The Persian, people quite different from us, and quite alien to God, a race with inconstant heart and whose spirit had not been truthful to the Lord, has invaded the lands of those Christians, has devastated them with iron, with theft and fire (...) They perforate the navel of those who want to condemn to a shameful death, and pull their genitals away; they tie them up to a stick, and whipping them with a leash, they troll them around until when, with their guts pouring out, these Christians fall on the ground, shattered (...) Let any dissent between you and unfriendliness cease, now. Take the path towards the Holy Sepulchre (...) Jerusalem (...) is willing to be liberated.
Pope Urbano II, Clermont, esortation to the First Crusade (1095 a.C.)
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"If you don’t like the song, don’t listen to it, without making tutta stu burdell."
YouTube commentary for Fujmmencenne Stasera by Rita Del Sorbo
Neomelodic songs’ harmonies are indebted to classical Neapolitan song (1880-1945) and the way in which the melodies are sung is certainly related to the sanguine interpretation rich in tremolo and vibrato typical of the school of which Sergio Bruni was the leading figure.
In other words, the main sources of inspiration for neomelodic come from a) a world-famous genre that b) has provided supreme examples of beautiful music and c) capable of renewing itself and living not only in glory even in the two subsequent decades - just think of the incredible Vieneme inzuonno (1959).
Neomelodic music feeds on other influences: international pop from the 70s/80s (especially the arrangements) and the ‘bella canzone italiana’ from Sanremo, which obviously are themselves derived from Neapolitan songs.
A criticism - used to justify the “soft disgust” often professed for this genre - is that neomelodic music copies other people’s music. But a neomelodic music artist said it clearly: all pop musicians, even outside Italy, use imitation. And I agree. But the thing is, neomelodic music takes this art to a higher level: taken together, the neomel artists become the Dandy Warhols of Europop. As I find many sounds and all the styles there. I hear a rip-off riff identical to the one of Shine On You Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd, and in another piece that synth bass sound that the Pet Shop Boys used.
Elsewhere I find Ketama-like atmospheres and fat Billy Cobham-style tom-tom drums and (a few) tarantelle. and so much Euro-pop! Sometimes I can even other people's music: like excerpts off the "Matrix" or the famous "Exorcist section" of “Tubular Bells.”
The arrangements range from rock ballads to more Euro-dance situations with a classical string instrument, or even an oboe. Other times the arrangement is more orchestral and rhythmic, with nervous brass sections like Tower of Power/Dirotta su Cuba (listen to the first twenty bars of the CD I segreti dell'amore, also by Anthony). And also a lot of FM rock and disco feel (four-note bass drum and offbeat hi-hat) and maybe tropical and reggae flavors.
Pure neomelodic singers prefer a recitativo to rapping. Even if the very recent
Stella Do’ Cielo with Gianni Celeste, Clementino and Mirkomiro indicates a new level of collaboration between the two styles. A classical neomel singer (of the Sicilian school) like Celeste who joins the rap world adding his neomelodic lines - in truth few, repeated to the limit of sampling - and make the piece live thanks to an irresistible hook: “stella do’ cielo ca nun me ‘bandunà...” [The piece includes a wink to his colleague Raffaello, under house arrest: “And Raffaello, Maronna, st’ ancora là”.]
Three absolutely crucial elements define the neomel style. The first is given by the assonant melodies - laid out on harmonic textures often in minor - that end the phrases with vocal arabesques with an oriental taste made of semitones and melismas.
Melismas are those notes in succession performed on the same consonant or vowel inserted at the end of phrases to provide micro-improvisational spaces like in jazz and reminiscent of Arabic or Carnatic music, making one singer unique from another.
They introduce a sound space similar to qawaali, where the “well-tempered” intonation has been lost along the way, and the ether houses all those notes that the performer hears between a note and the next semitone. As in the bulerias, the “apparently out of tune” note is welcome.
The second element is equally crucial: melodies merge with chords and are resolved in equally predictable ways, even if they originate from a broader harmonic tablecloth than - say - that of the blues.
Blues are usually 12- or 16-bar long and composed on three chords, the neomelodic code uses a much larger palette of chords but the number of resolutions (where does a certain sequence of chords end up?) is relatively limited, with easily recognizable harmonic and melodic patterns. and an equally recognisable song structure (generally a traditional verse, refrain, bridge.)
This involves a certain interpretative automatism on the part of the listener. If we know this style, in other words, we tend to recognize the resolutions before they happen. This quickly leads to knowing how to sing them, in the shower or in summer and Bermuda shorts.
[The video “
Aria pulite di Gianni Pirozzo” circulating on YouTube provides visual evidence of the pleasure that improvised melismas and ‘interpretative automatisms’ create in local listeners of the Napolitan suburbia. Despite the sultry climate in the clearing of this villa, the man who stands next to Pirozzo - bare-chested, Bermuda shorts and sandals - clearly feels les frissons, goosebumps, what in Naples call “the cold on the neck” (“‘o fridd nguóll”) Typical reaction of those who encounter the Kantian “thing in itself”, here going beyond the mere phenomenal reality of the Campania suburbs.]
Melismas, microtones and predictable resolutions lead to a decisive third effect.
On an unconscious level, this “predictability of resolutions” becomes in music what Walter Benjamin called the “convention of expression”: it becomes an indispensable convention for sharing an allegorical narrative with a shared code.
By doing so, neomelodic listeners obtain an “aural understanding territory” from which they can create a deeper emotional exchange with the music and above all with the performer and among themselves.
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Originally printed on BlowUp, 2016.