Bologna città della musica
The musical history and tradition of Bologna

• -> the origins
• -> the eighteenth century
• -> the nineteenth century
• -> the twentieth century

In the 19th century, with the dissolution of the church chapel choir and the creation of the Liceo Musicale of the city, the Accademia became a sort of honorary association that aggregated by acclamation famous musicians of the European scene: above all Gioacchino Rossini (already “approved” among the singers in 1806, when he was only fourteen), Niccolò Paganini, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Franz Liszt, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Camille Saint-Saëns, Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni and Maurice Ravel, and among the singing virtuosi Isabella Colbran, Giuditta Pasta and Maria Malibran.

The activity of the academies, whose members were noblemen of Bologna or very famous musicians, consisted mainly in the organisation of musical operas, tragedies, comedies, oratorios and amateur instrumental performances. And thanks to the academies, the private theatres located in the houses of the aristocrats, next to the major theatres open to the public, experienced a very lively opera activity.

Not only. Bologna could not exclude from its Honorary Maestros two of the greatest musicians of the 19th century: Giuseppe Verdi, the most important Italian opera composer, the most popular one, the artist symbol of great melodies and of dramatic force, and Richard Wagner, the German musician-poet who more than anybody else represented the romantic attitude brought to its extreme consequences, creator of difficult operas where words, music and stage representation are merged together.

Gioacchino Rossini had a prolific and long lasting relation with Bologna. The young musician had begun studying composition and was admitted to the Accademia when he was only fifteen. In 1814 the composer made his debut at the Comunale with Tancredi, and in 1821 Bologna staged The Barber of Seville. Moreover, in Bologna Rossini wrote the Stabat Mater, performed for the first time in 1843 under the conduction of Gaetano Donizetti. The Accademia, of which Rossini became president in 1852, still preserves many memorabilia, among which the largely autograph manuscript of the Cinderella and a pencil drawing by G. Doré, portraying the composer on his deathbed.

At the same time, thanks to the efforts of some members, first of all of the abbey Masseangelo Masseangeli, the bibliographic heritage of Father Martini and of the Liceo Filarmonico was enriched by important bequests, donations and music funds, that nowadays still build, together with other scores and older documents, a precious heritage of documents. The institution welcomed also the most famous musicologists of the 19th century, such as Luigi Torchi, Gaetano Gaspari and Federico Parisini, who took care of the heritage and studied it with expertise.

Towards the end of the century (1899), Bologna welcomed as member of the Liceo also Giacomo Puccini, creator of many other opera pages that were able to renew the Italian melodrama, without betraying its spirit.

In the archives of the institute there is a file of autograph minutes of the Madame Butterfly, which was discovered in the spring of 1945.

During the 19th century, Bologna witnessed also the re-flourishing of the luthier’s art, thanks to the work of Raffaele Fiorini and Otello Bignami, masters who resumed and develop the handcraft tradition of medieval origin in the capital of Emilia.

Luca Maler (1485 – 1552) and Hans Frei (1505 – 1565), two craftsmen of German origin, who established their workshop in Bologna, were known with the name of “magistri leutarum” and were considered the best lute makers in Europe for the very high quality of their instruments and for the fundamental innovations they introduced in this art.

Recovering tradition, the masters of Bologna managed to create a school of luthiers that were considered, together with the masters of Cremona, among the best makers of string instruments of the Italian 20th century[To the big luthier tradition of Bologna, the City dedicated in 2002 an exhibition of string instruments which was called "Il suono di Bologna (The sound of Bologna)", promoted by the Association “Gruppo Liuteria Bolognese” (Bologna Luthier Group)]. The most famous pupil of Fiorini’s luthier school is Augusto Pollastri, whose total production of instruments, although not very large, is considered exceptional, and as a matter of fact, the number of imitations and of fakes present on the market is much higher than that of the original instruments.

Bologna was also the place of birth of Ottorino Respighi (1879 – 1936), one of the greatest Italian musicians and composers of symphonic music, who opened the Italian music tradition and melodrama to the Austrian and German instrumental music. When he was very young, Respighi began to practice the violin and the counterpoint at the Music Liceo of his city, and then got his diploma in Composition. His first big success was the opera Semirâma, represented for the first time ever at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna in 1910; in the same year he was appointed member of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna. Respighi added to innovation the recovery of the most ancient musical traditions, the Gregorian chant and the old music of the Renaissance. The Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale (Musical Bibliographical City Museum) of Bologna preserves a great number of manuscripts of the works of the young Respighi; and the Accademia preserves the piano on which Respighi composed The Fountains and The Pine-trees of Rome, donated in 1956.