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)