St George's hymn-cantata (2) - October 22, 2006

I refer to Mr Joseph Apap's letter. In my feature "Unearthing the genesis of Giuseppe Giardini-Vella's Inno a San Giorgio Martire" (October 1), I had referred to Mgr Alphonse Maria Hili as the "archpriest of St George's Church" in Victoria.

Such a reference to Victoria's archpriest had been widely used by the most elderly citizens of Victoria, who referred and still refer to Mgr Hili as the "archpriest of St George's church". It is well-known that at the time, St George's church was the indivisible parish church of the city of Victoria. This 'title' was and has been invariably cherished by various archpriests of Gozo's capital city, so much so that Hili's successor, Mgr Michael Cefai, worded his own epithet to read: S.[anctae] Eccl.[esiae] Cath.[edralis] nec non Basilicae S.[anctae] Georgii Archipresbyter literally meaning "Archpriest of the Holy Cathedral Church and no less (so) of St George's Basilica".

This is clear and undisputable evidence of the status that the Victoria archpriest always enjoyed in the eyes of the Rabtin and Gozitans. Perhaps in Mr Apap's opinion could I have been more correct if I had written that the archpriest of the Cathedral Church was in fact the driving spirit behind the composition of this novel hymn-cantata in honour of the great martyr?

With reference to the first part of Mr Apap's letter, I stand squarely by what I have stated, namely, that "the Inno a San Giorgio became a model for similar compositions for all Gozitan festas." May I also remind Mr Apap that Carabott's and Crescimanno's compositions in honour of the Virgin Mary composed in 1897 and 1913 respectively, were attempts at emulating the hymn Su Garzoni! composed in 1894 by the eminent Gozitan composer Mgr Giuseppe Farrugia, to celebrate the arrival in Gozo of Vincenzo Cremona's statue of St George.

Mr Apap did not deny that it was the first inno to be performed during the solemn moments of the start of the procession with the saint's statue. Moreover, he may have forgotten that the procession with the statue of Santa Marija started to be organised in 1956 and ipso facto the playing of Crescimanno's hymn during the start of the procession took place 25 years later than the tradition set forth by Giuseppe Giardini-Vella in 1931.