At the beginning of the 20th century in Italy there were numerous attempts to implement a social model different from that of the emerging industrial society or that of the traditional peasant society. With the end of the First World War in the town of Santa Vittoria, in the province of Reggio Emilia, a culture of cooperative associationism was consolidated, which had begun at the end of the nineteenth century. In addition to the original first forms of cooperation in the field of laborers, other organizations were gradually built: practically all the professional groups of the village worked in the cooperatives, laborers, bricklayers and blacksmiths, carpenters and other artisans also related to the workers’ cooperative. The agricultural cooperatives also included the chipmakers’ and shoemakers’ organizations and, from 1907, those of the cart makers; therefore, out of a population of 2309 inhabitants, 1513 were associated in cooperatives.
Since 1905 even the most important professional figures of popular culture such as musicians and luthiers have been grouped into the violinists’ league, comprising five musical bands in the country.
From these economic and social premises, stimuli also arose for musical culture, both for stringed and wind instruments, giving rise to dance concerts and concerts by the town’s musical band, which has always been confirmed as necessary to cheer up some local popular festivals and to characterize funeral ceremonies carried out in a civil manner.
In 1911 the agricultural cooperative was established for the purchase of the Greppi estate (a large local landowner) and Palazzo Greppi and a new organization was created which centralized all the other cooperative institutions around itself and governed the majority of the agricultural production of the area. Other entrepreneurial activities are started which tend to present themselves as modern circuits of social, economic and cultural intermediation between the countryside and the city. The economic-financial movement linked to the circulation of money is directed and coordinated by the consumer cooperative which owns the largest commercial establishments in the country.
Through the work cooperative, the workers of Santa Vittoria are sent to carry out public works outside the village and the workers are sent to Piedmont and Lombardy to husk rice (the rice weeders).
But Santa Vittoria also had a place of importance in folkloristic and musical culture: its dance parties were an important event for the populations of the lower Reggio Emilia area (the areas closest to the Po river) and Mantua and its renowned violinists were in demand in many places of the two provinces. In this context the Santa Vittoria band was born.
According to Wikipedia, a musical band is defined as an orchestra without string instruments, therefore made up exclusively of wind instruments and percussion; the absence of strings is compensated by the use of wind instruments, normally unrelated to the symphony orchestra such as flugelhorns or by the massive use of wind instruments constructed in different cuts, such as various types of clarinet and saxophone.
The modern Italian band was born between 1880 and 1920 where the criteria of instrumentation and musical lyrics were innovated; among the numerous musicians who over the years have tried their hand at writing band music we also find cultured composers such as Arnold Shönberg, Charles Ives and Alfred Reed. In Italy, authors and transcribers of classical texts such as Giovanni Orsomando, Carlo Pirola, Daniele Di Gregorio and many others developed.
In the operatic tradition the band appears on the stage as the second orchestra (as in the Magpie). Giuseppe Verdi himself had held the role of bandmaster and had composed suitable musical texts.
The social model that is formed is a sort of utopia of integral cooperation which finds fertile ground here.
In the mid-1920s, when the political pressures of the fascist regime forced the dissolution of the small artisan cooperatives, the musical band, by will of the majority of its members, decided to cease its activities so as not to serve the fascist regime.
After the end of the Second World War the old musicians rebuilt the band and, within two years, brought together 30 players. They say: “We had the blue cap with the removable red cover as our uniform and the elementary school janitor, the elderly Ferretti Francesco, also came, always available and ready to prepare the stage for the weekly rehearsals with the respective lectern and chair for each player , plus the bucket with fresh water to drink with the ladle. When we moved out of the country, he preceded us with his bicycle and the cart attached to transport the drum and the larger trombones and also the bicycle pump for any needs.”
The band was always available for all requests for musical services, but the exceptional commitment was for the day of May 1st of each year, from 8am to 2pm, walking through the main streets of the town where it was located, at a distance no greater than 200 meters away, a table with refreshments based on panettone, homemade cakes with white wine and liqueurs, or based on sliced salami with fresh bread and red wine; the station in front of the Latteria Sociale had a table with wedges of mature parmesan cheese. Everything was very welcome, not only by the band players, but also by the improvised popular choir and procession which progressively increased, constituting, towards the halfway point, a real sea of people of all generations.
There are events that are closely linked to the history and tradition of a place and May 1st represents for Santa Vittoria a legacy that has been handed down since the end of the nineteenth century. Only during the health emergency linked to COVID, for the first time in its history, the event was not held, thus missing an important opportunity for the whole community to come together.
The revival of May 1st in Vittoria dates back to 1945, a few days after the liberation. It is said that it was Enea Bagnoli (cooperator, member of a historic family of orchestra players) who took up the tradition and began to travel around the village with his violin playing the “Internazionale”.
Once upon a time, women also performed with work songs and still today red carnations are sold and donations are collected for the band itself.
The anniversary is therefore celebrated with the sound of music and good food: tradition has it that the Santa Vittoria band starts from Palazzo Greppi and stops in every neighborhood of the hamlet for a total of around 20 stops. Here the musicians sing typical songs and many families, in return, provide abundant refreshments at the end of which the band leaves again. It is a tradition, I was saying, that has distant roots, in fact already at the end of the nineteenth century the anniversary was celebrated with the current itinerant form. The rules of this unusual secular procession are precise: at each banquet the musicians must eat first and what remains is available to the public. Now that the gang’s journey has also expanded to new neighbourhoods, there is a little less rigor on this aspect, but this does not mean that it is not a good opportunity to enjoy generously offered delicacies. Families bring the elderly and disabled to the front of their homes and on May 1st they are honored with music on request. Strangely, the most performed piece is “Fiume amaro” which everyone here remembers in the version of the venerated Iva Zanicchi from Ligonchio, followed at a considerable distance by the more typical songs of May 1st such as “Internazionale” and, why not, “Bandiera rossa” which still resonates in these parts. In the last twenty years the maestro Valerio Volpi has always led an exceptional group of musicians, young and old with enthusiasm through the streets of the town. However, a few months ago he left us and was called to direct a band of angels. Occasional spectators are fascinated by this kind of secular “Via crucis” which has nothing painful about it, but which proudly remembers the times of the primacy of cooperation over all other economic and social organizations. You can find the historian here; of the town, Luca, who can tell you anecdotes from generations and stories from the times of the city of a hundred violins; here you can meet the old trombonist who also served his city as a tourist guide. He can say “I consider myself among those who consider themselves satisfied with their belonging to the community, directly benefiting from the culture of social cooperation and also that of popular music”
Being present here and walking with them on May 1st means (in addition to a pleasant and secular musical and culinary procession) collecting the last shreds of a social model that represented the utopia of integral cooperation. These are the last glimmers of that model, here we are to witness a missed opportunity.
