The kingdom chose instead "Marcia Reale" (Royal March), the House of Savoy's official anthem, composed by order of King Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1831.

The text of "Il Canto degli Italiani" was written by the Genoese Goffredo Mameli, then a young student and a fervent patriot, inspired by the mass mobilizations that would lead to the revolutions of 1848 and the First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849).

[5] After discarding all extant music,[6] on 10 November 1847[7] Goffredo Mameli sent the text to Turin and the Genoese composer Michele Novaro, who lived at the time with the activist Lorenzo Valerio.

[4] Thirty years later, the patriot and poet Anton Giulio Barrili recalled Novaro's description of the event thus:[3] Mi posi al cembalo, coi versi di Goffredo sul leggio, e strimpellavo, assassinavo colle dita convulse quel povero strumento, sempre cogli occhi all'inno, mettendo giù frasi melodiche, l'un sull'altra, ma lungi le mille miglia dall'idea che potessero adattarsi a quelle parole.

Là, senza neppure levarmi il cappello, mi buttai al pianoforte.Mi tornò alla memoria il motivo strimpellato in casa Valerio: lo scrissi su d'un foglio di carta, il primo che mi venne alle mani: nella mia agitazione rovesciai la lucerna sul cembalo e, per conseguenza, anche sul povero foglio; fu questo l'originale dell'inno Fratelli d'Italia.I placed myself at the harpsichord, with Goffredo's verses on the lectern, and strummed away, murdering the poor instrument with my shaking hands.

In fact, it was an excuse to protest against foreign occupations in Italy and induce Charles Albert of Sardinia to embrace the Italian cause of liberty and of unity.

That performance would have been by the Filarmonica Voltrese[19] founded by Goffredo's brother Nicola Mameli [it],[20] and used a first draft of "Il Canto degli Italiani" that differs from the final version (see above).

[21] On 18 December 1847, the Pisan newspaper L'Italia wrote how the song evoked public spirits:[22] ... For many evenings numerous youths have come together in the Accademia filodrammatici to sing a hymn of Mameli, set to music by the maestro Novaro.

[29] The rebels sang "Il Canto degli Italiani" during the Five Days of Milan[30] and at Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia's promulgation of the Statuto Albertino (also in 1848).

[4] In the 1860, the corps of volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi used to sing the hymn in the battles against the Bourbons in Sicily and Southern Italy during the Expedition of the Thousand.

[34] Giuseppe Verdi, in his Inno delle nazioni ("Hymn of the nations"), composed for the London International Exhibition of 1862, chose "Il Canto degli Italiani" to represent Italy, putting it beside "God Save the Queen" and "La Marseillaise".

"Il Canto degli Italiani" had too radical content, with its strong republican and Jacobin connotations,[10][11] and did not combine well with the monarchical conclusion to the unification of Italy.

[28] Mameli's republican — in fact Mazzinian — creed, was, however, more historical than political,[11] and socialist and anarchist circles also disliked "Il Canto degli Italiani" as too conservative.

[28] At the Capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, the last step in Italian unification, choirs sang it together with "La bella Gigogin" and the "Marcia Reale";[35][37] and "Il Canto degli Italiani" received bersaglieri fanfare.

[39] However, other musical pieces connected to the political and social situation of the time, such as the "Inno dei lavoratori [it]" ("Hymn of the Workers") or "Goodbye to Lugano",[40] addressed everyday problems.

[36] Shortly after Italy entered the First World War, on 25 July 1915, Arturo Toscanini performed "Il Canto degli Italiani" at an interventionist demonstration.

[41] In 1932, the National Fascist Party secretary Achille Starace decided to prohibit musical pieces that did not sing to Benito Mussolini and, more generally, did not link to fascism.

[48] In the spirit of this directive, some songs were resized, such as "La Leggenda del Piave", sung almost exclusively during the National Unity and Armed Forces Day every 4 November.

[49] The chants used during the Italian unification were however tolerated:[36][48] "Il Canto degli Italiani", which was forbidden in official ceremonies, received a certain condescension on particular occasions.

[51] After the 8 September 1943 armistice, the Italian government provisionally adopted as a national anthem "La Leggenda del Piave", replacing the "Marcia Reale".

[56] In 1945, at the end of the war, Arturo Toscanini directed a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's 1862 Inno delle nazioni in London, including "Il Canto degli Italiani".

Possible options included "Va, pensiero" from Verdi's Nabucco; a completely new piece; "Il Canto degli Italiani"; the "Inno di Garibaldi"; and confirmation of "La Leggenda del Piave".

[59][60] The government then approved Republican War Minister Cipriano Facchinetti's proposal to adopt "Il Canto degli Italiani" as provisional anthem.

[65] A draft constitutional law prepared immediately afterwards sought to insert, after discussion of the national flag, the sentence "The Anthem of the Republic is the 'Il Canto degli Italiani'".

President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, began, from 1999 to 2006, to revive "Il Canto degli Italiani" as a national symbol of Italy.

From the Alps to Sicily, Legnano is everywhere;[N 20] Every man hath the heart and hand of Ferruccio[N 21] The children of Italy Are all called Balilla;[N 22] Every trumpet blast soundeth the Vespers.

Each melodic unit corresponds to a fragment of the Mamelian hexasyllable, in accordance with the classical bipartite scheme ("Fratelli / d'Italia / ' Italia / s'è desta").

[87] However, the usual leap of a diatonic interval does not match the anacrusic rhythm: on the contrary, the verses «Fratelli / d'Italia» and «dell'elmo / di Scipio» each begin with identical notes (respectively F or D).

At Tito Ricordi's 1859 request to reprint the text of the song with his publishing house, Novaro ordered that the money be directly paid in favour of a subscription for Giuseppe Garibaldi.

[97] In 1970, the obligation, however, to perform the "Ode to Joy" of Ludwig van Beethoven, that is the official anthem of Europe, whenever "Il Canto degli Italiani" is played, remained almost always unfulfilled.