I chose to defend the National Anthem

03/05/15

A heartfelt and in some ways poetic reflection on the Tricolore, the writer has already done it, however the pain of telling the song of the Italians had been spared and not for poor love of Fatherland, but precisely for this title: Song of the Italians.

The name was exhumed by the former officer of the shipowners, then banker and in the end President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who took it into his head to make the National Anthem sing in all circumstances, even at the salamella di Rovigo (you are not aware of the existence of this festival).

This inappropriate choice has led to a further and certainly not necessary loss of sacredness of the native song and a further disaffection on the part of those who reason on these lines, but what has set in motion the indignation and the consequent decision to start a defense of Mameli's poetry office was the monstrosity of "ready to life" with which an "inattentive" choir director of the Little Cantori of Milan decided to scrape the National Anthem at the inauguration ceremony of the Milan Universal Exposition .

Yes, scarring, scarring! Because that song was written by a boy of 21 years, Goffredo Mameli precisely, that life was ready for sure, but certainly not the sudden death that caught him in the defense of an ideal, that of Italy, and yet in writing that text, chosen after a hundred years as a National Anthem, he decided to use the formula we are ready for death, perhaps for exorcism, certainly for devotion and to show that the greatest value of the individual: life, it is possible to superimpose a concept, that of community, understood as a group of men and women linked by values, ideals, dreams, aspirations in common, in short, the nation.

By stifling the anthem, not only has the memory of those who wrote it hurt, but the seeds of disillusionment and relativism have crept into these little singers: everything can be changed, but this also means that nothing is certain, including the values, the affection of the family and the teachings of the school, in short, each one does as he or she wants to do each other as he can in a world where individualism makes ready to life and then to themselves, without taking into account the possibility that we can give ourselves to others even to the extreme consequences.

Throughout this reflection, for a sincere love of Patria has pleaded in favor of the Song of Italians, even if you prefer it with the title of National Anthem and you would like to sing only on solemn occasions, like the Te Deum and not in the stadiums or in party parties where the musical part is always accompanied by that horrible Poro-po-po-po-po-po.

Hurray Mameli, Hurray for Italy, Long live the sacredness of our hymn.

Andrea Pastore