jueves, 2 de julio de 2009
The Road of the Jesuit Estancias (Jesuit Ranches)
It was the year of the Lord of 1767. The event took place the night of March 31 and the early morning of April 2. After a period of uncertainty that lasted almost a year, the King Charles III of Spain signed the decree that determined that the Jesuit Order should be expelled from The Spanish Americas.
A 400 years legacy
It was for this reason that the "Jesuit State", one of the most successful ever social and economic projects of the community came to an end. Even though its opponents had praised this project, it would extinguish like the light of the candles in the altar of the "Compañía de Jesús" (Society of Jesus).
The outcome was expected. The order was suppressed and the Jesuit model was deprived of its mentors. But the fire lighted by the followers of Saint Ignatius of Loyola - founder of the "Compañía de Jesús" - went on shining. The mark that they left was so important and the legacy so significant that their work has resisted the passing of time.
Their heritage includes the Manzana Jesuítica and the estancias that were built between 1616 and 1725. To visit them is like going back to the past … 4 centuries ago.
The "Compañía" was determined in its twofold purpose: to preach the New Testament and to Christianize the heathen lands. The "Compañía" settled in the area known as Manzana Jesuítica where the Iglesia "Compañía de Jesús" (church), Colegio Máximo and El Convictorio (student's quarters in Jesuit Colleges) were erected. Eventually, the Colegio Máximo and El Convictorio turned into the National University of Córdoba and the Monserrat Secondary School.
For more than 400 years people from remote places looking for science and knowledge have walked through these cloisters and classrooms. People were attracted by these academic buildings as ships are guided and attracted by a lighthouse in the darkness. Under the shelter of the Jesuit cassock, hundreds of aborigines became the first bricklayers, artists, jewelers, woodworkers, and blacksmiths of this land. Their work can be appreciated even today in the vaults and altarpieces of the "Compañía" and the "Capilla Doméstica" chapel. The combination of the aboriginal art with the European Baroque gave birth to a unique style that has been studied by experts worldwide.
In order to achieve Saint Ignatius of Loyola's utopia: preach the gospel and bring knowledge, the Order needed its own financial support. It was for this reason the during the XVII century and beginnings of the XVIII century, the Order created its own means of subsistence by building or acquiring six estancias (ranches): Caroya (1616), Jesús María (1618), Santa Catalina ( 1622), Alta Gracia (1643), Candelaria (1683) y San Ignacio (1725). The estancias were large agricultural/cattle establishments whose main objective was to finance the activities that took place in the Manzana Jesuítica.
The estancias included cattle stations, corrals and paddocks for cows, sheep, mules and horses, fruit and vegetables gardens, fields to cultivate wheat and corn, percheles for grains, tajamar (water reservoir), and irrigation channels necessary for cultivated fields, and for the functioning of mills and flour mills. There were also workshops, such as carpentry, a smithy, a tannery, a bakery as well as lime and brick kilns, and workshops used to weave, and to manufacture soap. In addition, there were the farm workers houses, the residence of the Jesuit priests and missioners, and a chapel for religious services, all concentrated in the same area. Within the framework of this complex system, the Jesuit made an important contribution to science, technology, and the arts of that time. Some examples are the work of chroniclers and historians, paleontologists, geographers and cartographers (who made the first descriptions and special maps of the region), philosophers and theologians, naturalists, mathematicians, architects (some outstanding ones are Bianchi and Primoli), musicians (with the work of Domingo Zípoli, one of the most remarkable musician at that time). The Jesuits set up the first printing press in South America, built new irrigation system to water cultivated fields, and they also began to use lime in construction.
This concept of unique heritage has led the UNESCO to take the decision of including "Camino de las Estancias Jesuíticas" (Road of the Jesuit Estancias) and the "Manzana Jesuítica" in the list of the World Heritage. Such a list includes worldwide testimonies of natural and cultural character relevant to the humanity. The entire world has the right to explore, visit and enjoy them.
(Source: www.argentinaonview.com)
A 400 years legacy
It was for this reason that the "Jesuit State", one of the most successful ever social and economic projects of the community came to an end. Even though its opponents had praised this project, it would extinguish like the light of the candles in the altar of the "Compañía de Jesús" (Society of Jesus).
The outcome was expected. The order was suppressed and the Jesuit model was deprived of its mentors. But the fire lighted by the followers of Saint Ignatius of Loyola - founder of the "Compañía de Jesús" - went on shining. The mark that they left was so important and the legacy so significant that their work has resisted the passing of time.
Their heritage includes the Manzana Jesuítica and the estancias that were built between 1616 and 1725. To visit them is like going back to the past … 4 centuries ago.
The "Compañía" was determined in its twofold purpose: to preach the New Testament and to Christianize the heathen lands. The "Compañía" settled in the area known as Manzana Jesuítica where the Iglesia "Compañía de Jesús" (church), Colegio Máximo and El Convictorio (student's quarters in Jesuit Colleges) were erected. Eventually, the Colegio Máximo and El Convictorio turned into the National University of Córdoba and the Monserrat Secondary School.
For more than 400 years people from remote places looking for science and knowledge have walked through these cloisters and classrooms. People were attracted by these academic buildings as ships are guided and attracted by a lighthouse in the darkness. Under the shelter of the Jesuit cassock, hundreds of aborigines became the first bricklayers, artists, jewelers, woodworkers, and blacksmiths of this land. Their work can be appreciated even today in the vaults and altarpieces of the "Compañía" and the "Capilla Doméstica" chapel. The combination of the aboriginal art with the European Baroque gave birth to a unique style that has been studied by experts worldwide.
In order to achieve Saint Ignatius of Loyola's utopia: preach the gospel and bring knowledge, the Order needed its own financial support. It was for this reason the during the XVII century and beginnings of the XVIII century, the Order created its own means of subsistence by building or acquiring six estancias (ranches): Caroya (1616), Jesús María (1618), Santa Catalina ( 1622), Alta Gracia (1643), Candelaria (1683) y San Ignacio (1725). The estancias were large agricultural/cattle establishments whose main objective was to finance the activities that took place in the Manzana Jesuítica.
