Rise and fall of the musical instruments district. A focus on the Marches and its district

9 
 
Introduction 
This dissertation provides evidence to the fundamental role played by the 
musical instruments sector not only in the Marches but also in Italy, from the 
late 1800s to nowadays, and in more details its most important district of 
Castelfidardo-Osimo-Recanati.  
The significance of this study is that it contextualizes and analyses all the 
changes and evolutions, which the period experienced. It identifies the 
underlying issues and points out directions for the future of the industry. 
It will be explained how local entrepreneurs, after having been the most 
important agents of growth, were also the main responsible for the fall of the 
sector. Then it will show how the accordion represented the symbol of the 
district and why its production still succeed to survive against more 
technological and modern musical instruments. Finally, it will define how the 
technology affected the sector, provoking the fall of the musical instruments 
production in the area. 
 
The objective of the research has been carried out through an empirical 
approach. The dissertation is, in fact, concentrated in the critical analysis of 
the musical instruments sector and on its company crisis.
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This dissertation will be focused on the theoretical view point of the district 
and will continue with a chronological framework of the development of the 
musical instruments sector and the district of Castelfidardo-Recanati-Osimo.  
In writing the dissertation, it has been tried to focus on the main problems that 
emerged, trying to propose some solutions to the issues. 
Many publications have been read and studied in order to set a clear idea on 
the evolution of the sector since its inception. Moreover, particular attention 
has been given to many books on the accordion, about its history and its 
functioning. 
Working on data set of FISMA (Federazione Italiana Strumenti Musicali ed 
Accessori) and ISTAT (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica), especially on its 
Census, has been useful in order to collect information on the composition of 
the sector, in terms of local units and people employed. On the other hand, 
data set of FEDERFISA (Federazione Nazionale tra Fabbricanti ed 
Esportatori Italiani di Fisarmoniche ed Altri Strumenti Musicali) and ICE 
(Istituto Nazionale per il Commercio Estero) has been taken with the purpose 
of showing trend and evolution of exports. Moreover, from Castelfidardo’s 
Historical archive and publications of ISTAO (Istituto Adriano Olivetti) some 
other information has been collected.  
Special attention has been dedicated to check the pertinence of data reported 
in books and publications with the entity mentioned above.
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Finally, some interviews have been carried out with operators of the sector 
and members of musical instruments companies. Particularly, I personally 
found fundamental importance into interview people involved in the sector of 
musical instruments in order to point out explanations to any kind of issues 
and changes of the sector. Interviews have been used as ways to collect data 
from individuals as well as to gain knowledge about the topic. 
 
The findings of this dissertation suggest that the musical instruments sector 
in Italy has no possibilities to be again one of the most important in the world. 
First because of all the issues surrounding its traditional district of 
Castelfidardo-Recanati-Osimo. Second, because the technology has given the 
sector another dimension where local producers cannot excel. Third, because 
of a lack of musical culture that has influenced the interest and the internal 
consumption of musical instruments. 
As it will be shown in the next chapters, the territorial system studied has 
changed its extent of sectorial diversification over time. This transformation 
raises a number of questions whether it is correct to talk about traditional 
industrial district or more in general about agglomeration of companies and 
Italian variant of district. Despite the diversity of economic activities, which 
developed a set of technical and entrepreneurial competences, new 
technologies and old production processes did not match. This distance makes
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the multisector district different from the typical agglomeration economy and 
more similar to a particular development of Italian industrial district. 
 
