I refer to Charles Xuereb’s review of Giovanna Iacovazzi’s book Un Bruit Pieux (The Sunday Times of Malta, April 14) wherein she wrote that Filippo Galea, a young clarinettist with an English regiment, became, by 1851, the director of a Żebbuġ band.

Iacovazzi’s source is the book Il-mużika ta’ Malta fis-Sekli Dsatax u Għoxrin by Joseph Vella Bondin who, surprisingly, chose to rely on a very questionable second-hand source rather than on the obvious one, the Biografia Artistica del Maestro Filippo Galea (1889) and hence got it all so wrong. Considering his book is used as a reference point, a word from the author on the matter would be welcome and useful.

In the biography we read that Filippo’s connections with local bands started only after 1873 and were with those of Senglea, Floriana, Cospicua, and Valletta’s Prince of Wales’ Band. Żebbuġ does not feature at all.

Again, we read that between 1848 and 1853 Filippo was all the time in Corfu except for a brief visit to Malta to marry. Given his position there as bandmaster from 1850 to 1853, as we read on pages eight, 29 and 30, this visit could only have been brief and close to his marriage date, November 6, 1851.

How could he therefore be in Malta long enough to set up a formal band, rehearse and perform on St Philip’s and Our Lady of Charity’s feasts in May and June 1851?

Mr Vella Bondin writes that the band on these occasions was modelled on English regimental ones. Hardly. In register Esito... del SS. Sagramento we read: “Pagati per la banda nella processione nel giorno di San Filippo. Scudi 6 tari 8.” As ‘musicians’ were paid about a scudo, that meant a group of five ‘musicians’. In register Carit Libro Festività we read: “In supplemento alla banda. Scudi 10 tari 4”, meaning a group of nine ‘musicians’.

The claim that Filippo founded a band at Żebbuġ in 1851 was first made in 1960 when some-body came across the name Filippo Galea at the church archive. Despite his signature suggesting an illiterate, he was immediately declared to be the noted bandmaster of English regimental bands.

Research has shown he was only a namesake. Suffice it to say that on 17 occasions he is recorded receiving remunerations for musical services rendered while the other Filippo was in Corfu, India or New Zealand. Besides, there is the concrete proof of their respective signatures.