The estancias included cattle stations, corrals and paddocks for cows, sheep, mules and horses, fruit and vegetables gardens, fields to cultivate wheat and corn, percheles for grains, tajamar (water reservoir), and irrigation channels necessary for cultivated fields, and for the functioning of mills and flour mills. There were also workshops, such as carpentry, a smithy, a tannery, a bakery as well as lime and brick kilns, and workshops used to weave, and to manufacture soap. In addition, there were the farm workers houses, the residence of the Jesuit priests and missioners, and a chapel for religious services, all concentrated in the same area. Within the framework of this complex system, the Jesuit made an important contribution to science, technology, and the arts of that time. Some examples are the work of chroniclers and historians, paleontologists, geographers and cartographers (who made the first descriptions and special maps of the region), philosophers and theologians, naturalists, mathematicians, architects (some outstanding ones are Bianchi and Primoli), musicians (with the work of Domingo Zípoli, one of the most remarkable musician at that time). The Jesuits set up the first printing press in South America, built new irrigation system to water cultivated fields, and they also began to use lime in construction.
This concept of unique heritage has led the UNESCO to take the decision of including "Camino de las Estancias Jesuíticas" (Road of the Jesuit Estancias) and the "Manzana Jesuítica" in the list of the World Heritage. Such a list includes worldwide testimonies of natural and cultural character relevant to the humanity. The entire world has the right to explore, visit and enjoy them.
(Source: www.argentinaonview.com)
"Monstra te esse matrem"
Oil on leather, vault of the Domestic Chapel (detail), Church of the Society of Jesus, City of Córdoba
The double life of Domenico Zipoli, by Eduardo Notrica
There are two histories of Domenico Zipoli. One, the personal, describes a surprising route stretching from Europe to America, from the concrete to the ideal, the mundane to the imaginary. The other history, the rediscovery of Zipoli and his creations, is a journey in itself, a fascinating trail that rivals the importance of the composer and his output.
A Route between Two Continents Who was Domenico Zipoli, and what does this composer and his music represent in relation to early music today? He was undoubtedly a peculiar composer. A contemporary of Bach, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, he is difficult to compare with his contemporaries. There is no other case recorded in music history in which a sought-after professional musician renounces a certain road towards success in favour of saving the souls of the indigenous. His life was completely overturned by his decision to become a missionary in the Jesuit province of Paraguay, which substantially modified his language and aesthetic. The potential he had demonstrated with the publication of his first work, the Sonate d’intavolatura per organo e cimbalo (Rome, 1716), seemed to have largely faded. But nothing could be further from the truth, although admittedly the circumstances surrounding his decision to emigrate have yet to be resolved satisfactorily. These doubts perplexed musicologists of the stature of Adolfo Salazar or Isidor Phillip, who thought the presence of such a renowned composer on the inhospitable American soil was implausible.
The totality of his output should necessarily be associated with the historical context and the events surrounding his rediscovery Zipoli’s socio-cultural environment is an indispensable factor in assessing both his radical course of action and the use of certain musical genres and characteristics in his compositional language. The totality of his output should necessarily be associated with the historical context and the events surrounding his rediscovery. Zipoli is the prototype of the composer who was a victim of his time and personal history. Caravaggio and Gesualdo didn’t transcend time because of their tormented personality or the unfavourable historical situation in which they lived, but despite this. On the contrary, it was Zipoli’s European-American itinerary that transformed him into an exceptional composer. His life and works, tied to the period in which they were composed, are uniquely fascinating. Zipoli the European Zipoli was trained more along sacred than secular lines and he maintained his distance from the main secular genre of his time, opera. He was born in 1688 in Prato, a small city with a long organ tradition situated approximately 20km from Florence. There he studied with Giovanni Battista Becatelli and at the age of 19, due to the patronage of Duke Cosimo III, he was able to travel to Florence to study with Giovanni Maria Casini and, later, to Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti, Maestro of the Chapel Royal at the time. In 1709, following a short stay in Bologna, where he worked under the orders of Father Felipe Lavinio Vannucci, he concluded his training in Rome with Bernardo Pasquini, a precursor of the galant style and Frescobaldi’s spiritual heir. One of his first professional commissions in Rome was for a Mass and Vespers in honour of S Carlos from the Santa Cecilia Congregation in 1710. His oratorios San Antonio de Padua and Santa Catalina date from this period, but only their librettos survive. Until he finally left Rome, Zipoli demonstrated that he was first and foremost a professional composer with a commitment to sacred music. His European career shows that he always wanted to work as a church composer. He finally achieved this ambition in 1715 when he was named organist and maestro di cappella of the Roman Catholic Church of Gesù, the Jesuits’ headquarters where the body of S. Ignacio de Loyola lies. Simultaneously, Maria Teresa Strozzi, Princess of Forano whose palace had become the most select and most frequented place of the artistic and intellectual ambience in Rome, also assisted him. In 1716 she paid the publication costs of his Sonate d’Intavolatura per Organo e Cembalo, the first page of which contains Domenico’s dedication to his patron. Composed in a conservative style very similar to that of Frescobaldi, it remains Zipoli’s most important work and that which has brought him the most fame. Extant works from this period also include the Sonata for violin and basso continuo and the secular cantatas Dell’offese a vendicrmi, Mia Bella Irene and O Daliso, da quel di’ che partisti, all for voice and basso continuo. A New Style for a New World In 1716, Zipoli’s plans to dedicate his life to becoming a professional composer, which he had pursued until that moment, changed radically. He made the decision to give up everything and join the Latin-American evangelising Jesuit order. For over two centuries of musical history, Zipoli the European disappeared immediately after the publication of his Sonate…. The other Zipoli, the American, returned in 1933 in the studies of the Jesuit Guillermo Furlong and later in those of the Uruguayan musicologist Lauro Ayertarán around 1940. However, it was another Uruguayan, Francisco Curt Lange, who established the basis for the rediscovery of the “Italian-Argentine” composer, as we shall see below.
