"El Biscella" () is an Italian song in
Milanese dialect
Milanese (endonym in traditional orthography , ') is the central variety of the Western dialect of the Lombard language spoken in Milan, the rest of its metropolitan city, and the northernmost part of the province of Pavia. Milanese, due to t ...
from the early 1960s composed by
Giovanni D'Anzi and
Alfredo Bracchi
Alfredo Bracchi (30 December 1897 – 11 October 1976) was a versatile Italian writer, whose production ranged from song lyrics to movie scripts.
Bracchi was born in Milan, Italy. Between the 1930s and 1950s he and Giovanni D'Anzi formed a ...
.
History
"Biscella" is a Milanese word meaning "curly" (derived from bisc-bish, meaning
hedgehog), a kind of bully who tries to intimidate people, but whose clumsy manners and extravagant costumes make him more comical than dangerous.
The song tells the story of a "biscella" that lives in
Porta Ticinese
Porta Ticinese (formerly known as Porta Cicca, and during Napoleonic rule as Porta Marengo)Porta Cicca' (in Italian) is a former city gate of Milan, Italy. The gate, facing south-west, was first created with the Spanish walls of the city, in the 1 ...
neighbourhood who goes to parties, and that everyone behind his back laughs
for his ridiculous clothes and his awkward way of dancing.
References
{{Reflist
External links
''El Biscella'' Songtext von Nanni Svampa
Italian folk songs
Songs about language
Italian songs
Culture in Milan
1960 songs