Mameli’s Hymn

Mameli’s Hymn is named as one of the songs sung by Gabriele D’Annunzio’s legionnaires in a theater performance. Though the book gives neither its lyrics nor a fuller account of its history, its place in the sequence matters: the hymn joins patriotic song to the collective performance of political identity, then gives way to a popular tune that changes the gathering’s mood and sound.

Place in the Performance

The documented appearance comes as the curtain falls on the second act of a play written by D’Annunzio. A voice calls for the performance to stop so the troops can sing their own songs. At the Commander’s signal, singing rises from the orchestra and balconies: first Giovinezza, then Garibaldi’s Hymn, then Mameli’s Hymn. The whole theater joins in, and the narrative associates the chorus with youth, joy, and gaiety. D’Annunzio sings from his stage box, pleased to be shedding literature for song.

From Patriotic Chorus to Popular Song

Mameli’s Hymn belongs to a short succession that links the soldiers’ singing to patriotic repertoire. The episode does not describe the hymn’s words or distinguish how it sounds from the other songs; its significance rests on its position in the chorus and on the theater singing together. The sequence then turns. The soldiers call for a popular Neapolitan tune, ’A tazza ’e cafè, and persist when the officers exchange embarrassed looks. Sung without accompaniment, the tune grows louder and more forceful, displacing the pomp of the official songs. Mameli’s Hymn is thus recorded as part of the patriotic chorus, but the scene’s final emphasis falls on the rank-and-file soldiers’ popular choice.

Fiume and Collective Belonging

The song scene belongs to a narrative that gives public performance a political charge. In a speech to his legionnaires, D’Annunzio contrasts Fiume with the postwar settlements at Versailles, associating the city with youth, beauty, life, and songs that set the pace of collective movement. That rhetoric offers context for the theater’s singing without making the hymn itself a stated expression of any particular program. The episode presents it more narrowly and concretely: as one shared song in a gathering where soldiers, officers, and their Commander participate in a performance that briefly makes the theater a collective political space.