Pop goes the Pope: religion and popular music in Italy

Abstract

Music has maintained a long relationship with cult since ancient times, contributing to its efficacy and strengthening a communitarian identity. The advent of Christianity marked a sensible change in the way music was used, pioneering the very idea of listening as absolute, later extended to Western art music. The spread of popular music in the twentieth century impacted on religion too and the Christian world was particularly affected from the Second Vatican Council on, both within liturgy and in secular activities. A strong impulse to legitimate and even welcome sounds and practices from pop and rock culture was given by John Paul II, in 1997 during a concert featuring the future Nobel Prize Winner Bob Dylan. The article explores this changing relationship from an interdisciplinary perspective, borrowing from history, musicology, anthropology, sociology, theology, and cultural studies, as suggested by the ‘media, religion and culture’ approach. The first part reviews the historical steps leading to contemporary soundscape with respect to religion. The second part focuses on three case-studies, each representing a distinct point of view: that of traditional music revived, centered on collectivity; that of auteur music, centered on the power of the word; that of crossover pop, aimed at offering an aesthetic experience.

Keywords:

• Music
• popular music
• sacred
• noise
• silence
• Italian Church

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 On Wojtyła’s innovative gestures see Lovett (2006).

2 On Dylan and religion see Carrera (2017); Hȁger (2018, chap. 11); and the monumental work by Renato Giovannoli (2017) in three volumes, which explores all of Dylan’s production (1961–2012) from the viewpoint of the Bible.

3 Pop and rock as indigenous forms in Italy relate to international models, while canzone—especially in its auteur version, that is canzone d’autore, emphasizing the lyrics’ value—is more domestically oriented. All these macro-genres converge in one single approach and the use of ‘pop’ in the title is merely functional to catching the reader’s attention—but that does not mean that my focus is on pop music exclusively.

4 Cox published this book in the year that gave birth to the ‘Woodstock generation’ and that Zeitgeist can be felt in many pages as, for example, when he writes that ‘even in the churches, dance, color, movement and new kinds of music dramatize the recovery of celebration’ (1969, 18).

5 After a long tradition rooted in ethnological studies, the theme of the feast became central in the Seventies encouraged by the seminal work of Mikhaȉl Bakthine (1970). This work promoted a revival of the feast in a semiotic, anthropological, and cultural perspective, especially in France and Italy, and in parallel with the growth of a counterculture which interpreted and appropriated the issue from a political point of view. See e.g. Jesi (1977); Cazeneuve (1977); Duvignaud (1973); Mésnil (1974); Jeudy (1976); De Marinis (1977); Villadary (1968); and the classic studies by Caillois (1939) and Huizinga (1938).

6 ‘Music has always been the object of suspicion from the standpoint of religious enthusiasm […] the stronger the religiosity, the more one renounces to music and stresses the importance of words’ (Kierkegaard 1959, 71).

7 Since Christianity eliminated the use of the body and of body rhythm which is so essential in other religious worship, it was able to give greater emphasis to other aspects. Accordingly […] it then developed an interest in instrumental music as a value in itself. (Etzkorn 1973, 35)

8 In the words of an esteemed musicologist, ‘it is only since the days of Beethoven and Wagner that people have begun gradually to look upon music as a substitute for religion, and therefore to listen to symphonies and string quartets with a sort of devotional rapture’ (Dent 1968, 15)

9 Further on, the Pope underlines the greatness of sacred music as a product by both religious and lay composers: ‘This can be more widely appreciated if we look beyond the figurative arts to the great development of sacred music through this same period, either composed for the liturgy or simply treating religious themes. Apart from the many artists who made sacred music their chief concern—how can we forget Pier Luigi da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria?—it is also true that many of the great composers—from Handel to Bach, from Mozart to Schubert, from Beethoven to Berlioz, from Liszt to Verdi—have given us works of the highest inspiration in this field’ (Pope John Paul II 1999). In the twentieth century, other composers have enriched the repertoire, such as Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arvo Pȁrt and Lorenzo Perosi, who permeated their music with their own faith. Others such as Poulenc, Petrassi, Dallapiccola, Britten, Bloch and Schonberg instilled bits of Christian spirituality in many of their compositions while others such as Stockhausen and John Cage, to mention a few, were attracted towards oriental religions (Pasticci 2001).

10 On religious art music see e.g. Mellers (2002) and Bolzan (2017).

11 For a first look at scholarship on popular music and religion see Partridge and Moberg (2017); Dueck and Reily (2017); Sylvian (2002); Partridge (2014); Olson (2011); Lau (2012); McClure (2011); Engelhardt (2017); Gilmour (2005); Hȁger (2018); Rycenga (2003); Bossius, Kahn-Harris, and Hȁger (2011).

12 From anti-rock crusades in North America in the Eighties, to the ban on Rai music in Algeria in the Nineties; from the anti-Beatles campaign (after Lennon’s statement about Jesus Christ) to Iran’s and Taliban’s’ prohibitions against Western music, censorship has played a central role both in the Christian and Islamic world every time religion acts as a ‘moral regulator’ (Drewett 2017, 43).

13 The furlana is a folk-dance originating from Veneto, the region where the Pope came from.

14 The famous poet Trilussa wrote a few verses in Roman dialect ironizing on the episode: Er Papa nun vô er Tango, perché spesso / er cavajere spigne e se strufina / sopra la panza de la ballerina / che, su per giù, se regola lo stesso [The Pope does not want the tango, since often / The partner pushes and rubs / Against the dancer’s belly / Who, more or less, does the same] (Trilussa, Tango e furlana [1914]—author’s translation). See Prato (2013), a newspaper article I wrote to celebrate, in an unconventional way, Francesco’s assignment, a hundred years after this episode.

