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139ItalyWith its internationally renowned opera traditions and bel canto singing style souniversally popular, Italy has long been a symbol of “beautiful singing”. Unlike someother European countries, where folk singing styles became the symbol of nationalmusical identity, “rarely shared at the national level, folk song in Italy never became anational symbol. Instead, during the second half of the nineteenth and part of thetwentieth century, opera and so-called Neapolitan popular song served such purposes”(Sorce Keller et al. 2000:604). Four main regions are distinguished in Italy: (1) NorthItaly, (2) central Italy, (3) the Mediterranean south and Sicily, and (4) Sardinia. Thetradition of vocal polyphony is distributed in three out of the four regions: in north andcentral Italy and on Sardinia. Although the southern part is mostly monophonic,geographically more isolated Sicily has vocal polyphonic traditions. As a matter of fact,central Italy is more of a transitional region between the polyphonic north andmonophonic south, so polyphonic singing decreases from north to south of Central Italy.“Choral singing belongs mainly to the alpine area and the north, where a variablenumber of singers sing two, three, or four parts. The accompanying part sings below theleading part or, less commonly, above it. This type of polyphony, structures in thirds orsixths, is widespread from the southern German territories to the valley of the river Po,and into Slovenia, Dalmatia, and northern Croatia. In playfulness and intricacy of texture,the richest polyphonic forms include the tiir, from the town of Premana in Lombardy; thetrallalero, in the area around Genoa, in which five (sometimes six) vocal parts imitatevarious instruments; and the bei in Tuscany. These styles are neither song forms nor songtypes, but polyphonic procedures applied to different kinds of songs” (Sorce Keller et al,2000:610).The singing style in north Italy is open and relaxed and the metre and rhythm isstrict. As in many other polyphonic cultures, the performance of choral music in northItaly often involves the listeners as well. “The atmosphere of the singing eventencourages active participation, and men and women, as they sit at table with a bottle ofwine, join the performance” (Sorce Keller et al, 2000:611). The presence of choralsocieties in the Alpine region is a good indication of the widespread popularity ofpolyphonic singing in the Italian Alps. “Even though their members [of choral societiesand choirs] are not professional musicians, and do not depend on musical activities inorder to make a living, the Alpine choirs are in a way professional or, at least, semiprofessionalorganizations. Through concerts, the release of records, the publication ofsongbooks, and occasional subsidies, they support themselves and survive as aninstitution. Their music is widely appreciated in Trentino. In the countryside, as withcommercial songs in the cities, it is this type of popular music that people like to listen to.Such choral groups, therefore, are Alpine, popular, and professional at the same time”(Sorce Keller, 1986:449).Plenty of polyphonic examples are represented in Leydi’s 1973 book “Italian FolkSongs”. According to this book, singing in parallel thirds and sixths is very widelydistributed in north Italy from Venetia to Genoa.Apart from the later style of polyphony, based on European harmonies andparallel thirds, Italy is the home of more archaic polyphonic singing styles as well. Firstof all, some very interesting sources are available from medieval Italy. According tothem, for example, by the end of the 15 th century, a specific type of dissonant polyphony,