The artistic sophistication of Mdina in the pre-Knights’ period (1530-1798) was manifest not only in the provision of objets d’art from the best bottegas in Sicily and southern Italy but also in a prolific series of musical activities. These included the employment of an organist and a copyist or scriptorium highly competent in letters, in order to copy on parchment liturgical codices and texts.

In the Mdina Cathedral’s Mandati of 1494 we encounter Joannes de Rapis, who received an annual salary of 10 uncie as organist at the old cathedral, the first such record in this precious requisition and payment book at the Mdina Cathedral Museum.

In their superb academic study, Mdina – The Cathedral City of Malta, Mario Buhagiar and Stanley Fiorini give a vivid description of church music spilling into the Mdina streets as when on solemn feasts like Mnarja and Corpus Christi processions were accompanied by sonatori.

The authors also describe how in 1520 the musicians were entertain­ed after the performance of their duties a manjeri e bivirii.

During the magistracy of the knights we note the development from this musical milieu of the sacred music mythology of the period – the north versus the south. The north was represented by the Mdina Cathedral, sustained by the Università and Bishop Baldassere Cagliares (1615-1633), the only Maltese bishop in the Knights’ period, and the south was massively supported by the urban affluent and artistic muscle of the mighty Order of St John, with its ostentatious baroque trappings epitomised by St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

Città Notabile, as Mdina was frequently known in the past, has managed to remain the brightest jewel in the glittering sacred musical crown of these islands with extensive diffusion throughout the western world of best-selling compact discs extracted from the unique collection at the Mdina Cathedral Museum archives, consisting of music from Maltese and Italian composers mainly of the 17th and 18th centuries.

My attraction and fascination with the Mdina Cathedral Museum archives began when I was present at the basilica of St George in Victoria for the rendering of the composition Ecce Panis Angelorum by the great composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1645).

It is the only known copy of this work premiered in 1984 under the baton of Joseph Vella, one of the pioneers of this musical revival in the mid-1970s.

Bishop Baldassere Caligares was instrumental in attracting to Malta the best Sicilian talent

This musical tradition was further enhanced in the mid-1990s by the vision and initiatives of Vincent Borg, president of the Mdina Cathedral Museum committee for many years, particularly in pro­moting the richness of the musical archives in international fora.

This resulted in the issue of three CDs in France, which the Biblotheque Nationale de France honoured with its most prestigious award – the Palmares de Palmares – in 1998.

This series of three CDs, entitled Les inedits de la Cathedral de Malte, were produced by Cedime, Studio SM International Children’s Choir, under the auspices of the Cathedral Museum committee.

The first CD, premiered at the Mdina Cathedral Museum in 1985, featured the famous choir of New College, Oxford, conducted by Edward Higginbottom.

It consists of 17th-century music by Italian and Maltese composers preserved in the Museum archives, including the great Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674), one of the first composers of oratorios. His Salve Regina, a motet for two sopranos and bass, survives only in the cathedral archives, like many other Carissimi motets.

The CD also contains music by Claudio Monteverdi and Vincenzo Amato (1629-1670), the most outstanding musician of the period and maestro di cappella in the cathedral of Palermo. Amato was the uncle and perhaps the teacher of the musical giant Alessandro Scar­latti. His unique musical manu­­scripts are found in the Museum archives.

Another Sicilian maestro di cappella was Andrea Rinaldi, who was also featured in the first CD. The cathedral archives have one complete work of Rinaldi, a collec­tion of 12 motets, or Concerti Sacri.

At that time, Bishop Baldassere Cagliares was instrumental in at­trac­t­ing to Malta’s shores the best Si­cilian talent, including Don Antonio Campochiaro and Antonio La Greca.

The last Sicilian on this CD is Bonaventura Rubino, whose Surgamus Omnes – a setting of verses from Psalm 133 – appeared in his second book of motets preserved in the Mdina Museum.

The sacred music by Maltese composers Domenico Balsano (1632-1707) and Aloisio Materon (c.1650 ) was specifically selected for being exquisite sacred music of the spirit and was well received.

Encouraged by the outstanding success of this first attempt to acquire world recognition, the French Cedime Studio embarked on the second CD, Works for Children’s Solo Voice, executed by Tolzer Knabenchor in 1997, with music deposited in the Mdina Cathedral archives by Maltese composers Benigno Zerafa (1726-1804) and Francesco Azopardi (1748-1809) and Italians Vincenzo Tossi and Carissimi.

Zerafa was a prolific composer of sacred music which is all meticulously kept in the Cathe­dral Museum. His Benedicta sit Sancta Trinitas exudes a dignified harmonisation especially suited for a bishop’s formal possession of the diocese.

Azopardi was a contemporary of Zerafa, and on his return from his musical studies in Naples in 1804 was appointed maestro di cappella at the Mdina Cathedral.

The International Children’s Choirs Festival in 1998, organised by the committtee under the chairmanship of Vincent Borg, further enhanced the artistic and cultural status of our island in the western world

He was undoubtedly the most prominent and prolific Maltese composer of the 18th century. His works bear the same imprint of his contemporaries, especially Domenico Cimarosa, as reflected in Lauda Sion (Ms 396), dated 1793, and other works represent­ed on this CD.

Another composer featured in the CD is Vincenzo Tozzi, who was maestro di cappella at the Cathedral of Messina from 1640 to 1651. He came to Malta in 1664 to present his opera Anni­bale. The Cathedral Museum possesses 28 of his manuscripts – 19 sacred and nine secular, mainly madrigals.

The third CD performed by Maitrise des Bouches du Rhône in 1998 features exclusively works by Azopardi, an obvious testi­mony of the esteem in which he was held, especially in France.

The International Children’s Choirs Festival in April 1998, organised by the Mdina Cathe­dral Museum committee under the chairmanship of Borg, further enhanced the artistic and cultural status of our island in the western world with the participation of foreign choirs and a local choir.

The festival featured the New College Oxford choir, which since its foundation in 1379 has recruited and trained choristers, the French choir Les Pages et Les Chantres de la Chapelle of Versailles, which gave an excellent performance of Henry Du Mont’s Cantica Sacra from the Mdina archives and another French choir, the Matrice des Bouches du Rhone, accompanied by the Jeune En­semble Baroque de Provence, which rendered selections from Azopardi’s music.

The local rep­resentative was the Cantores Sancti Juliani, under the direction of Lino Attard.

Other CDs with music from the Cathedral archives were produced by Fondazzjoni Memorji Kulturali under the baton of Vella with the participation of the Laudate Pueri Choir. The CDs include works by Giuseppe Balzano (1616-1699), Domenico Balzano (1632-1707), Aloisio Mataron (c. 1650), Girolamo Abos (1752-1792) and Nicolo Isouard (1773-1818).

The Cathedral Museum archives received global recognition last month with the launching of a CD from a rare music score preserved at the archives featuring Rubino’s Messa di Morti a 5 Concertata (1600-1668) at the Mdina Palace.

The Mass was first performed in Rome by the Cappella Musicale Santa Maria in Campitelli, under the direction of Vincenzo di Betta. The Mass was subsequently produced on disc by Tactus of Bologna.

Concluded. The first part of this article appeared on February 8.

Acknowledgments

For the preparation of this article I consulted various authors and I would like to thank them for their support. I am extremely indebted to John Azzopardi, former curator of the Cathedral Museum, for his unfailing assistance and in­spiration, especially when many years ago I attempted my first faltering steps at research. I must also acknowledge the co-operation of his worthy successor Fr Edgar Vella.

Lino Bugeja is former PRO of the Mdina Cathedral Museum.