ABSTRACT
Italy's 56 million people have evolved traditions that share common elements with continental Europe and the Mediterranean. Along the peninsula, the transition from European to Mediterranean musical idioms occurs gradually but on the basis of structure, manner of performance, and textual elements, Italy has four main regions of musical style: the Mediterranean and Sicily; the central region; the north; and Sardinia. The Italian peninsula is thus a mosaic of local traditions, confined at times within a town, or family. Consequently some scholars have suggested that, while northern Italy is musically the south of Europe, southern Italy belongs to north of Africa. Rarely shared at the national level, folk song in Italy never became a national symbol. Two important types of Italian folk song are ballads and lyric songs. Dances may have accompanied ballads, though evidence is scant. Documents from Trentino suggest that ballads were accompanied instrumentally and danced to the beat of the saltarello and the monferrina until about 1900.
