are."

This is a performance for a movie, so miked up. I've also provided a link to a different version, that of Sergio Franchi, which came much later. It was a great crossover hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=525o_MPTXc0



The Sergio Franchi version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8QmyhZpVMM
 
This is the great Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling, one of my personal favorites, performing Mattinata, or "Morning", an Italian popular song written around the turn of the century and dedicated to Caruso. Bjorling wouldn't have been a singer I wanted to see on stage as his acting is wooden, and he has very little facial expression, but he had a voice made for audio recording, pure, silvery yet still warm and soft all the way up to high C, technically wonderful but seemingly effortless, and with the ability to transmit the emotion by caressing each sound with his voice. He never had the power of a Pavarotti, and couldn't have carried very well on stage, but a really wonderful singer in his own way. I also like the vibrato he uses, as did my father's favorite tenor, Beniamino Gigli, but I realize tastes have changed a bit.

I learned one new thing about him this year. One critic maintains that one of the reasons he was able to maintain the quality of his voice into the higher registers, with his voice never becoming strident or thin, is because the umlauted vowels of Swedish are quite pronounced, and this helps in reaching the high notes and trimming away the roughness.

Anyway, here is Mattinata: (The context is that a man has been serenading the lady of his choice all night, and here it is dawn, and she still won't arise and respond to him. )

"Dawn, wearing a white dress,
Is already allowing the sun to cross the threshold;
With her rosy fingers she is already caressing
The masses of flowers

All around her creation
Seems to tremble
But you don't rise, and
I'm sadly singing in vain.

Put your white gown on as well
and let your cantor cross the threshold!
Where you are not, there is no light
Love is born where you are.

Where you are not, there is no light
Love is born where you are."

This is a performance for a movie, so miked up. I've also provided a link to a different version, that of Sergio Franchi, which came much later. It was a great crossover hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=525o_MPTXc0



The Sergio Franchi version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8QmyhZpVMM

I'm not happy with the selection of Mattinata I posted for Jussi Bjorling. It's not fair to him as the quality is very poor. Here is his studio version, so of course his lack of power was not an issue. As I said, a voice made for the recording studio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwkEFTMs6kE
t
 
The American singer Josh Groban performs a lot of Italian songs of the popular variety, both in his CDs and on stage. I think he does a really good job, better than does Michael Buble.

This is him singing "Mi Mancherai", I will miss you, from the wonderful film "Il Postino", with the incomparable Massimo Troisi, whom I just adore . He has what is to me that particularly Neapolitan fluidity and grace when using his hands while speaking, although raised to an even higher level. (I'll provide a link for that as well.)

There's a very emotive, heartfelt, violin solo by an Asian girl in the very beginning which is also very nice.

Mi Mancherai-]

"I'll miss you if you go away,
I will miss your serenity
Your words that are like songs to the wind
And the love you'll carry away.

I'll miss you if you go away
I don't know how I'd live
And joy, my friend,
Would go away with you.

I will miss you, I will miss you.
Why are you leaving?
Why did love fade for you
Why? Why?
I know nothing will change for me

I feel you inside myself.

Repeat

I will miss the intensity of the days and nights
We spent together
Your smiles when it gets dark

Your childish naivete

I will miss you my love
I look at myself, and
There is an empty space inside me
And joy, my friend, leaves with you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJwNS-FPXOI




This version of him singing it is of better audio quality:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWDqWSgHR68

Il Postino: It's the complete movie with English subtitles.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWWpRJayP5Q

 
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Non Vivo Piu Senza Te-Biagio Antonacci. Since some of the lyrics are a little risque' I won't translate all of them. Suffice it to say that he can't live any longer without her, but as he's pining away, lonely and crying while in the Salento there's this woman (married, maybe older?), and even though he keeps saying No, signora, no, he likes her..maybe it's the fields of poppies intoxicating him, maybe it's the light, the heat, maybe it's the strong wine, maybe it's that damn pizzica! Yes, indeed, it's all those things and an importuning woman. That's why things happen. Excuses, excuses! :)

Besides being a great fun, summer, dance song, I think it's an interesting blend of South American and Pizzica rhythms. From the comments, some of the Pizzica purists hate it, but my attitude is that's how music changes and has always changed...through cross fertilization from different areas.

Anyway, I can't live without you anymore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxCso8WgvGg

 
Such an emotional time if you've lost a beloved father. Sometimes I torture myself by listening to "Lauretta Mia", an Italian song that is supposed to be a serenade by a father to his adored daughter on the eve of her wedding. This version has the English lyrics on screen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iknhM32kxY

In retrospect I feel sorry for what my husband had to witness on my wedding day...you would have thought I was going to my death when I left my parents to go on my honeymoon trip. :) My father had to take me aside and speak sternly to me, telling me I'd be back and that they'd still be there, and this was disrespectful to my husband. I was right in a way, though. You come back, but what's that old saying? You can never really go home again.
 
This is a Neapolitan song from the fifties called “Guaglione” or “Boy” or maybe “Kid” is a better slang term in English. Italian Americans say "walyon". :) It sometimes has street kid connotation, although I don't know if that's true in the context of the song. I only knew it from my parents’ records and as a lively dance song. It’s only when I got older and really listened to the words and found a translation into Italian that I realized it’s actually quite sad. The context is that a “kid”, maybe an adolescent, although it could be a young man, is infatuated with a young woman and spends all his time pining outside her window. The “advice” of the older man is quite cruel in the way it’s expressed.

It reminds me of the following scene from “Cinema Paradiso” which I watched again last night. No matter how often I watch it I wind up in buckets of tears. Alas, even in Italy this custom, perhaps this innocence, has disappeared.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIoambABq5g

Here are the lyrics in English:
You're always there, planted
In the middle of the street,
You no longer eat, no longer sleep
What melancholy!
Hey, boy why all
this jealousy?
You want to suffer.
You want to die.
Who's asking you to do it?


Go run to your mamma's arms
Don't be a stupid, silly boy
Tell her the truth
Your mamma will understand


You keep on passing by this balcony
But you're only a boy
You don't know about women,
You're too young!
You're a kid.
What do you think will happen?
Go and play soccer...
What are these tears for?
Go away, don't make me laugh!


Run into your mamma's arms,
Don't be silly, kid.
Tell her everything
Your mamma will understand


Don't dye it, don't stroke it
that thin moustache
She's not for you, they don't search for you
Those pretty eyes
Forget about it, go and play
With the girls your own age
Don't be discouraged,
There's time enough
For you to get in trouble!


Forget about the one
You want to kiss, boy,
Because if she tells her father,
Who knows what will happen
Repeat

This is the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Q5fUQV838

It was ruined, in my opinion, by Perez Pardo, the Cuban band leader, by giving it a Mambo beat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfxv_lw2CDw
 

Ah, I had forgotten that one. :) So nice.

Do you remember Gabriella Ferri and "Tutti al mare", "Everyone to the sea"?

Great pictures of Italian "beach life" in this one, including a surprise at the end for anyone who thinks Italians are the same color year round! :)

I do love the "bagni"; it's such a civilized way of going to the beach, imo. I can rarely convince my American friends of that, however. Imagine, they want to be alone at the beach if possible! :)

They also like to "rough" it: sand sticking to your sun-screened body, miles to walk to the restrooms, drinks from the cooler (that you had to drag to the beach) that are warm by the time you drink them, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, then carting all that junk home in the car with your now sun burnt body glued to the seats, not to mention some shrieking kids in the back seat. YUCK! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhLnxiSxp24&index=24&list=PLmXXU-QTjOUdaJ1bdAIGBGoYCIGVEKHyz

 

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