Fifty-five is 'a musica, or 'a museca on the Neapolitan lists. Music in general, rather than an instrument or a song.
For a city that gave the world 'O sole mio, Torna a Surriento and the entire canzone napoletana, one abstract square is a modest allocation. The board is more interested in objects than in arts.
- 55
- 'A musica
- music
- Row 51–60 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Nothing recorded. The repeated digits attract the usual unsourced shape stories.
Other things filed on 55
In Neapolitan life
Sicily reads its own 55 as a shape and says so: two bent backs, hence the old man. Naples takes the same pair of digits and puts music on them without comment. Two boards, one number, and only one of them shows its working.
55 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Not one that is reliably documented. The tradition turns up in theatre and cinema far more than in song, and claims of a famous smorfia song do not survive checking.
Because the board deals in objects. Abstractions are rare on it, eight or so out of ninety, and music is one of the few that made the cut.