Roberta De Piccoli, “Transmission and Transformation: An Ethno-Musicological Study of the Italian-Canadian Community of Toronto,” Paper-Video Presentation, Intersections/Intersezioni 2019.
Musicologist Roberta De Piccoli’s documentary film and paper presentation Transmission and Transformation: An Ethno-Musicological Study of the Italian-Canadian Community of Toronto were focused on colonialism, diaspora awareness, and definition of musical identity in North America. After her ICAMus research mission in Canada in the winter, that she spent exploring, interviewing and filming, Dr. De Piccoli shared the outcome of her studies at the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference, Kent State University-Florence Program, Palazzo Vettori, Florence, Italy, on May 30, 2019; the conference was directed by Profs. Francesco Ciabattoni, Fulvio Santo Orsitto, and Simona Wright.
In the photo above: Cover slide from Roberta De Piccoli’s PowerPoint presentation Transmission and Transformation: An Ethno-Musicological Study of the Italian-Canadian Community of Toronto, accompanying Dr. De Piccoli’s documentary film by the same title premièred at the Intersections/Intersezioni 2019 Conference in Florence, May 30, 2019. Photo © ICAMus.
The Intersections Conference sponsors were NeMLA - Northeast Modern Language Association, N.E.V.I.S. - New Echoes and Voices in Italian Studies, The College of New Jersey, and Georgetown University. We express our deep appreciation to Roberta De Piccoli for this ongoing project, which has been so innovative in itself, as well as particularly new within our initiatives, and for this opportunity to open up our horizons by expanding our competences. Special thanks to Intersections and its directors, Profs. Ciabattoni, Orsitto, Wright, and to Kent State University-Florence Program.
In the photo above: Roberta De Piccoli presenting at the Intersections/Intersezioni 2019 Conference in Florence, May 30, 2019. Photo © ICAMus.
View and download the PowerPoint presentation (PDF) Transmission and transformation: An ethnomusicological study of the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto by Roberta De Piccoli, a complement to Dr. De Piccoli’s conference paper and première screening of the documentary film at the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference, Florence, May 30, 2019, in collaboration with ICAMus.
Theoretical background, Objective, and content of the research.
In the Italo-Canadian migration history, there are two significant questions: the first concerns colonialism and the second deals with diaspora awareness (diaspora in an extended meaning, for political, religious or economic reasons). These two questions illuminate two different ways of understanding the musical function: the annexation of a new homeland and the reminiscence of the lost homeland. In addition, Italian immigration to Toronto includes people from different regions, with their own specific language and dialect, original melodies, lyrics and ritual functions. Is it possible to identify common Italian denominators among so many differences?
Toronto is among Canada’s major cities, hosting one of the biggest Italian communities in the world. Theatres, music halls and music schools were built in the twentieth century, with the aid of large Italian workforce and labour. From a recent Canadian study conducted by Maria Calderisi (Italian Music in Canada, 2007) it emerges that the concert programs of these music institutions feature many Italian musicians and a wide variety of Italian works. Hence, transmission of culture becomes a key factor. The Italian music teacher ensures the conservation of competence, influences repertoire, and teaches students compliance with a given musical system. The so-called “serious” music is part of social ritual, as seen in choral groups and pop concerts.
The adjective, “Italian” includes people from different regions, with their own specific language and dialect, without a consistent integration in-between. Applying a (socio)-ethno-musicological method, Roberta De Piccoli planned a fieldwork in the city of Toronto to meet and to record some interviews with a wide sample of people from three historical migratory waves. The interviews were held in Toronto over a 13-day period between late December 2018 and early January 2019. She devised a questionnaire on specific subjects: brief autobiography; personal definition of music identity and identity per se; musical memories; repertoire connected with the idea of preservation and transformation. To this end, she also considered it functional to prepare a list of selected composers/titles of arias and choral works present in a textbook compiled by Achille Schinelli and used by the Istituti magistrali, the High School which prepared future teachers between the World Wars. Questionnaire respondents were identified by means of personal contacts, and through the Italian cultural organizations in the region.
First results: a documentary film. The original video Transmission and Transformation: An Ethno-Musicological Study of the Italian-Canadian Community of Toronto has been the first outcome of this inquiry, planned, carried out and edited from October 2018 through April 2019. It is a shortened version of 20 hours of recording. This research was carried out in collaboration with ICAMus, The International Center for American Music.
The main focus of the investigation is working toward a definition of musical identity. From the collected narratives, music emerged as background, as human experience and expression, as subject, as time, as space, as a product of space-time, as a special context in which to offer an idea of both linear and vertical perception. Quite literally, music is an intersection at which perception/representation of life takes place.
Conclusions: what did this research reveal and to what further areas should it be extended? As a first partial review, three main observations were offered. Two were envisaged in the underlying hypotheses; the third was quite unexpected. ICAMus plans to share the outcome of Dr. De Piccoli’s exploration in the near future.
In the gallery of photos above: highlights from Transmission and transformation: An ethnomusicological study of the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto in images from Roberta De Piccoli’s PowerPoint presentation accompanying the paper and the première screening of the documentary film at the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference, Florence, May 30, 2019, in collaboration with ICAMus. In the images, some of the individuals and a choir met and interviewed by Roberta De Piccoli in Toronto in December 2018-January 2019: Elena Basile, Gianna Patriarca, Michael Occhipinti, Justine Jacoboni, Alberto Di Giovanni, Bruna Di Giuseppe-Bertoni, Daniela Nardi, Daniel e Michael Colla, Emanuele Lepri, Elena Spanu, Elizabeth Cinello, John Picchione, Marcel Danesi, Guillaume Bernardi, Mary-Grace Capobianco, Coro di Mississauga, and Adriana Monti). Photos © Roberta De Piccoli & ICAMus.
In the photo below: key moments from Transmission and transformation: An ethnomusicological study of the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto in an image from the première screening of the documentary film presented by Roberta De Piccoli at the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference, Florence, May 30, 2019, in collaboration with ICAMus. Photo © ICAMus.
In the photos below: Roberta De Piccoli presenting at the Intersections/Intersezioni 2019 Conference in Florence, May 30, 2019. Photos © ICAMus.
This paper-video presentation and the screening of Roberta De Piccoli’s documentary film Transmission and transformation: An ethnomusicological study of the Italian-Canadian community of Toronto marked the fourth ICAMus participation in the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference, Kent State University-Florence Program, Palazzo Vettori, Florence, Italy.
In the photo above: detail of the interior of Palazzo Vettori, Via Cavour 26, Florence, Italy, home to Kent State University, Florence Program, where the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference took place on May 29-30, 2019. Photo © ICAMus.
In the photo below: Intersections 2019, Conference Program, Cover Page & Signature Image/Logo © Intersections/Intersezioni.
Learn more about the content of this research on THIS PAGE.
See more on Roberta De Piccoli’s research in Toronto on THIS PAGE.
Discover more about the conference: Intersections/Intersezioni 2019 - Conference website and program.
In the photo below: one more detail of the interior of Palazzo Vettori, Via Cavour 26, Florence, Italy, home to Kent State University, Florence Program, where the Intersections/Intersezioni International Conference took place on May 29-30, 2019. Photo © ICAMus.
