Abstract
Improvised poetry in ottava rima in central Italy takes the form of public duels between two poets who make use of traditional melodic profiles to sing stanzas of eight hendecasyllables respecting the sequence of rhymes of the ottava toscana. During a meeting in honour of a renowned improviser of the past – which took place in Massa Marittima (Grosseto) on 10 February 2019 – one of the poets (Pietro De Acutis) invited one of his colleagues (Marco Betti) to sing, according to what he considers «una chiamata giusta e naturale» (a fair and natural call). This article tries to shed light on the ethical and political aspects of this practice relying on Monica Ferrando’s concept of poetic and musical nomos (Ferrando 2018), on Agamben’s writings about the bilinguism inside language which becomes especially evident in poetry (Agamben 2019a, 2019b) and on his concept of «museic nexus» (Agamben 2016). Luciano Berio’s notion of gesto vocale (vocal gesture, Berio 1967) and some reflections on the art of improvising poetry in ottava rima expressed by the two poets while singing will be taken into consideration to underline the intricacies of sound, meaning and emotion in this practice of sung poetry.
Translated title of the contribution | The "fair and natural call". Poetic improvisation in octave rhyme in central Italy |
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Original language | Italian |
Pages (from-to) | 97-112 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio |
Volume | 14 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 20 Dec 2020 |