In 1716, Zipoli’s plans to dedicate his life to becoming a professional composer, which he had pursued until that moment, changed radically. He made the decision to give up everything and join the Latin-American evangelising Jesuit order. During the period Zipoli lived in Rome the artistic splendour and the new ways of socialising and community-living on the Guaraní, Tupí, Chiquito and Moxo settlements in Jesuit Paraguay were much written about. The successful spreading of the faith in these areas led Zipoli to imagine himself participating in “God’s Kingdom on Earth”, the “Earth with no evil” or the “Musical Nation” as the territory was usually referred to. The Jesuit achievement transcended religious borders, declaring itself a dream fulfilled. Similarly, Italian composers were much admired outside Italy during this period. Thus Zipoli left Rome, and after an obligatory nine-month stay in Seville, he left directly for the Province of Paraguay of the Company of Jesus, which occupied part of what are today Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.
His slogan was “Give me an orchestra and I will convert the whole of South America”. The Jesuits were said to have conquered a continent with an orchestra. As a metaphor, this is a very suggestive description, though incomplete. Although music was an effective means of evangelisation, the artistic situation in the region was very primitive. In contrast to the music chapels, which for a century and a half functioned in the big cities of Higher Peru and Mexico, in the province of Paracuaria there was only poor amateur activity. Zipoli the American The Jesuits recruited many composers to work on settlements in Paraguay from the beginning of the seventeenth-century until the order’s expulsion in 1767. Among them were Jean Vaisseau Louis Berger, the Tirolese composer Antonio Sepp -who played a very important role as a pedagogue in the missions from 1691 to 1733-, Martin Schmid -who was also the architect-constructor of various churches of the region- and the Austrian Florian Paucke. But Zipoli was the most renowned composer to join the Jesuits and to move to the New World. During his lifetime, his works were reclaimed from the most remote places and the viceroy of Peru, who resided in Lima, even requested them by mail. There is no information confirming that he was offered the post of maestro di cappella organist of the Jesuit church in the province of Córdoba (today Argentina), but this was precisely his destination upon arriving. In relation to Domenico’s musical activity in Córdoba, Father Pedro Lozano, the author of his obituary, states: “His extreme interest led to the celebration of feasts with musical accompaniment…with incredible satisfaction on the part of both the Spanish and the neophytes. Elated by the pleasure of listening to him, an immense multitude filled our church on all the solemn festivities”. By 1724, eight years after his arrival, Zipoli had completed his theological studies, but he had to wait before being ordained because the bishop’s headquarters in Córdoba were vacant. Judging by his American output, he seems to have passed the time composing. Despite certain knowledge of the existence of sacred works composed during his European period (the above mentioned Santa Catalina and San Antonio de Padua oratorios), today they are lost, making it impossible to carry out a comparative analysis of his predominantly liturgical American output. The expressiveness of his American works was specifically designed to fulfil an evangelising role. Conveniently adapting his works to the means available, Zipoli simplified his resources, working in a predominantly homophonic style employing basic harmonies and elemental orchestration in the style of pedagogical music. Besides the omission of the bass voice (rare among the indigenous), the music uses rhetoric to emphasise the evangelising message of the text. The solutions chosen by the composer are half way between the aesthetic complexity of the late baroque and a need for simplification in pursuit of the indigenous population, the only available performers on the missions. In America, as the researcher Bernardo Illari notes, “he went from being a religious composer to a member of a religious order who composed”.
At the end of the 1930s when the musicologist Francisco Curt Lange first took a critical interest in Domenico Zipoli, he still had doubts as to whether “a certain brother Domingo Zipoli, organist of the Jesuit Church of Córdoba, was the same Zipoli who composed the Sonate d’intavolatura… Sick with tuberculosis, he was transferred to the Santa Catalina settlement located just north of Córdoba, but his illness worsened and he died in 1726. His remains were buried in the cemetery adjoining the mission church. Coincidentally, the province of Córdoba played host to two of the greatest European composers who sought its dry and mountainous climate to cure their illness. As well as being Zipoli’s last resting place, two centuries later, it was to become that of Manuel de Falla. Zipoli’s RediscoveryThe Non-existent Composer At the end of the 1930s when the musicologist Francisco Curt Lange first took a critical interest in Domenico Zipoli, he still had doubts as to whether “a certain brother Domingo Zipoli, organist of the Jesuit Church of Córdoba, was the same Zipoli who composed the Sonate d’intavolatura… The first step in his exciting rediscovery was the discovery of Zipoli’s birth certificate in 1941 (there were even doubts as to Zipoli’s existence), which confirmed his birth in Prato in 1688. Then in 1957, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, a Zipoli scholar and performer, came across Father Martini’s musical-biographical dictionary, which after providing information relating to his European itinerary, concludes with the phrase “in ultimo si fece gesuita”. This statement corroborated the fact that the two individuals, for many years thought to be two different people, were in fact one. The slow establishment of Zipoli’s true biography and his European-American periods took their course until the organisation of a Conference to mark the third centenary of Zipoli’s birth, held in Prato in 1988 and organised by Institute for the Study of Latin-American Music during the Colonial Period. The conference was a meeting point for numerous specialists who had been working on the topic, who spelt out their conclusions in the book Domenico Zipoli, itinerari ibero americani della musica italiana del Settecento. Imaginary Music Once Zipoli’s existence and his trip to Jesuit America were confirmed, his American period continued to represent an absolute mystery. The music he composed in Argentina was thought to be lost, until at the beginning of the 1960s Dr. Robert Stevenson located a mass for three-part choir (without bass), soloists, two violins, organ and continuo in the Archive of Sucre. The score reads: “copied in Potossi, in the year 1784”, that is 58 years after the composer’s death. The fact that over half a century after Zipoli’s death his works were still performed in Argentina and in Higher Peru clearly reflect the importance and endurance of his output, as well as its transmission outside the normal channels of circulation. In 1972, the Swiss architect Hans Roth discovered 5000 pages of manuscript music in the missions of Chiquitos (in east Bolivia). Roth, who accidentally came across the most important part of these manuscripts in the Church of Santa Ana, tells of how they were used as toilet paper in the bathroom of the church sacristy! During the 1980s, thanks to the hard work of a team of researchers a large number of complete works by Zipoli were located and catalogued in these archives. On the Chiquitos Missions In 1691 Father José de Arce founded S Ignacio, the first Chiquito Indian settlement in Bolivia. This marked the first step in the work of the Company of Jesus, who would later establish as many as nine missions in the region. There was a wide range of musical activities in the missions, especially those associated with religious life, which were fundamental in fulfilling the Jesuits’ aim of transmitting the idea of God to the natives. Music was composed for use in the liturgy of a Utopian, egalitarian community, in keeping with the quasi-Anarchist ideals of the Jesuits in Latin America. The active participation of the indigenous people in the musical life of the Jesuits was an important element: the Indians, who were barely familiar with the language of the civilisers, were able performers of European instruments such as the violin or the organ and even reasonable composers. Although the natives managed to master the techniques of instrumental performance and composition, permeable to influences unknown until that time, they never internalised certain European guidelines to the point of using them as their own. That is to say, what was learned was copied as closely as possible and few of their own elements were added. Their compositions were a somewhat distorted reflection of what was occurring in other colonial cities and in Europe.
