Over her first five hundred years of history, Gorizia was an autonomous county with strong tendencies towards expansionism. Since the late Middle Ages, inhabited by Germans, Italians and Slovenes, religious chant and secular songs had...
moreOver her first five hundred years of history, Gorizia was an autonomous county with strong tendencies towards expansionism. Since the late Middle Ages, inhabited by Germans, Italians and Slovenes, religious chant and secular songs had become widespread, while dancers, trumpeters and pipers entertained at weddings in the church squares and at dances held by the nobility. After Leonardo's death (1500) and the establishment of Hapsburg rule in the county (1509), there are records of organists in the service of the Cathedral's music chapel: G. Hophajer (or Hofhaimer, probably the brother of the more renowned Paulus), G. Oberpurger, G. Mainerio, N. Vicentino, G. B. Galeno, G. Cerva, P. Ragno and the cornett players F. and G. Sagabria. In the meantime, noble families organized gatherings of Lutheran music imported from Carniola, modern day Slovenia.
Among the musicians and organists active in the seventeenth century, worth mentioning are G. Marini, A. Piccelli (who dedicated a composition to Emperor Ferdinand III in 1637), the Silesian organist and organ-builder E. Casparini, the organist M. Melissa, composer of psalms in the concertato style, G. B. Scalettaris (ca. 1651), C. Scalettaris and, towards the end of the century, F. Palese. Plays with music accompaniment were also organized in the Jesuit College and the Sant'Orsola Monastery. Instrumental music, on the other hand, was cultivated in the home of F. de Stubenberg, a nobleman from Graz, appointed Captain of Gorizia in 1685. At carnival time in 1696, the first libretto for a drama called L'Odio placato was published, containing a sung prologue and final dance.
In the first half of the eighteenth century, A. Patriani and F. S. Rainer served at the Cathedral Chapel. Organs built by P. Nacchini and G. Callido were installed in the churches of Sant'Ignazio and Sant'Ilario. All this musical activity was given a new impulse when the first archbishopric C. M. d'Attems was founded in 1752. The principal musicians of the second half of the century were the Gorizians N. De Zorzi, F. De Zorzi and the Neapolitan P. Vinci. The late 1700s saw the rise of the violinist I. Gobbi (a pupil of G. Tartini) and the composer G. Fabani, both engaged at the Bandeu Theatre.
It was in this theatre that Gorizia's musical life flourished during the 1700s. Built by the nobleman G. Bandeu in 1740, the theatre staged performances of opera seria, based mainly on librettos by Metastasio and music written by composers belonging to the Neapolitan and Venetian schools. The dramma giocoso appeared in 1764 definitively supplanting opera seria. Music and poetry were also supported and continued to flourish in the noble academies, in particular the «Arcadia Sonziaca» founded in 1780 by G. Colletti, and among whose members was the poet L. da Ponte, Mozart's future librettist. The Singspiel, a genre belonging to the musical fashion characteristic of central Europe, made its first appearance at the theatre at the end of the century.
During the French occupation and the Hapsburg Restoration, instrumental music became more widespread as a result of the work of Bohemian musicians such as F. J. B. Dusík (Cormundj) and W. Wrattni, both composing instrumental music dedicated to the local nobility. The Bohemian musicians were important for introducing the Viennese Classical style, form and genres, as represented in the output of these kleinmeister preserved in the local archives.
The growth of instrumental music was further hastened with the establishment of the first music school in 1824. Meanwhile, at the theatre, the farsa and opera semi-seria gave way to Rossini and his operas. The following decade included opera performances by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. This was also the period when guitarist and composer Antonio Gracco tried to reorganize the music school, but it was the Bohemian P. Frinta who finally managed to start a school project under the aegis of the Municipality.
In the mid-nineteenth century, music permeated every aspect of social life because of the initiatives taken by the artistic and cultural societies, including entertainment often aimed at concealing irredentist activity. In Slovenian circles choral music was revitalized in the citalnice or reading associations and singing societies (such as the Slavec, founded by A. Hribar and J. Kociancic in 1875). The town itself was musically alive with two brass bands, numerous choirs, chamber ensembles and orchestras; the Cathedral Chapel remaining constantly active. At the music school, P. A. Tirindelli taught violin while the Neapolitan impresario G. Mugnone was the conductor of the orchestra. From the 1880s onwards and for over 25 years the composer C. Cartocci directed the music school, the Cathedral Chapel, and was also bandmaster.
Local composers tended to concentrate on sacred music, which became the topic of lively discussions among music lovers, particularly at Slovenian gatherings. Alongside this was the salon music that showed a growing interest in popular traditions towards the end of the century. S. Persoglia collected and published the first collection of Friulani songs, later to be arranged in 3- or 4-part choral style by the composer and musician of the Cathedral Chapel A. C. Seghizzi during the Great War. In the local branch of the Trieste Conservatory the violinist A. Lucarini was didactically important as a member of the teaching staff, thus giving chamber instrumental music a new impetus. At the beginning of this century, the most important Slovenian musical institution was the Pevsko in glasbeno drustvo, founded in 1901 by H. Tuma, who was to be succeeded the following year by J. Michl, a Czech bassoon player, who had studied composition with A. Dvorak. The latter gave the school a solid standard in musical training, with 129 enrolments of different nationalities in the 1909-10 academic year alone. These were also the years when the figure of Beethoven became an important reference for a generation of young intellectuals who had attended the local Staatsgymnasium and were influenced by the philosopher C. Michelstaedter.
Musical training made a slow comeback after the Great War because of serious financial problems. In the 1920s, the violinist R. Lipizer founded and conducted the orchestral ensemble of the association «Amici della musica», while the composer M. Kogoj took part in the performances of Marinetti's futurist theatre, given at the Verdi Theatre. His works reflect the influence of Viennese Expressionism as do the works of J. Jakoncic (a pupil of Strauss and Schönberg) most of which were destroyed in 1926 when the Fascists set fire to the archives of the Trgovski dom. In 1930 Lipizer was appointed director of the music school which had been reorganized and updated with the curricula of the Conservatories of the Kingdom of Italy. During Fascism, Slovenian choral associations became clandestine and composers such as V. Vodopivec and E. Komel wrote, in the main part, sacred and popular music. In 1936, Fascists killed the organist L. Bratuz.
The post-war period witnessed a stifling contrast of ideologies, forcing many musicians to look elsewhere for better work conditions. Successful, however, was the orchestra conducted by Lipizer and the Polyphonic Vocal Ensemble directed by Cecilia Seghizzi, for which most of her compositions were written. The Cathedral Chapel was directed by the composer and organist V. Toniutti, while the organist M. Filej occupied the post at Sant'Ignazio, his successor being the composer S. Jericijo. In the 1960s, the music school was once again restructured and the «C. A. Seghizzi» International Choral Singing Competition made its debut. The first edition of the international violin competition called the «Lipizer Prize» took place in the 80s. Both events are now accompanied by conferences of pedagogic and didactic interest.
