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Italian Language and Music Lyrics

A.Y. 2024/2025
9
Max ECTS
60
Overall hours
SSD
L-FIL-LET/12
Language
Italian
Learning objectives
The course aims to teach how to analyze to texts written in Italian language intended for music. In particular, we want to deepen the opera librettos' history by following their poetic and literary evolution in connection with the more general history of the Italian language. The cours aims also to make students understand how this kind of linguistic analysis also applies to other musical genres such as songs and musicals. By frequenting the lessons participants will learn to face and read texts for music with greater awareness.
Expected learning outcomes
Students must be able to analyze a text for music written in Italian language by framing it historically and stylistically in relation to its author and the artistic and cultural context of its composition. Consequently, students must be able to identify and describe the metric, syntactic, morphological, lexical and rhetorical phenomena of the texts analyzed in class or proposed in the study bibliography; this bibliography must therefore be well known by both attending and non-attending students.

Lesson period: First semester

Lessons timetable

Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi

Exams calendar

Single course

This course can be attended as a single course.

Take a single course
Course syllabus and organization

Single session

Responsible
Buroni Edoardo
Lesson period
First semester
Course syllabus
The first two parts of the course (for students who take the 6 CFU exam) present both the relationship between Italian language and music (with particular attention to metric issues), and the Italian language's characteristics and evolution in the opera genre from its origins to the present day. To understand the various linguistic phenomena of the librettos (analyzed from a philological, metric, syntactic, morphological, lexical, rhetorical and textual point of view), each chronological section will be preceded by a historical-linguistic overview; if possible, each linguistic analysis will be associated with its musical listening. In the third part of the course (for students who take the 9 CFU exam) the use of the Italian language in the various musical genres (opera, song, musical etc.) will be dealt with: students will be given the opportunity to present during the lessons their own research on the subject; furthermore, if possible, scholars and/or artists will be invited to give a useful contribution of knowledge, experiences and reflections about the relationship between the Italian language and music.
Prerequisites for admission
A good knowledge of Italian language and of its grammar rules and characteristics.
Teaching methods
The lessons are held mostly in frontal mode, but always involving the students with questions and solicitations, as well as inviting them to submit to the teacher and the class requests for clarification and personal reflections. The analysis of the texts and the relative musical listenings (also through videos) will be fundamental elements of the lessons. In the third part of the course, students could present in class an in-depth study about the use of the Italian language in the various musical genres (opera, song, musical, oratorio etc.). If possible, some lessons will be hold inviting some guests (scholars and / or artists) who can offer further contributions about the themes of the course.
Teaching Resources
Part A
For attending students (6/9 CFU):
1. Ilaria Bonomi e Edoardo Buroni, "La lingua dell'opera lirica", il Mulino, Bologna, 2017.

Part B
For attending students (6/9 CFU):
1. Ilaria Bonomi e Edoardo Buroni, "Il magnifico parassita. Librettisti, libretti e lingua poetica nella storia dell'opera italiana", FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2010 (four chapters of your choice).

Part C
Only for attending students who take the 9 CFU exam:
1. Luca Zuliani, "L'italiano della canzone", Carocci, Roma, 2018;
2. Giuseppe Paternostro ed Eugenia Capitummino, "La lingua della canzone italiana", Cesati, Firenze, 2023.

Part A
For non-attending students (6/9 CFU):
1. Ilaria Bonomi e Edoardo Buroni, "La lingua dell'opera lirica", il Mulino, Bologna, 2017;
2. Fabio Rossi, "L'opera italiana: lingua e linguaggio", Carocci, Roma, 2018.

Part B
For non-attending students (6/9 CFU):
1. Ilaria Bonomi e Edoardo Buroni, "Il magnifico parassita. Librettisti, libretti e lingua poetica nella storia dell'opera italiana", FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2010.

Part C
Only for non-attending students who take the 9 CFU exam:
1. Luca Zuliani, "L'italiano della canzone", Carocci, Roma, 2018;
2. Giuseppe Paternostro ed Eugenia Capitummino, "La lingua della canzone italiana", Cesati, Firenze, 2023;
3. Giuseppe Antonelli, "Ma cosa vuoi che sia una canzone", il Mulino, Bologna, 2010.


Please note. Foreign students and DSA students who wish to agree on a exam method that best suits their needs are required to contact the teacher as soon as possible, according to the rules of the University.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The knowledge acquired by the students will be verified by an oral exam, with particular reference to the exam bibliography. Attending students will also have to carry out a linguistic analysis of one or more texts dealth with during the lessons. Those who present an in-depth study in class can agree on a reduced program with the teacher.
L-FIL-LET/12 - ITALIAN LINGUISTICS - University credits: 9
Lessons: 60 hours
Professor: Buroni Edoardo
Educational website(s)
Lingua italiana e testi per musica (a.a. 2024/25)
Professor(s)