The Jesuit settlements in Eastern Bolivia had a unique and interesting destiny. In contrast to missions in other regions, they were not destroyed. This was due to the difficulties of access and the scarce architectonic and geo-political interest: for example, blocks of stone could not to be removed for use in other buildings. Some of these towns, forgotten by the central authorities, continued their daily life, customs and traditions, and thus conserved their music archives almost intact.
The active participation of the indigenous people in the musical life of the Jesuits was an important element: the Indians, who were barely familiar with the language of the civilisers, were able performers of European instruments such as the violin or the organ and even reasonable composers Although Zipoli never visited Chiquitos, his music was known and often performed there due to the cultural circulation among the Jesuits. Thus he became a mythical and fundamental figure in the aesthetic of the mission repertories and it is for this reason that his name was the only one to appear systematically in the scores discovered. Works by Zipoli found at the Chiquitos Archive include the S Ignacio Mass, a Misa Brevis, six Vespers Hymns, numerous other Hymns, Letanias and instrumental music, as well as copies of the Sonate d’intavolatura. In order to disseminate and promote such an evocative repertoire, each year the “Chiquitos Missions” International Festival of American Renaissance and Baroque Music, featuring some of the most outstanding European and American performers dedicated to the Latin-American baroque repertory, is held there.
(Source: http://www.goldbergweb.com)
A Route between Two Continents Who was Domenico Zipoli, and what does this composer and his music represent in relation to early music today? He was undoubtedly a peculiar composer. A contemporary of Bach, Handel and Domenico Scarlatti, he is difficult to compare with his contemporaries. There is no other case recorded in music history in which a sought-after professional musician renounces a certain road towards success in favour of saving the souls of the indigenous. His life was completely overturned by his decision to become a missionary in the Jesuit province of Paraguay, which substantially modified his language and aesthetic. The potential he had demonstrated with the publication of his first work, the Sonate d’intavolatura per organo e cimbalo (Rome, 1716), seemed to have largely faded. But nothing could be further from the truth, although admittedly the circumstances surrounding his decision to emigrate have yet to be resolved satisfactorily. These doubts perplexed musicologists of the stature of Adolfo Salazar or Isidor Phillip, who thought the presence of such a renowned composer on the inhospitable American soil was implausible.
The totality of his output should necessarily be associated with the historical context and the events surrounding his rediscovery Zipoli’s socio-cultural environment is an indispensable factor in assessing both his radical course of action and the use of certain musical genres and characteristics in his compositional language. The totality of his output should necessarily be associated with the historical context and the events surrounding his rediscovery. Zipoli is the prototype of the composer who was a victim of his time and personal history. Caravaggio and Gesualdo didn’t transcend time because of their tormented personality or the unfavourable historical situation in which they lived, but despite this. On the contrary, it was Zipoli’s European-American itinerary that transformed him into an exceptional composer. His life and works, tied to the period in which they were composed, are uniquely fascinating. Zipoli the European Zipoli was trained more along sacred than secular lines and he maintained his distance from the main secular genre of his time, opera. He was born in 1688 in Prato, a small city with a long organ tradition situated approximately 20km from Florence. There he studied with Giovanni Battista Becatelli and at the age of 19, due to the patronage of Duke Cosimo III, he was able to travel to Florence to study with Giovanni Maria Casini and, later, to Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti, Maestro of the Chapel Royal at the time. In 1709, following a short stay in Bologna, where he worked under the orders of Father Felipe Lavinio Vannucci, he concluded his training in Rome with Bernardo Pasquini, a precursor of the galant style and Frescobaldi’s spiritual heir. One of his first professional commissions in Rome was for a Mass and Vespers in honour of S Carlos from the Santa Cecilia Congregation in 1710. His oratorios San Antonio de Padua and Santa Catalina date from this period, but only their librettos survive. Until he finally left Rome, Zipoli demonstrated that he was first and foremost a professional composer with a commitment to sacred music. His European career shows that he always wanted to work as a church composer. He finally achieved this ambition in 1715 when he was named organist and maestro di cappella of the Roman Catholic Church of Gesù, the Jesuits’ headquarters where the body of S. Ignacio de Loyola lies. Simultaneously, Maria Teresa Strozzi, Princess of Forano whose palace had become the most select and most frequented place of the artistic and intellectual ambience in Rome, also assisted him. In 1716 she paid the publication costs of his Sonate d’Intavolatura per Organo e Cembalo, the first page of which contains Domenico’s dedication to his patron. Composed in a conservative style very similar to that of Frescobaldi, it remains Zipoli’s most important work and that which has brought him the most fame. Extant works from this period also include the Sonata for violin and basso continuo and the secular cantatas Dell’offese a vendicrmi, Mia Bella Irene and O Daliso, da quel di’ che partisti, all for voice and basso continuo. A New Style for a New World In 1716, Zipoli’s plans to dedicate his life to becoming a professional composer, which he had pursued until that moment, changed radically. He made the decision to give up everything and join the Latin-American evangelising Jesuit order. For over two centuries of musical history, Zipoli the European disappeared immediately after the publication of his Sonate…. The other Zipoli, the American, returned in 1933 in the studies of the Jesuit Guillermo Furlong and later in those of the Uruguayan musicologist Lauro Ayertarán around 1940. However, it was another Uruguayan, Francisco Curt Lange, who established the basis for the rediscovery of the “Italian-Argentine” composer, as we shall see below.
