Lord Bracknell
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Il Canto degli Italiani (The Song of the Italians) is the Italian national anthem. It is best known among Italians as Inno di Mameli (Mameli's Hymn) and sometimes referred to as Fratelli d'Italia, from its first line.
The words were written in the autumn of 1847 in Genoa, by the then 20-year-old student and patriot Goffredo Mameli (two years before his death), in a climate of popular struggle for unification and independence of Italy which foreshadowed the war against Austria.
Two months later, they were set to music in Turin by another Genoese, Michele Novaro. The hymn enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the period of the Risorgimento (Resurgence) – and in the following decades.
After unification (1861) the adopted national anthem was the Marcia Reale (or Fanfara Reale), official hymn of the royal house of Savoy composed in 1831 to order of Carlo Alberto di Savoia. The Marcia Reale remained the Italian national anthem until the birth of the republic.
It was not by chance, however, that Giuseppe Verdi, in his Inno delle Nazioni (Hymn of the Nations), composed for the London Internation Exhibition of 1862, chose Il Canto degli Italiani – and not the Marcia Reale – to represent Italy, putting it beside God Save the Queen and the Marseillaise.
From 1922 to 1943, the fascist period, each public performance of the Marcia Reale was followed by the hymn of the Partito Nazionale Fascista, entitled Giovinezza.
On October 12, 1946, Italy became a republic, and Il Canto degli Italiani was, provisionally, chosen as the country's new national anthem. This choice was officialized in law only on November 17th, 2005, almost 60 years later.
The words were written in the autumn of 1847 in Genoa, by the then 20-year-old student and patriot Goffredo Mameli (two years before his death), in a climate of popular struggle for unification and independence of Italy which foreshadowed the war against Austria.
Two months later, they were set to music in Turin by another Genoese, Michele Novaro. The hymn enjoyed widespread popularity throughout the period of the Risorgimento (Resurgence) – and in the following decades.
After unification (1861) the adopted national anthem was the Marcia Reale (or Fanfara Reale), official hymn of the royal house of Savoy composed in 1831 to order of Carlo Alberto di Savoia. The Marcia Reale remained the Italian national anthem until the birth of the republic.
It was not by chance, however, that Giuseppe Verdi, in his Inno delle Nazioni (Hymn of the Nations), composed for the London Internation Exhibition of 1862, chose Il Canto degli Italiani – and not the Marcia Reale – to represent Italy, putting it beside God Save the Queen and the Marseillaise.
From 1922 to 1943, the fascist period, each public performance of the Marcia Reale was followed by the hymn of the Partito Nazionale Fascista, entitled Giovinezza.
On October 12, 1946, Italy became a republic, and Il Canto degli Italiani was, provisionally, chosen as the country's new national anthem. This choice was officialized in law only on November 17th, 2005, almost 60 years later.
