Despite being created to celebrate the arrival of Charles V in the Kingdom of Naples and his imperial triumph, the Napolitan song (villanella) gradually established itself as one of the intimate and poetical styles of the history of our music.

 

Although the term villanella literally means a young villager or a young peasant, poetically speaking it leads one to a polysemy of  very significant complexity. Also, the villanella is an image of the ideal woman, representing the simple, pure and unsullied life of the countryside, but diametrically opposite to that in towns with all its insufferable sophistication, lies and deceits.

 

The praise of the  villanella is a musical stroll in the Pathenopean Garden of Delights in the heart of its intimacy of secrets and enchantments. The garden is a solitary place, a contemplative space to share the song of the birds and the fountain of water shining like the sun. An ideal space then to sing of undeclared love, of hopes, of vain expectations and of disillusionments; a nest at last for more secret meetings and most sincere serenades.

 

“In the garden the villanella approaches”- I quote the text of the song- The Lady the symbol of a purest love, of the same purity as the water contained in the pitcher which dances as if on air, above her head; symbol of a love neither

valued in gold nor silver but as red cherries and perfumed peaches.