In 1716, Zipoli’s plans to dedicate his life to becoming a professional composer, which he had pursued until that moment, changed radically. He made the decision to give up everything and join the Latin-American evangelising Jesuit order. During the period Zipoli lived in Rome the artistic splendour and the new ways of socialising and community-living on the Guaraní, Tupí, Chiquito and Moxo settlements in Jesuit Paraguay were much written about. The successful spreading of the faith in these areas led Zipoli to imagine himself participating in “God’s Kingdom on Earth”, the “Earth with no evil” or the “Musical Nation” as the territory was usually referred to. The Jesuit achievement transcended religious borders, declaring itself a dream fulfilled. Similarly, Italian composers were much admired outside Italy during this period. Thus Zipoli left Rome, and after an obligatory nine-month stay in Seville, he left directly for the Province of Paraguay of the Company of Jesus, which occupied part of what are today Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.
His slogan was “Give me an orchestra and I will convert the whole of South America”. The Jesuits were said to have conquered a continent with an orchestra. As a metaphor, this is a very suggestive description, though incomplete. Although music was an effective means of evangelisation, the artistic situation in the region was very primitive. In contrast to the music chapels, which for a century and a half functioned in the big cities of Higher Peru and Mexico, in the province of Paracuaria there was only poor amateur activity. Zipoli the American The Jesuits recruited many composers to work on settlements in Paraguay from the beginning of the seventeenth-century until the order’s expulsion in 1767. Among them were Jean Vaisseau Louis Berger, the Tirolese composer Antonio Sepp -who played a very important role as a pedagogue in the missions from 1691 to 1733-, Martin Schmid -who was also the architect-constructor of various churches of the region- and the Austrian Florian Paucke. But Zipoli was the most renowned composer to join the Jesuits and to move to the New World. During his lifetime, his works were reclaimed from the most remote places and the viceroy of Peru, who resided in Lima, even requested them by mail. There is no information confirming that he was offered the post of maestro di cappella organist of the Jesuit church in the province of Córdoba (today Argentina), but this was precisely his destination upon arriving. In relation to Domenico’s musical activity in Córdoba, Father Pedro Lozano, the author of his obituary, states: “His extreme interest led to the celebration of feasts with musical accompaniment…with incredible satisfaction on the part of both the Spanish and the neophytes. Elated by the pleasure of listening to him, an immense multitude filled our church on all the solemn festivities”. By 1724, eight years after his arrival, Zipoli had completed his theological studies, but he had to wait before being ordained because the bishop’s headquarters in Córdoba were vacant. Judging by his American output, he seems to have passed the time composing. Despite certain knowledge of the existence of sacred works composed during his European period (the above mentioned Santa Catalina and San Antonio de Padua oratorios), today they are lost, making it impossible to carry out a comparative analysis of his predominantly liturgical American output. The expressiveness of his American works was specifically designed to fulfil an evangelising role. Conveniently adapting his works to the means available, Zipoli simplified his resources, working in a predominantly homophonic style employing basic harmonies and elemental orchestration in the style of pedagogical music. Besides the omission of the bass voice (rare among the indigenous), the music uses rhetoric to emphasise the evangelising message of the text. The solutions chosen by the composer are half way between the aesthetic complexity of the late baroque and a need for simplification in pursuit of the indigenous population, the only available performers on the missions. In America, as the researcher Bernardo Illari notes, “he went from being a religious composer to a member of a religious order who composed”.
