Abstract
This volume is an important contribution to our understanding of the life and work of Antonio Gramsci, thus it is a necessary addition to private bookshelves and, especially, research libraries. It is comprised, in addition to the highly informative “Introduzione” (by Maria Luisa Righi) and a brief “Postfazione” (by co-editor Fabio Francione), of 83 reviews (of plays, concerts, operas and operettas, and vaudeville, all of which appeared in the Cronache torinesi section of the socialist daily l’Avanti!) written by giornalista in erba Gramsci.
The book comes forth as a companion to a 2017 collection of Gramsci's “theater chronicles”, edited by Francione, Il teatro lancia bombe nei cervelli. Concerti e sconcerti is the result of the examination of patterns that emerged while research for the Edizione nazionale of Gramsci's writings was being conducted. Unsigned reviews on the performing arts were deemed in need of closer examination because they shared traits with the few interventions signed by Gramsci, who held that “un giornale proletario deve essere anonimo e non deve servire da vetrina a nessuno”.
The texts presented here are grouped chronologically (1915–1916, 1917, 1918–1919). While those through 1918 have been integrated into the first three volumes of the Scritti volumes of the Edizione nazionale, those from 1919 are “novità assolute” (p. 11).
The process of identifying new attributions utilized several criteria. One was critical method: that is, whether or not the manner by which Gramsci typically approached and interpreted creative works resonated in the article under examination.
A second criterion was prose style. For example, Gramsci was known for his often caustic, always witty journalistic writings, as reflected in the title of this collection: Concerti e sconcerti al Liceo Musicale, originally published with the “sarcastic” subheading “Serate bigie” (p. 17). This specific piece (the same must be said of all the others) was cross-referenced with the reviews signed by Gramsci, who did not feign specialistic expertise. He insisted he was a “cronista” and not a “critico” (p. 31), and he acutely observed (one might say as a pioneer in the sociology of literature and art) the reception of works and performances. He noted not only the reactions of Turin's theater-going public but also their dress, social make-up, and comportment so as to grasp new, still inchoate, trends in taste and attitudes.
A third was lexicon. To cite two examples, he would often use the term “scimmiette” (taken from one of ‘his’ authors, Kipling) as a metaphor for the insipidity and lack of musical appreciation of audience members who attended only to see and be seen (p. 17). With “disinteressato” (p. 18), a key term in other writings of this period, he would denote activity undertaken “senza aspettare lo stimolo dell’attualità”.
Gramsci's knowledge and appreciation of music—specifically, his familiarity with and proclivity for certain compositions and composers—was another factor. Thus, documentary sources and the recollections of those who interacted with him were also brought into play, along with the few articles already attributed to him that include references to music (p. 18).
All texts were meticulously cross-referenced with the dates of concerts and a number of his well-known “bersagli polemici” (p. 29).
In sum, an important merit of this book is that of casting into relief Gramsci's long-standing love of music and theater. As a teenager he would sing and accompany himself on the concertina, and he left behind in his family's home in Ghilarza a partially preserved bibliographic card catalogue with entries detailing the lives and works of numerous composers and their works (p. 20). As Righi comments, “Da questi primi appunti sino alle note carcerarie la musica è quindi inclusa a pieno titolo negli interessi culturali di Gramsci” (p. 21).
While at the lyceum in Cagliari, Gramsci would skip meals so as to be able to afford tickets in the ‘nosebleed’ sections of the city's theaters (p. 24). After leaving the university, his growing responsibilities at l’Avanti! notwithstanding, he stayed on as theater critic through 1920 (p. 12). Indeed, even after being sentenced to a slow, painful, inexorable death, he was known, in Turi, to sing opera selections to himself and his companions, and in Formia would whistle or hum “una canzoncina” (pp. 22–23).
In notebook 11, Gramsci stresses the fundamental importance of establishing a “una connessione sentimentale tra intellettuali e popolo-nazione” (§67, p. 1505). Music was a means to that end because it can spark an emotional reaction in all socio-economic strata. “Senza questa passione”, he writes, “non si fa politica-storia”. Leaders must “sentire le passioni elementari del Popolo”, and one way to do this is to identify with them through music, then introduce them to the joy of music appreciation. To that end, while in Turin, Gramsci (according to Sandro Pertini, befriended by the Communist leader while both were imprisoned in Turi) arranged for a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini (“non […] musiche leggere, ma […] la Quinta sinfonia di Beethoven e altro”) for factory workers, with admittance a prezzi popolari (p. 26).
Arranging this concert is only one example of Gramsci's impegno didattico—a defining characteristic of his entire political career (from the early years in Turin through the notebooks)—and his commitment to freedom: his conviction that true liberty can only be obtained by making quality, “disinterested”, humanistic instruction available to the masses. Indeed, Beethoven was only one battle in his war on “i motivi soliti ed antichi d’ingiustizia sociale”, one of which was/is the making of concerts, literature, and museums as uninviting, arcane, if not inaccessible to the masses.
Those who have spent time studying Gramsci will be pleasantly surprised (despite the fact that in 1950 Italo Calvino edited, for the thematic edition of the Notebooks, a collection of Cronache teatrali) in learning of this neglected aspect of his intellectual project, even though, as Righi points out, “mai nelle argomentazioni di Gramsci si coglie una gerarchia tra le forme artistiche o una svalutazione della musica” (p. 16). Those whose knowledge of Gramsci's sacrifice and his contribution to world civilization is relatively new will benefit from the apparatus of the notes: beyond the information contained therein, readers can glean from them important bibliographical references for further study of the one of the most important figures of Italy's Novecento.
In closing, this book casts into relief a neglected aspect of Gramsci's personality and is significant not only for this reason but also because of the reviews, grouped together as they are, that shed light, as reflected through Gramsci's ingenious prism, on Italian society in the years around the First World War.
