Bologna città della musica
Music and education: the Schools in Bologna

The University of Bologna: The Music and Show Department

The University of Bologna was the first to establish a degree course in Art, Music and Show Disciplines (DAMS), which was founded in 1970 within the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy, with the specific objective of carrying out a policy of synergies among expressive languages, that today represent the four sectors in which the course is articulated: Art, Cinema, Music and Theatre. With the implementation of the University reform of 2000, the well-established syllabus of the DAMS was taken as a model for the introduction of a state degree course in Sciences and Technologies of Arts, Music, Show and Fashion (course no. XXIII). The DAMS is still the university course with the highest number of students in the country: more than 7.000 students from all around Italy.

One of the main structures of the DAMS is the Music and Show Department (DMS), it too is the first of its kind in Italy and was officially founded in 1983.

The syllabus aims at a historic-theoretical-methodological education in the music field, integrated by a closer examination of technical and operative aspects. To this purpose it includes, besides specific courses, also general culture studies and interdisciplinary connections among the various artistic fields, with an inclination towards experimentation and the contemporary aspect of artistic languages.

The syllabus is articulated into five sectors:

1. Historic Musicology
2. Systematic Musicology
3. Ethnomusicology
4. Music Theory
5. Music Pedagogy.

The DMS includes a specialised degree and a PhD (the oldest in Italy for musical disciplines), both in Musicology and Musical Heritage, and the course in Musical Education of the SSIS - Post-graduate School for High School Teaching [According to the Reform carried out in the Italian university system, after a three-year degree, there are three possibilities of continuing academic education: with other two years of university (specialised degree); with a post-graduate school, necessary to reach the qualification for teaching; or with a first level professional master’s degree. After the syllabus called “3+2” (three-year degree + specialized degree), it is possible to continue studying with a second level master’s degree or a Ph.D.]. The DMS includes also the Master’s degree in Show Business Entrepreneurial activities.

Thanks to the musicologists of the DMS, who maintain regular relations with national and international organisations of the sector, important associative and publishing initiatives have been set up in Bologna. Besides being promoter and seat of national and international conferences and conventions, the DMS carries out frequent collaborations and advising activities with local and regional public bodies in the field of music heritage. The DMS has a very rich library, with around 38.000 volumes, 670 magazines, 3.900 records, 850 microfilms. The Music section has been harmoniously integrated with the historic collections owned by the city of Bologna. The record library is dedicated to learned western music, folk music, extra-European music, jazz and correlated genres, popular music (Sixties and Seventies) and boasts the ownership of some special collections, among which a collection of about 400 specimens of 19th and 20th century opera librettos; a collection of old editions of the 17th and 18th century and other rare editions; the Fondo René Leibowitz (René Leibowitz Collection) of musical editions and manuscripts, which belonged to the famous conductor, composer and musicologist; the Archives of the Venetian composer Bruno Maderna, which gather original material and reproductions.

As far as new technologies are concerned, the DMS has developed advanced know-how especially in the field of digitalisation of musical sources, in sound or paper form. The laboratory structures include a theatre, a musical ICT laboratory, a music auditorium and a multimedia and video editing laboratory.

It is worth mentioning also the annual competition “Premio DAMS (DAMS Award)”, created in 2002 and addressed to students and recent graduates of the DAMS degree courses in the whole of Italy.

The DAMS Award takes place in Bologna with the purpose of asserting the valorisation of the creative potential of students and recent graduates of the DAMS faculties and of offering an occasion of critical reflection and confrontation concerning artistic practices.

In 2001, on the occasion of the Celebrations for the Thirty Years of the DAMS, the jazz orchestra of the University of Bologna was founded (Dams Jazz Orchestra): it is formed by professional musicians, largely graduates, graduating students or students of the DAMS. Many concerts have been organised with the participation of internationally renowned musicians, such as Lucio Dalla, Paolo Fresu, Hiram Bullock, Engel Gualdi, Roy Paci, Joyce Yuille and Cheryl Porter.

In the DMS there are two Centres, the Centre of Music and Show (CIMES, Centro di Musica e Spettacolo) and the Centre of Theatre Promotion “La Soffitta”.

These initiatives are dedicated to workshops and practical laboratories and to show, concert and cultural promotion activities. Both the Centres are active in the field of arts, but the CIMES is more oriented towards musical initiatives, and has been organising for 15 years, among other things, an international festival of ethnic music, “Suoni dal mondo” (Sounds from the World) [The centre has collaborated with the Italian section of the “International Association for the Study of the Popular Music” and the Italian Committee of the “International Council for Traditional Music” (UNESCO). The CIMES sustains the activities of the Collegium Musicum Almae Matris, an independent association which organises the students’ choir and orchestra of the University of Bologna and which is active in the field of exchanges with similar Italian and foreign music groups].

The activities of the CIMES offer students new, professionally oriented issues, initiatives concerning musical informatics and the employment of new technologies, meetings dedicated to musical criticism and to its role in today’s society, occasions of analysing more in depth today's music, and also seminars on vocalism, dancing and instrumental practices that belong to the extra-European musical cultures.

The G.B. Martini Conservatory

This is a state institution established in 1942 that originated from the Liceo Filarmonico. It is therefore one of the oldest Italian conservatories, and the first state music school. Today it counts more than six hundred pupils, more than eighty classes for the various disciplines, and offers workshops on opera singing and on old and contemporary music, and seminars on interpretation, musical analysis and the use of modern technologies applied to music. Moreover, a few years ago, the Conservatory activated some courses dedicated to jazz. The pupils of the first courses form the Orchestra of the youngest, while the students of the higher courses and the teachers form the real Conservatory Orchestra. The Library of the “Giovan Battista Martini” Conservatory, created on the basis of the precious bequest of books for teaching purposes of Father Martini, is a heritage that the Conservatory runs together with the Musical Bibliographical City Museum. The Library of the Conservatory counts around 30.000 volumes. Musical collections, musicological collections and magazines form a relevant part..

Besides the teaching activities, the Conservatory also promotes, together with the Pinacoteca (Picture Gallery), the University, the Teatro Comunale and the Province, a series of intercultural activities, aiming at re-qualifying urban spaces by involving the citizens in these activities.

The Accademia Filarmonica

The musician M. Fulvio Angius is the present head of this institution, which is among the most active in Bologna with Concert seasons of prestige, Conference series for the diffusion of music among the wide public, Specialisation courses, Musicological conventions and exhibitions organised in its own museum in order to valorise its precious archives, now being newly filed so that they can be consulted on-line.

This year the Accademia has started the Project “Invitation to music listening: Journey through the history of Music from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century”, organised with the sponsorship of the City Council and of the other local bodies. The initiative concerns the performance of concerts and lessons and will involve 700 students.