Italian Music

Music is integral to the country of Italy. It has been refined since the ancient world yet not completely modified so hints of the early eras are still very prominent.
This is visible in the singing and instruments used in Italian music. As there were many cultures that influenced Italy with the neighbouring countries coming in like the German tribes, Greeks, French and Arabs, the music composed have hints of the contributions made by these countries.
Immigrants from the Balkans and North Africa have build large communities in southern Italy especially Sisily. Hence the folk music here is different from elsewhere and stands out prominently. The voices are high pitched and nasal and the expression is of true agony. While singing the throat is inflated and the brows are joined thus expressing grief in highly ornamented styles. This style is visible in opera and other hip-hop music albums.
Songs of Italy cater to every class of citizens. There are songs for festivals like Christmas and the Passover, cattle calling songs for shepherds, songs for fishermen, soldiers and other professions, songs for weddings, baptism and other occasions. Ballads and epic poetry were the basis for most of the songs.
Instruments used for the songs were basically strings, percussion and wind like bagpipe, accordion, clarinet, small drums and the violin. 
Opera was born somewhere in the late 15th century during Florentine Camerata. With its popularity it was interrelated to Italy and its music. It became synonymous with the country with works of Claudio Monteverdi, Cioacchino and Alessandro Scarlatti flourishing. Opera remained completely musical and even theatrical opera was sung. Drama or story telling everything in opera was musical. It had reached its zenith before World War I. After which it declined in popularity as cinema came to forth as the main form of entertainment.
Music was highly interrelated to politics. In the years of the royals court music included coronations, royal marches and other important occasions. However composers took high risk in making songs metaphoric to the wrongs done by the ruling kings. They were sometimes executed or exiled from the country.
Italy is also home to ballet, as it was here that ballet was choreographed as early as the 14th century and presented at the masked balls that were a regular affair during those days. Some early composers and choreographers were Cesare Negri and Fabrizo Caroso. During the French revolution, Italy again became the centre for ballet and choreography. Today ballet is still taught in school and children enrol for it at a very young age.
Today the Italian music is over 2.3 billion euros. The various sales that make this figure include CDs, musical instruments and electronics and sales of tickets for live performances. The Italian recording industry stands eighth in the world so one can imagine the colossal numbers of songs and music being recorded. 
One can also take up music as a subject and graduate in it as there are many universities that cater to music. Private teaching and government funding towards music is quite high in Italy.