At the end of the 1930s when the musicologist Francisco Curt Lange first took a critical interest in Domenico Zipoli, he still had doubts as to whether “a certain brother Domingo Zipoli, organist of the Jesuit Church of Córdoba, was the same Zipoli who composed the Sonate d’intavolatura… Sick with tuberculosis, he was transferred to the Santa Catalina settlement located just north of Córdoba, but his illness worsened and he died in 1726. His remains were buried in the cemetery adjoining the mission church. Coincidentally, the province of Córdoba played host to two of the greatest European composers who sought its dry and mountainous climate to cure their illness. As well as being Zipoli’s last resting place, two centuries later, it was to become that of Manuel de Falla. Zipoli’s RediscoveryThe Non-existent Composer At the end of the 1930s when the musicologist Francisco Curt Lange first took a critical interest in Domenico Zipoli, he still had doubts as to whether “a certain brother Domingo Zipoli, organist of the Jesuit Church of Córdoba, was the same Zipoli who composed the Sonate d’intavolatura… The first step in his exciting rediscovery was the discovery of Zipoli’s birth certificate in 1941 (there were even doubts as to Zipoli’s existence), which confirmed his birth in Prato in 1688. Then in 1957, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, a Zipoli scholar and performer, came across Father Martini’s musical-biographical dictionary, which after providing information relating to his European itinerary, concludes with the phrase “in ultimo si fece gesuita”. This statement corroborated the fact that the two individuals, for many years thought to be two different people, were in fact one. The slow establishment of Zipoli’s true biography and his European-American periods took their course until the organisation of a Conference to mark the third centenary of Zipoli’s birth, held in Prato in 1988 and organised by Institute for the Study of Latin-American Music during the Colonial Period. The conference was a meeting point for numerous specialists who had been working on the topic, who spelt out their conclusions in the book Domenico Zipoli, itinerari ibero americani della musica italiana del Settecento. Imaginary Music Once Zipoli’s existence and his trip to Jesuit America were confirmed, his American period continued to represent an absolute mystery. The music he composed in Argentina was thought to be lost, until at the beginning of the 1960s Dr. Robert Stevenson located a mass for three-part choir (without bass), soloists, two violins, organ and continuo in the Archive of Sucre. The score reads: “copied in Potossi, in the year 1784”, that is 58 years after the composer’s death. The fact that over half a century after Zipoli’s death his works were still performed in Argentina and in Higher Peru clearly reflect the importance and endurance of his output, as well as its transmission outside the normal channels of circulation. In 1972, the Swiss architect Hans Roth discovered 5000 pages of manuscript music in the missions of Chiquitos (in east Bolivia). Roth, who accidentally came across the most important part of these manuscripts in the Church of Santa Ana, tells of how they were used as toilet paper in the bathroom of the church sacristy! During the 1980s, thanks to the hard work of a team of researchers a large number of complete works by Zipoli were located and catalogued in these archives. On the Chiquitos Missions In 1691 Father José de Arce founded S Ignacio, the first Chiquito Indian settlement in Bolivia. This marked the first step in the work of the Company of Jesus, who would later establish as many as nine missions in the region. There was a wide range of musical activities in the missions, especially those associated with religious life, which were fundamental in fulfilling the Jesuits’ aim of transmitting the idea of God to the natives. Music was composed for use in the liturgy of a Utopian, egalitarian community, in keeping with the quasi-Anarchist ideals of the Jesuits in Latin America. The active participation of the indigenous people in the musical life of the Jesuits was an important element: the Indians, who were barely familiar with the language of the civilisers, were able performers of European instruments such as the violin or the organ and even reasonable composers. Although the natives managed to master the techniques of instrumental performance and composition, permeable to influences unknown until that time, they never internalised certain European guidelines to the point of using them as their own. That is to say, what was learned was copied as closely as possible and few of their own elements were added. Their compositions were a somewhat distorted reflection of what was occurring in other colonial cities and in Europe.
The Jesuit settlements in Eastern Bolivia had a unique and interesting destiny. In contrast to missions in other regions, they were not destroyed. This was due to the difficulties of access and the scarce architectonic and geo-political interest: for example, blocks of stone could not to be removed for use in other buildings. Some of these towns, forgotten by the central authorities, continued their daily life, customs and traditions, and thus conserved their music archives almost intact.
The active participation of the indigenous people in the musical life of the Jesuits was an important element: the Indians, who were barely familiar with the language of the civilisers, were able performers of European instruments such as the violin or the organ and even reasonable composers Although Zipoli never visited Chiquitos, his music was known and often performed there due to the cultural circulation among the Jesuits. Thus he became a mythical and fundamental figure in the aesthetic of the mission repertories and it is for this reason that his name was the only one to appear systematically in the scores discovered. Works by Zipoli found at the Chiquitos Archive include the S Ignacio Mass, a Misa Brevis, six Vespers Hymns, numerous other Hymns, Letanias and instrumental music, as well as copies of the Sonate d’intavolatura. In order to disseminate and promote such an evocative repertoire, each year the “Chiquitos Missions” International Festival of American Renaissance and Baroque Music, featuring some of the most outstanding European and American performers dedicated to the Latin-American baroque repertory, is held there.
(Source: http://www.goldbergweb.com)
Brief and interesting article about the Jesuit History
The Society of Jesus was founded in 1540 by St. Ignatius Loyola and since then has grown from the original seven to 24, 400 members today who work out of 1,825 houses in 112 countries. In the intervening 455 years many Jesuits became renowned for their sanctity (41 Saints and 285 Blesseds), for their scholarship in every conceivable field, for their explorations and discoveries, but especially for their schools. The Society is governed by General Congregations, the supreme legislative authority which meets occasionally. The present Superior General Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. is Dutch. Ignatius Loyola was a Spanish Basque soldier who underwent an extraordinary conversion while recuperating from a leg broken by a cannon ball in battle. He wrote down his experiences which he called his Spiritual Exercises and later he founded the Society of Jesus with the approval of Pope Paul III in 1540.
St. Ignatius and Pope Paul III
From the very beginning, the Society served the Church with outstanding men: Doctors of the Church in Europe as well as missionaries in Asia, India, Africa and the Americas. Men like Robert Bellarmine and Peter Canisius spearheaded the Counter Reformation in Europe, courageous men like Edmund Campion assisted the Catholics in England suffering under the terrible Elizabethan persecutions and missionaries like deNobili Claver, González, deBrito, Brebeuf, and Kino brought the Gospel to the ends of the earth. No other order has more martyrs for the Faith.
Ignatius Loyola had gathered around him an energetic band of well-educated men who desired nothing more than to help others find God in their lives. It was Ignatius' original plan that they be roving missionaries such as Francis Xavier, who would preach and administer the sacraments wherever there was the hope of accomplishing the greater good. It soon became clear to Ignatius that colleges offered the greatest possible service to the church, by moral and religious instruction, by making devotional life accessible to the young and by teaching the Gospel message of service to others. From the very beginning these Jesuit schools became such an influential part of Catholic reform that this novel Jesuit enterprise was later called "a rebirth of the infant church". The genius and innovation Ignatius brought to education came from his Spiritual Exercises whose object is to free a person from predispositions and biases, thus enabling free choices leading to happy, fulfilled lives.
