Filippo Galea and his Żebbuġ band

In his recent letters regarding Mro Filippo Galea, Mro Henry Camilleri concludes that apart from the maestro, one comes across at least another Filippo Galea in the archive records of the parish church of Żebbuġ collecting payments for services rendered by the Banda di San Filippo.

Well, at the time there were two Filippo Galeas – the maestro and his uncle, a businessman. Quite likely, this businessman may have also collected monies due to the band on behalf of his relative.

Mro Camilleri concludes that nothing was founded in 1851 – evidently because the band of

Filippo Galea had already existed in 1849. Even so, it was in 1851 that the band was first specifically identified by its name: Banda di San Filippo. In that year Mro Filippo Galea was at its helm and in Malta for most of the year.

Various documents testify to the direct link between Banda di San Filippo and Mro Filippo Galea. What was discovered in the parish archives in 1959 confirmed what had been stated in a 1952 interview by a bandsman. He had given details obtained directly from his father who had been a committee member of Banda di San Filippo way back in the mid-1850s.

Among the people he identified as being part of this band in its first years – in the 1850s – are Mro Filippo Galea and his eventual successor (in 1860) Mro Andrea Borg. This evidence is corroborated by another document listing donations made in 1859 for the purchase of 15 new musical instruments for the Banda di San Filippo.

Existing documented comple­mentary evidence confirms the direct participation of people like Gaetano Attard, Antonio Pisani, Angelo Chircop, Giuseppe Bonnici, Giuseppe Balzan, Sac. Giuseppe Psaila, Carmelo Zammit and others, within the Banda di San Filippo society during the latter half of the 19th century. Significantly, during the third quarter of the 19th century, no other name of a band is mentioned in the Żebbuġ parish archives except that of Banda di San Filippo, in the many payments recorded for band services.

It was an outstanding achievement of Mro Filippo Galea to set up a committee to administer the band he founded – a break with normal contemporary practice. This enabled the band to survive despite the occasional absences of its musical director.

In April 1864 this society received a letter of thanks from Żebbuġ archpriest Francesco Borg for its help in collecting funds for the silver statue of St Philip in previous years.

Historians indicate Mro Andrea Borg as setting up the first national band in Żebbuġ in 1860, but stop short of giving its name. The only band in Żebbuġ at the time was Banda di San Filippo, then directed by Mro Borg.