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Lore & Background

The text of "Il Canto degli italiani" was written by Goffredo Mameli, a young Genoese patriot inspired by the mass mobilizations that would lead to the revolutions of 1848 and the First Italian War of Independence. Sources differ on the precise date of the text's drafting: according to some scholars, Mameli wrote the text on 10 September 1847, while others date the composition's birth to two days prior—8 September. After discarding all extant music, on 10 November 1847 Mameli sent the text to Turin and the Genoese composer Michele Novaro, who lived at the time with the activist Lorenzo Valerio. The poem captured Novaro, and he decided to set it to music on 24 November 1847. Thirty years later, the patriot and poet Anton Giulio Barrili recalled Novaro's description of the event. Mameli held Republican and Jacobin sympathies and supported the French Revolution credo liberté, égalité, fraternité. The text of "Il Canto degli italiani" drew inspiration from the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise". For example, "Stringiamci a coorte" recalls the "La Marseillaise" verse Formez vos bataillons ('Form your battalions'). In the original version of the text, the first line of the first verse read "Hurray Italy", but Mameli changed it to "Fratelli d'Italia", likely at Novaro's suggestion. Novaro, after receiving the manuscript, added a rebellious "Sì!" ('Yes!') at the end of the final refrain. Another verse in the first draft was dedicated to Italian women, but was eliminated by Mameli before the official debut. It read: "Tessete o fanciulle / bandiere e coccarde / fan l'alme gagliarde / l'invito d'amor".

In Their Own Story

On 10 December 1847, a demonstration before the Santuario della Nostra Signora di Loreto in Oregina, Genoa, was officially dedicated to the 101st anniversary of the Portoria quarter's popular rebellion during the War of the Austrian Succession, which had expulsed the Austrians from the city. In fact, it was an excuse to protest against foreign occupations in Italy and induce Charles Albert of Sardinia to embrace the Italian cause of liberty and of unity. On this occasion, the flag of Italy was shown and Filarmonica Sestrese, the municipal band of Sestri Ponente, played Mameli's anthem for 30,000 patriots who had come to Genoa from other parts of Italy for the event. This event is believed to be the song's first public performance, but there may have been a previous public rendition in Genoa on 9 November 1847, of which the original documentation was lost. That performance would have been by the Filarmonica Voltrese founded by Goffredo's brother Nicola Mameli, and used a first draft of "Il Canto degli italiani" that differs from the final version. As its author was infamously Mazzinian, the piece was forbidden by the Piedmontese police until March 1848. Its execution was also forbidden by the Austrian police, which also pursued its singing interpretation — considered a political crime — until their empire's dissolution. On 18 December 1847, the Pisan newspaper L'Italia wrote how the song evoked public spirits: "... For many evenings numerous youths have come together in the Accademia filodrammatici to sing a hymn of Mameli, set to music by the maestro Novaro. Poetry … is full of fire, music fully corresponds to it …"

Reader's Guide

The song was popular during the unification of Italy and the following decades. However, after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the republican and Jacobin connotations of "Fratelli d'Italia" were difficult to reconcile with the new state's monarchic constitution. The kingdom instead chose "Marcia Reale"—the House of Savoy's official anthem—composed by order of King Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1831. After the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the "Royal March", composed in 1831, was chosen as the national anthem of unified Italy. "Il Canto degli italiani" had politically radical content, with its strong republican and Jacobin connotations, and did not combine well with the monarchical conclusion to the unification of Italy. Mameli's creed was, however, more historical than political, and socialist and anarchist circles also regarded "Il Canto degli italiani" as too conservative. The song was one of the most common songs during the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. At the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, the last step in Italian unification, choirs sang it together with "La bella Gigogin" and the "Royal March"; and "Il Canto degli italiani" received bersaglieri fanfare. After the end of the Italian unification, "Il Canto degli italiani" was taught in schools, and remained popular among Italians. However, other musical pieces connected to the political and social situation of the time, such as the "Inno dei lavoratori" ('Hymn of the Workers') or "Goodbye to Lugano", addressed daily problems. These partly obscured the popularity of reunification hymns. "Fratelli d'Italia", thanks to references to patriotism and armed struggle, returned to success during the Italo-Turkish War, whereby it joined "A Tripoli"; and in the trenches of World War I. Italian irredentism of that time found a symbol in "Il Canto degli italiani"; although, in the years following, in the patriotic ambit, musical pieces of greater military style such as "La Leggenda del Piave", the "Canzone del Grappa" or "La campana di San Giusto" would have been preferred over it. Shortly after Italy entered World War I, on 25 July 1915, Arturo Toscanini performed "Il Canto degli italiani" at an interventionist demonstration.

Did You Know?

• The song was written by Goffredo Mameli, a young Genoese patriot, and set to music by Michele Novaro in 1847.
• The first line originally read 'Hurray Italy' but was changed to 'Fratelli d'Italia', likely at Novaro's suggestion.
• The anthem was first performed publicly on 10 December 1847 in Genoa for 30,000 patriots.
• After the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, the 'Marcia Reale' was chosen as the national anthem instead, due to the republican connotations of Mameli's hymn.
• The song gained de jure status as Italy's national anthem on 4 December 2017, after serving as the de facto anthem since 1946.