Jesuits were always deeply involved in scholarship, in science and in exploration. By 1750, 30 of the world's 130 astronomical observatories were run by Jesuit astronomers and 35 lunar craters have been named to honor Jesuit scientists. The so-called "Gregorian" Calendar was the work of the Jesuit Christopher Clavius, the "most influential teacher of the Renaissance". Another Jesuit, Ferdinand Verbiest, determined the elusive Russo-Chinese border and until recent times no foreign name was as well known in China as the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, "Li-ma-teu", whose story is told by Jonathan Spence in his 1984 best seller. China has recently erected a monument to the Jesuit scientists of the 17th century - in spite of the fact that since 1948 120 Jesuits languished in Chinese prisons. By the way, no other religious order has spent as many man-years in jail as the Jesuit order.
Five of the eight major rivers of the world were first charted by Jesuit explorers. Two of the statues in Statuary Hall in the Capitol in Washington are Jesuits: Eusebio Kino and Jacques Marquette. A 1978 Brazilian stamp celebrates the Jesuit founding of São Paulo. Spanish Jesuits went to Paraguay in 1607, built settlements which lasted from 1607 to 1767 for the indigenous people and taught them how to govern and defend themselves against the Spanish slave traders. They also taught agriculture, architecture, metallurgy, farming, music, ranching and printing. The Guaraní natives of Paraguay were printing books on art, literature as well as school texts in these settlements before the American revolution. This Utopia was suddenly crushed by the influential slave traders who were able to intimidate the Spanish crown into destroying the settlements. King Charles III expelled the Jesuits in 1767 when Paraguay boasted of 57 settlements serving 113,716 indigenous natives. These Jesuit Settlements were called "a triumph of humanity which seems to expiate the cruelties of the first conquerors" by Voltaire - hardly a friend of the Jesuits. The history of Latin America would have been quite different if this form of settlement had been allowed to develop according to its own momentum, offering democracy a century before North America.
Jesuits were called the schoolmasters of Europe during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, not only because of their schools but also for their pre-eminence as scholars scientists and the thousands of textbooks they composed. During their first two centuries the Jesuits were involved in an explosion of intellectual activity, and were engaged in over 740 schools.
Then suddenly these were all lost in 1773. Pope Clement XIV yielding to pressure from the Bourbon courts, fearing the loss of his Papal States, and anticipating that other European countries would follow the example of Henry VIII (who abandoned the Catholic Church and took his whole country with him), issued his brief Dominus ac Redemptor suppressing the Society of Jesus. This religious Society of 23,000 men dedicated to the service of the church was disbanded. The property of the Society's many schools was either sold or made over into a state controlled system. The Society's libraries were broken up and the books either burned, sold or snatched up by those who collaborated in the Suppression. As if unsure of himself the Pope promulgated the brief of suppression in an unusual manner which caused perplexing canonical difficulties. So when Catherine, Empress of Russia, rejected the brief outright and forbade its promulgation, 200 Jesuits continued to function in Russia.
That Jesuits take their special vow of obedience to the pope quite seriously is evident from their immediate compliance with distasteful papal edicts. Clement XIV's Suppression is one example. Another occurred earlier in 1590 when Pope Sixtus V wanted to exclude Jesus from the official name of the Society. Jesuits immediately complied and offered alternate names but Sixtus died unexpectedly before his wish could be carried out. Included among these occasional papal intrusions in the Society's governance was Pope John Paul II's appointment of a delegate to govern the Society during Superior General Arrupe's illness. So edified was he at the Society's immediate compliance that the pope later lavished extraordinary praise on the Jesuit Order.
The Society was restored 41 years after the Suppression in 1814 by Pope Pius VII. Although many of the men had died by then, the memory of their educational triumphs had not, and the new Society was flooded with requests to take over new colleges: in France alone, for instance, 86 schools were offered to the Jesuits. Since 1814 the Society has experienced amazing growth and has since then surpassed the apostolic breadth of the early Society in its educational, intellectual, pastoral and missionary endeavors.
As for education, today there is an extensive worldwide network of Jesuit schools educating one and a half million students. There are 90 Jesuit colleges in 27 countries. Here in the United States the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities have over a million living graduates. There are also 430 Jesuit high schools in 55 countries. In these schools the Ignatian system of values has attracted exceptionally competent faculty as well as highly qualified students.
They form a Jesuit network, not that they are administered in the same way, but that they pursue the same goals and their success is evident in their graduates, men and women of vast and varied talent.
Two outstanding Jesuits of the last century were Teilhard de Chardin and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S. J. (1881 - 1955) was a Jesuit paleontologist who attempted to interpret the findings of modern science in the light of the Christian message. People read in Teilhard a message of hope and optimism and his work was perhaps even more influential outside the Catholic Church than within it. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844 -1889) is a major figure in English literature. His innovations in meter and rhythm, his abnormally sensitive use of language and the depth and passion of his religious convictions made an immediate impact on the young poets of the 1920s.
This summary is quite inadequate, but it is impossible to do justice to the history of the Jesuits even in a long collection of volumes because of the diversity of the Jesuit apostolate which is spread over the whole globe, interacts with all elements of society and has inserted itself into practically every segment of human history.
St. Ignatius and Pope Paul III
From the very beginning, the Society served the Church with outstanding men: Doctors of the Church in Europe as well as missionaries in Asia, India, Africa and the Americas. Men like Robert Bellarmine and Peter Canisius spearheaded the Counter Reformation in Europe, courageous men like Edmund Campion assisted the Catholics in England suffering under the terrible Elizabethan persecutions and missionaries like deNobili Claver, González, deBrito, Brebeuf, and Kino brought the Gospel to the ends of the earth. No other order has more martyrs for the Faith.