15 In 1966 Marcello Giombini’s Messa dei giovani (Mass of the Young) pioneered the new trend followed by similar experiences by groups such as the Barritas, the Brians and the Alleluja, all belonging to the blooming beat movement, i.e. imitating sound and rhythm from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the like.

16 In 2009 there were 2338 choirs in Italy, implying over 150,000 people, but the number was certainly greater, if all parish choirs were added (Beltrami 2009). In 2014 TV2000—the television owned by CEI—produced a talent show devoted to choirs, titled La canzone di noi.

17 Claudio Chieffo stands out as one of the most popular authors, providing a few songs to Sunday liturgy like some other Catholic singer-songwriters such as Marina Valmaggi and Adriana Mascagni (Valmaggi 2005).

18 To non-Italian readers this may seem a contradiction: the major Catholic country in Europe is one where Christian Music has hardly caught on, with an insignificant market share, and no visibility on major radio and tv networks. I suggest two reasons behind this: one has to do with an anthropological feature of Italians, who feel reluctant to openly declare their faith and promote it with public gestures; another relates to the Church policy as expressed by the Episcopal Conference: the Italian Bishops have determined to promote Christian culture and values without creating ghettos that may sound self-referential.

19 Catholic youth has always taken in great consideration the work of Lucio Dalla, Franco Battiato, Fabrizio De Andrè, Angelo Branduardi and even Francesco Guccini, later to become a counterculture guru, who debuted live at the Pro Civitate Christiana in Assisi in 1968 2 years after his controversial single ‘Dio è morto’ was banned by RAI but welcomed by the Vatican Radio.

20 Subcultures have never caught on at a mass level as they have in the North European countries. Although in recent times subcultural genres such as Hip Hop and EDM have reached the mainstream, this does not imply that their cultures share the same bottom-up move. For the most part these globalized genres are as available as others in the big supermarket of the Web, thus representing mere alternative choices for the ordinary consumer rather than life choices as subcultures demand from their members.

21 Italian popular song comes after American/English, French and Brazilian repertoires with respect to the number of songs covered in the world (data elaborated from https://secondhandsongs.com/)

22 The first models were the Spanish Radio Cope and the Portuguese Radio Renascença, both supported by their national Episcopal Conferences.

23 Here I am speaking by experience, having performed my duties as Artistic Director of InBlu from 2000 to 2004, and of InBlu Webradio from 2016 to 2020. See Prato (2006).

24 It all began with songs such as ‘Povera voce’ (1965)—later to become the anthem of Comunione e Liberazione—‘Noi canteremo gloria a te’ and ‘Quanta sete nel mio cuore (1966), all of them mixing the language of contemporary theology with echoes of the past (Melloni 2005).

25 I do not want to be rude, but it is a fact that no self-defined Christian artist—singer-songwriters, groups, composers, etc.—has ever deserved a mention in the many books published on the history of Italian song, and this has little to do with the supposed ideological bias acknowledged to the critics, inasmuch as it concerns the depth of songwriting. The day Franco Battiato died, Padre Antonio Spadaro S.I.—himself a rock fan rather than a scholar—announced to Il Corriere della Sera on 18 May 2021 that he would publish an article on the artist and his spiritual research in La Civiltà Cattolica. Incidentally, the old Jesuits’ journal he directs has never published anything on Christian music or any of its exponents. Battiato represents another relevant case in this context, marked by a concert given on 18 March 1989 at the Vatican’s Nervi Auditorium in the presence of John Paul II. ‘take a look to the quotation marks in this citation While he was performing ‘E ti vengo a cercare’ he became emotional , and after singing ‘‘to be a divine image/of his reality’ he lost control of his voice and missed the final line of the song (‘E ti vengo a cercare/perché sto bene con te’ – And I come looking for you/because I feel good when I am with you)’ (Carrera 2014, 137)

26 In 1956 the song was recorded by Bing Crosby and included in his ‘A Christmas Sing with Bing Around the World’, as Thou Descendeth from the Star, but is also known as Carol of the Bagpipers.

27 Madonna belongs to people prior to the institutions, wrote a historian (Vauchez 1994). On music and dance on pilgrimage in a gender perspective, see Weiss (2019) who focuses on the rituals performed at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Polsi in Calabria. On the fortunes of Santa Claus in Italy see Prato (2020).

28 Marothy uses the term ‘solo song’.

29 The quotes are taken from titles in two daily papers that reviewed the album.

30 Don Gallo explicitly quotes the lyrics of a De Andrè song on migration, which says ‘Per chi viaggia in direzione ostinata e contraria/col suo marchio speciale di speciale disperazione’ (‘Smisurata preghiera’). The interview is included in a 2007 documentary by RAI Tre on street priests.

31 All authors’ translations.

32 See e.g. Ghezzi (2003); Denora (2004); Storti (2009); Cannas (2006); Miscio (2016) (prefaced by Mons. Nunzio Galantino, at that time General Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference); Salvarani-Semellini 2019.

33 Sacred Arias sold more than five million copies and stands out as the best-selling solo classical album of all time. My Christmas Album topped the charts in Italy, Hungary, and Poland.

Additional information

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Paolo Prato

Paolo Prato received his National Scientific Qualification in 2017 as Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology and Popular Music. He currently teaches ‘Italian Media and Popular Culture’ at John Cabot University. He has taught courses at the Pontifical Gregorian University, LUISS, Università La Sapienza, Università Cattolica, and the Pontifical Lateran University. He is International Advisor of the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World and one of the founding members of Portale della Canzone Italiana (Ministry of Culture). His interests focus on popular music history, music sociology, transnational music markets, identity stereotypes, and cultures of technology.