Cantacronache

Cantacronache was a collective, begun informally by Sergio Liberovici and Michele L. Straniero and rather quickly drawing in Emilio Jona, Fausto Amodei, Giorgio De Maria, Margot Galante Garrone, Mario Pogliotti and Duilio Del Prete. Also included in the mix were composers Fiorenzo Carpi, Giacomo Manzoni, and Valentino Bucchi, writers Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Gianni Rodaro, and Franco Fortini, as well as singers Franca Di Rienzo, Pietro Buttarelli, Edmonda Aldini, Silverio Pisu, and Glauco Mauri. With the exception of Liberovici, most of the other founding members practiced non-musical professions and were more intellectuals and scholars than artists. They were united in wanting to create songs with a cultural and sociological impact, rather than commercial pop songs intended to make people gloss over and forget the struggles and hardships of the past and of the present as it was unfolding in the great post-war economic boom in Italy. Their 1958 manifesto was this: What we are proposing, beyond polemics and disruption, is to avoid escapism, returning to singing histories, happenings, fables, that pertain to the worldly and daily lives of the people. Cantacronache's record company, Canta Italia, had close ties to the Italian Communist Party and actively promoted Cantacronache performances in social clubs, party conferences, and conventions where their songs were enthusiastically received.

Cantacronache Faves - 1958 - 1964

1958: Canzone triste · Dove vola l'avvoltoio? · La zolfara ·
          Raffaele · Le cose vietate
1959: Partigiano sconosciuto
1960: Ero un consumatore · Per i morti di Reggio Emilio
1961: Tiro a segno · Questa democrazia
1963: Nel mondo dei beati
1964: Canzone dei fiori e del silenzio · Polesine