This dissertation is organized as follows. 
Chapter I examines classic and recent theories of industrial districts in order 
to define the main features of the musical instruments sector within the district 
of Castelfidardo-Osimo-Recanati.  
Chapter II draws the evolution of the musical instruments sector from its 
artisan origins to golden ages. This chapter will explain how during particular 
periods the district adapted to new challenges of production. 
Chapter III presents the crisis of the sector and underlines the different causes 
through the analysis of some factors. Particular attention will be given to 
technology and innovation. 
Finally, Chapter IV points out what has remained of the sector nowadays and 
how some companies survived to the crisis.
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Chapter I: The emergence of industrial districts 
1.1 Clusters and industrial districts in the economic literature 
The last 100 years have seen big debates in the economic literature on the 
performance (in terms of growth and innovation capacity) of two 
agglomerations of economies: the mono-specialized local systems and the 
diversified local systems. The first one refers to the traditional Marshallian 
district where growth is pushed by “economies of localization,” or intra-
industry positive externality. The second one, which typically occurs in urban 
systems, is the diversity of economic activities that generate the so called 
“economies of agglomeration”, (Jacobs
1
, 1961 and 1969) or inter-industry 
positive externality.  
The economies of scale linked to a specific location are basically identified 
as external economies of scale. These are independent from the dimension of 
a specific firm but rely on the dimension of the industry. In order to 
understand the mechanisms through which agglomeration economies work, 
some empirical evidence is necessary. 
                                                           
1
 Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was a journalist, author and activist best known for her influence on 
urban studies. “The death and Life of Great American Cities”, 1961 and “The Economies of 
Cities”, 1969 are the two most important books she wrote in her life. In The Economies of Cities, 
she stressed the fact that the economies of urbanization derive from the concentration of 
companies of different production sectors in the same area, called the urban area.
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Most references to the origins of industrial districts are attributable to Alfred 
Marshall, who, in 1890, made his fundamental point about; “why firms in the 
same industry congregate somehow”. In his book, Principles of Economics, 
Marshall (1890) wrote about the developmental features of industrial districts 
or, as he better explained, the “concentration of specialised industries in 
particular localities”. Firstly, he came up with the distinction between internal 
and external economies, defining the latter as secured by the concentration of 
many small firms – or more precisely businesses – of similar features in a 
clearly outlined localisation of the industry. These particular localities are 
nothing but industrial districts.  Under these circumstances, Marshall 
conceived the industrial district as an area where small and medium sized 
companies typically compose the business structure. In addition, he 
underlined the role of the external economies as the fundamental element 
thanks to which small companies may reach advantages of economies of 
scales. Even though small companies dispose of low scale economies, since 
they typically belong to the big-scale production system, these economies of 
scale are achievable through the geographic concentration. Indeed, according 
to Marshall, industrial districts may enjoy the same economies of scale that 
only big enterprises can obtain (Cainelli and Zoboli, 2004). 
What makes the Marshallian industrial district model so special is the nature 
and quality of the labour market, which is not only flexible, but also internal
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to the district. Here, the philosophy of “having the secret of industry in the 
air”
2
, defines a particular industrial environment where both workers and 
owners live in the same community and appear to be committed to the district 
rather than to individual businesses. This sense of belonging enables the 
increase of a strong cultural identity and industrial specialization. 
As far as this dissertation is concerned, district economies are not only 
focused on economies of specialization but are also involved with economies 
of learning, creativity and innovation. The economies of learning are tied up 
to features of the market and to local labour forces, and derives from the 
presence of high professional skills. The economics of creativity, instead, is 
the result of the following factors: 
 innovation ability; 
 proximity of actors; 
 share of sectorial competences and experiences; 
 advanced technical-scientific education.  
                                                           
2
 “When an industry has thus chosen a locality for itself, it is likely to stay there long: so great 
are the advantages which people following the same skilled trade get from near neighbourhood 
to one another. The mysteries of the trade become no mysteries; but are as it were in the air, 
and children learn many of them unconsciously. Good work is rightly appreciated, inventions 
and improvements in machinery, in processes and the general organization of the business 
have their merits promptly discussed: if one man starts a new idea, it is taken up by others and 
combined with suggestions of their own; and thus it becomes the source of further new ideas. 
And presently subsidiary trades grow up in the neighbourhood, supplying it with implements 
and materials, organizing its traffic, and in many ways conducing to the economy of its 
material.” The Concentration of Specialized Industries in Particular Localities. Alfred Marshall, 
Principles of Economics, 1920 Edition, cap. IV.X.7.