From Guccini to De André: Italian singer-songwriters could be studied in schools

Singer-songwriter music and melodrama could become subjects of study in Italian high schools. This is provided for by the updated guidelines for upper secondary education, which aim to place the analysis of the lyrics of some great Italian singer-songwriters and opera librettos alongside traditional literature. This was confirmed by Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, interviewed by Famiglia Cristiana. Asked whether, alongside traditional poetry, there would also be room for the lyrics of Mogol–Battisti, Fabrizio De André, Francesco De Gregori and Francesco Guccini, he replied: "Of course. We've already made provision for that in high schools. The songs of singer-songwriters, obviously those with a certain level and poetic worth, can certainly be studied, just as we've provided for melodrama, from Verdi to Puccini, to be studied too."

The lyrics of Italian singer-songwriters could therefore become part of school curricula, having in any case already found their way — more or less laboriously — into teaching programmes in recent years. The analysis, reports Orizzonte Scuola, will address the metrical, stylistic and linguistic aspects of the songs, as well as their connection to society and to the historical period in which they were written. The revision also includes the operatic tradition: the librettos of Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini will be approached as literary works conceived for the stage, at the meeting point of language history, music and theatre. The stated goal is to broaden the tools of reading and textual analysis, bringing the study of literature closer to forms of expression nearer to students' own experience. Singer-songwriter music, in short, could be treated not merely as a musical or generational document, but as a text to be interpreted with the same rigour reserved for poetry.

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