| Il Canto di Malavita: Mafia Music |
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Mafia Songs Break a Code of Silence
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"Mob movies have already tainted the Italian image. Do we really need more degrading shows?"
APPENNINI
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For years late–night TV watchers in the United States have been subjected to exploitative commercials touting "Mob Hits," a CD compilation of so–called Mafia music, or, more precisely, music that has an often tenuous connection to gangsters, movies about organized crime, or Frank Sinatra. There's practically a subgenre of music devoted to the myth and romanticized version of the Mafia—call it music for the made man—with soundtracks to mob movies and TV shows such as The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Goodfellas selling briskly.
Ironically, there really is an Italian folk form of music that glorifies the Mafia, known as il canto di malavita, which translates literally as songs of a bad life or life of crime. More colloquially, the songs are known as Mafia music. This little known and highly gory music, an unusual and specific tradition of Calabria in Southern Italy, continues to attract fans and critics.
Paying Tribute to the Mob
The history of the Mafia's music goes back a long way. It has its origins in the canto di malavita (songs of a life of crime) and the canto di carcerato (songs of prison life) that have been passed down from generation to generation. In these laments, prisoners avow their innocence or they proudly sing of a particularly successful act of vengeance. Interestingly, these songs were never the sole property of the outlaws or the Mafia alone and ordinary people would sing them during long laborious shifts in the olive groves or in the fields as well at celebrations and festivals.
In Europe, the release of two albums: Il Canto di Malavita—La Musica della Mafia, and Omertà, Onuri e Sangu—La Musica della Mafia Vol.2 ("Discretion, Honor and Blood") unleashed much negative publicity from social critics in Italy. The forthcoming release of the music in the U.S. has already upset Italian–American organizations, which are worried about another glorification of Mafia traditions. But last fall, the band "Mimmo Siclari ed I Cantori di Malavita" performed the songs for the first time live on stage on a European tour to mostly enthusiastic audiences.
Deaf, Dumb and Blind Am I
Listeners who aren't familiar with the Italian language might easily mistake some of the melodies on these albums for Italian folk music. Tarantelle such as "Non su lupu" (I am not a Wolf) and "U ballu da famigghja Muntalbanu" (Dance of the Muntalbanu Family) rely on traditional instruments such as the accordion and the tambourine and are probably the oldest form of this type of music around today. But lyric-wise the songs have hidden meanings and nearly always take the side of the 'Ndrangheta. In the song "I cunfirenti" (The Traitors) a man has been discredited, presumed guilty and now faces death for having given information to the police. The song "U commissariu" (The commissioner) explains how a man should behave when confronted by the Carabinieri: "I'd rather be in prison with men of my kind / These lips won't speak / I'll carry these three years on my shoulders."
Other songs, notably "'Ndrangheta, camurra e mafia", use strong imagery and poetic expression to describe how the honorable society came into being over 100 years ago and explain how the ritualized linguistic code of the 'Ndrangheta functions. "Deaf, dumb and blind am I" sings the protagonist in the song "Omertà":
Omertà
Surdu mutu orbu sugnu
A l'onorata ci appartegnu
Società che 'nta nu pugnu
Ci cumanda tuttu u regnu
E l'omu chi parra assai
Si trova sempri 'nta li guai
Chi é surdu orbu e taci
Campa pi cent' anni in paci
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The Law of Silence
Blind, deaf and dumb am I
I am one of the society
That is a clenched fist
And that rules the land
The man who speaks too much
Will never have it easy
But whoever is deaf and blind and mute
Will live in peace for a hundred years
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A Tradition of Violence, Murder, and Mayhem
Not surprisingly for a musical tradition that gloried criminality (consider such titles as "Sangu chiama sangu" (Blood Cries for Blood), "Cu sgarra paga" (Who Fails, Pays), and "Canto di carcerato" (Incarceration)), a number of travelling musicians were forced to end their careers early, as they had no desire to play to audiences made up of Mafia men. The fate of singer Franscesco "Ciccio" Scarpelli, who went under the alias Fred Scotti to hide his real identity, was especially tragic. He was the only singer of Mafia songs to perform in public and was shot dead on April 13, 1971 for having fallen in love with the girl of a Mafioso.
If Mafia music breaks a code of silence, then perhaps listeners will finally hear the harsh truth. Regardless of any misplaced nostalgia for a way of life where so–called men of honor controlled different regions of Southern Italy and maintained a religious, family–oriented facade, the fact remains: i canti di malavita are just that—songs of a life of crime, in an impoverished land where for over a century the Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, and the Camurra preyed on the weak and vulnerable, ruled by fear, and oppressed their own countrymen.
