Pasolini, paroliere per voci di suburra

When Pier Paolo Pasolini arrived in Rome, he loved to attend the popular world, studying the lively dialect spoken in the capital's hamlets. A sheer power permeated that language and its speakers, in which the writer could recognize the last traces of a primitive culture that neocapitalism was erasing. After publishing Ragazzi di vita and during the draft of Una vita violenta, Pasolini tried, as a lyricist, to give a voice to some figures from lower social strata with their views of life: in particular whores, pimps and unauthorized car-park attendants. This essay focuses on a choice of texts taken from Poesie per musica: three songs for a recital with the singer Laura Betti (Macrì Teresa detta Pazzia, Valzer della toppa, Cristo al Mandrione) and another poem commisioned by Ennio Morricone (Caput Coctu). The songs' characters follow an idea of freedom, a loyalty of feelings that challenge all forms of homologation.