Ignatius Loyola had gathered around him an energetic band of well-educated men who desired nothing more than to help others find God in their lives. It was Ignatius' original plan that they be roving missionaries such as Francis Xavier, who would preach and administer the sacraments wherever there was the hope of accomplishing the greater good. It soon became clear to Ignatius that colleges offered the greatest possible service to the church, by moral and religious instruction, by making devotional life accessible to the young and by teaching the Gospel message of service to others. From the very beginning these Jesuit schools became such an influential part of Catholic reform that this novel Jesuit enterprise was later called "a rebirth of the infant church". The genius and innovation Ignatius brought to education came from his Spiritual Exercises whose object is to free a person from predispositions and biases, thus enabling free choices leading to happy, fulfilled lives.
Jesuits were always deeply involved in scholarship, in science and in exploration. By 1750, 30 of the world's 130 astronomical observatories were run by Jesuit astronomers and 35 lunar craters have been named to honor Jesuit scientists. The so-called "Gregorian" Calendar was the work of the Jesuit Christopher Clavius, the "most influential teacher of the Renaissance". Another Jesuit, Ferdinand Verbiest, determined the elusive Russo-Chinese border and until recent times no foreign name was as well known in China as the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, "Li-ma-teu", whose story is told by Jonathan Spence in his 1984 best seller. China has recently erected a monument to the Jesuit scientists of the 17th century - in spite of the fact that since 1948 120 Jesuits languished in Chinese prisons. By the way, no other religious order has spent as many man-years in jail as the Jesuit order.
Five of the eight major rivers of the world were first charted by Jesuit explorers. Two of the statues in Statuary Hall in the Capitol in Washington are Jesuits: Eusebio Kino and Jacques Marquette. A 1978 Brazilian stamp celebrates the Jesuit founding of São Paulo. Spanish Jesuits went to Paraguay in 1607, built settlements which lasted from 1607 to 1767 for the indigenous people and taught them how to govern and defend themselves against the Spanish slave traders. They also taught agriculture, architecture, metallurgy, farming, music, ranching and printing. The Guaraní natives of Paraguay were printing books on art, literature as well as school texts in these settlements before the American revolution. This Utopia was suddenly crushed by the influential slave traders who were able to intimidate the Spanish crown into destroying the settlements. King Charles III expelled the Jesuits in 1767 when Paraguay boasted of 57 settlements serving 113,716 indigenous natives. These Jesuit Settlements were called "a triumph of humanity which seems to expiate the cruelties of the first conquerors" by Voltaire - hardly a friend of the Jesuits. The history of Latin America would have been quite different if this form of settlement had been allowed to develop according to its own momentum, offering democracy a century before North America.
Jesuits were called the schoolmasters of Europe during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, not only because of their schools but also for their pre-eminence as scholars scientists and the thousands of textbooks they composed. During their first two centuries the Jesuits were involved in an explosion of intellectual activity, and were engaged in over 740 schools.
Then suddenly these were all lost in 1773. Pope Clement XIV yielding to pressure from the Bourbon courts, fearing the loss of his Papal States, and anticipating that other European countries would follow the example of Henry VIII (who abandoned the Catholic Church and took his whole country with him), issued his brief Dominus ac Redemptor suppressing the Society of Jesus. This religious Society of 23,000 men dedicated to the service of the church was disbanded. The property of the Society's many schools was either sold or made over into a state controlled system. The Society's libraries were broken up and the books either burned, sold or snatched up by those who collaborated in the Suppression. As if unsure of himself the Pope promulgated the brief of suppression in an unusual manner which caused perplexing canonical difficulties. So when Catherine, Empress of Russia, rejected the brief outright and forbade its promulgation, 200 Jesuits continued to function in Russia.
That Jesuits take their special vow of obedience to the pope quite seriously is evident from their immediate compliance with distasteful papal edicts. Clement XIV's Suppression is one example. Another occurred earlier in 1590 when Pope Sixtus V wanted to exclude Jesus from the official name of the Society. Jesuits immediately complied and offered alternate names but Sixtus died unexpectedly before his wish could be carried out. Included among these occasional papal intrusions in the Society's governance was Pope John Paul II's appointment of a delegate to govern the Society during Superior General Arrupe's illness. So edified was he at the Society's immediate compliance that the pope later lavished extraordinary praise on the Jesuit Order.
The Society was restored 41 years after the Suppression in 1814 by Pope Pius VII. Although many of the men had died by then, the memory of their educational triumphs had not, and the new Society was flooded with requests to take over new colleges: in France alone, for instance, 86 schools were offered to the Jesuits. Since 1814 the Society has experienced amazing growth and has since then surpassed the apostolic breadth of the early Society in its educational, intellectual, pastoral and missionary endeavors.
As for education, today there is an extensive worldwide network of Jesuit schools educating one and a half million students. There are 90 Jesuit colleges in 27 countries. Here in the United States the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities have over a million living graduates. There are also 430 Jesuit high schools in 55 countries. In these schools the Ignatian system of values has attracted exceptionally competent faculty as well as highly qualified students.
They form a Jesuit network, not that they are administered in the same way, but that they pursue the same goals and their success is evident in their graduates, men and women of vast and varied talent.
Two outstanding Jesuits of the last century were Teilhard de Chardin and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S. J. (1881 - 1955) was a Jesuit paleontologist who attempted to interpret the findings of modern science in the light of the Christian message. People read in Teilhard a message of hope and optimism and his work was perhaps even more influential outside the Catholic Church than within it. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844 -1889) is a major figure in English literature. His innovations in meter and rhythm, his abnormally sensitive use of language and the depth and passion of his religious convictions made an immediate impact on the young poets of the 1920s.
This summary is quite inadequate, but it is impossible to do justice to the history of the Jesuits even in a long collection of volumes because of the diversity of the Jesuit apostolate which is spread over the whole globe, interacts with all elements of society and has inserted itself into practically every segment of human history.
(Source http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/briefsjhistory.htm)
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