Music and Colonialism in Fascist Italy

This book offers the first comprehensive investigation of the role of music within the context of Italian imperial expansion in Africa, with a particular focus on the Fascist period. While Italy’s colonial project spanned approximately sixty years, it was during the final decades — under Mussolini’s regime — that music emerged as a subtle yet potent instrument of propaganda. Despite its importance, the intersection of Italian music and colonial politics has remained critically underexplored, often eclipsed by postwar narratives that sought to deny or obscure cultural complicity. Drawing on archival sources, colonial newspapers, Italian and international press, published and unpublished scores, and personal accounts, the book examines four domains of entanglement between music and imperial ideology: the projection of Italian cultural identity in Libya through opera houses and concert programming; the colonial staging of Arab musical and dance traditions to satisfy orientalist appetites; the overlooked field of Italian musical ethnography in colonial settings, marked by flawed methodology and rare sonic documentation; and the creation of propagandistic works endorsing imperial ambitions. Special attention is given to Libya under Governor Italo Balbo, including Radio Tripoli’s role in circulating local music, and to compositions by Adriano Lualdi and Alfredo Casella that engaged with imperial themes. These case studies show how music was mobilized to affirm nationalism, legitimize domination, and shape perceptions of the Other. By reintegrating music into the historiography of Italian colonialism, this study reclaims a neglected dimension of twentieth-century culture, challenging enduring silences in both musicological and postcolonial scholarship.

Foreword by Giuseppe Chiriacò
Preface

Chapter One: Introduction

Chapter Two: Music and Cultural Hegemony in Libya: Colonial Theatres as Instruments of Empire
Introduction
Italian Colonialism in Libya in Context
The Politics of Cultural Life in Colonial Libya
Cultural Institutions in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica
Modernity and Local Traditions: The Music Programming of Radio Tripoli

Chapter Three: Italian Musical Ethnography and Colonial Discourse
Introduction
Early Colonial Musical Ethnography and its Later Dissemination
Colonial Knowledge and Musical Ethnography during the Fascist Period
Case Studies: Key Figures and Contributions
Sonic Representations of the Other: Sound Collection and the Display of Musical Traditions from the Overseas Territories

Chapter Four: Italian Composers and Imperial Propaganda: Music Between Artistic Autonomy and Political Control
Introduction
Awards and Competitions
The ‘Spontaneous’ Response of Composers
Colonial Narratives on Stage
Aural Traces of Italian Colonialism in Postcolonial Italy

Epilogue

Bibliography
Index of Names