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Music for Arches and Arcades: notes for a musical itinerary in Bologna |
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Charles de Brosses in 1740 defined Bologna 'the great seminary of Italian music'.
The city has always been a cradle of the several musical expressions (liturgic, goliardic, Jewish) until playing, especially between 17th and 19th century, a role of education and therefore of attraction for numerous and important artists of European reputation.
Personalities like Mozart, Liszt, Mendelssohn do not miss a stop in Bologna during the stages of the inevitable travel to Italy. Others like Farinelli, Rossini and Donizetti choose it as a residence for shorter or longer periods of their life instead. Let's go through the alleys and streets of the historical centre in order to retrace their presence and 'sketch' (without any pretension to be exhaustive) a musical itinerary in the past and present Bologna. |
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Bologna Turismo | Basilica di San Petronio, Piazza Maggiore.
In occasion of Saint Petronio's festivity in 1436, Pope Eugene IV formally institutes a prestigious musical chapel in the main church of Bologna, whose style orchestrated with solo instruments, choirs and trumpets gains European reputation especially in the second half of '600. The precious artistic jewels, like the choir by Agostino de' Marchi, inlaid between 1467 and 1479, and the miniature choir books composed for the liturgy (some from the 15th and 16th centuries are exposed in the inside museum of the basilica) witness this uninterrupted musical activity which extinguished at the beginning of the 20th century. On the right of the altar, the most ancient, still active, organ of remarkable dimensions, as well as the first one with independent registers, deserves a special attention. It was created between 1471 and 1475 by Lorenzo di Giacomo from Prato. Anciently, it was covered with the panels painted by Amico Aspertini with scenes of life of St. Petronio in 1531 (they are currently visible in the eleventh chapel of the left aisle). At the end of 16th century, the addition of a second organ on the left by Baldassarre Malamini inaugurates music orchestrated with two or more choirs.
For opening hours see >>> List of the most interesting churches in Bologna. |
Moreover Piazza Maggiore is surrounded by some of the most important city bells destined to mark, since the Middle Ages, the rhythm of civil and religious events.
In the Arengo tower (Torre dell'Arengo) by Aristotele Fioravanti the largest bell of Bologna (approximately 47 quintals) was arranged in 1453, in order to summon the citizenship in occasion of political or social events. Ten years before a bell, ringing every hour, was put on the clock tower (Torre dell'Orologgio) in the municipal palace. Finally, since the second half of the 16th century, inside St. Petronio bell tower (Campanile di San Petronio), it was arranged a particular fitting system which had four bells ringing all together with a spin to 360°. This specific bell art 'alla bolognese' -Bologna style- has still been handing on from father to son.
Arengo tower, Clock tower and St. Petronio bell tower: externally visible only. | Photo:
Alessandro Salomoni |
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Bologna Turismo | Going along via Zamboni from the two Towers, you come to Piazza Gioacchino Rossini at number 2. The dedication to the musician from Pesaro, who studied and lived for a long time in the city, is not accidental. Next to St. Giacomo Church, between the walls of the Augustinian friars' ex-monastery, the bicentenary Liceo Filarmonico is still active, born exactly in 1804 from the Municipality and the Accademia Filarmonica's unanimous will to endow the city with an authoritative musical school. In 1808-09 a young Gioacchino Rossini was one of the first students to climb the spectacular grand staircase designed in 1752 by A. Torreggiani and to follow the lessons in the ancient friars' cells. In the famous "Sala Bossi" concerts by the fifteen years old Rossini and by his first wife, the singer Isabella Colbran, took place. In 1942 the school became a public institution: the Music Conservatory "Giovanni Battista Martini", seat of the Civic Musical Bibliographical Museum (library). The dedication remembers the Franciscan father from Bologna who achieved European fame for his musical learning, the counterpoint teaching and his extraordinary iconographical and bibliographical collection.
Conservatory is open from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., tel. 051 221483; Sala Bossi is visible in occasion of concerts only, or depending on availability. |
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Bologna Turismo | The arcades in Renaissance style of St. Giacomo Church lead to number 15, Zamboni Street, the entrance to St. Cecilia Oratory. In spite of the name of oratory and the dedication to the saint, who will be recognised as protector of music since the beginning of the 16th century, a musical activity has not been historically attested inside this place. Nevertheless, it is worth stopping to admire the cycle of frescoes realised by Giovanni II Bentivoglio's court artists (F. Francia, L. Costa, A. Aspertini and collaborators), authentic jewel of the Renaissance painting survived to the city historical events.
For opening hours see >>> List of the most interesting oratories in Bologna. | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
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Bologna Turismo | In fact, the magnificent Bentivoglio Palace did not have the same fortune and was destroyed during a riot in 1507. In its place the Teatro Comunale (Municipal Theatre) was built, the first theatre appointed for the city solemn performances, which was inaugurated with a Gluck's opera in 1763. Its location, via Zamboni no. 30, was then destined to become the heart of the university area. The planner, the set designer Antonio Galli Bibiena, was questioned by Bologna academic culture for the choice to adopt a brickwork construction and for the solution of the bell-shaped plan. The originally proposed wooden model, visible inside the theatre, has not been completely realised but neither the restorations nor the adaptations of the following centuries have compromised the eighteenth-century structure, which is one of the few survived in the region. The façade instead has been looking incomplete for two centuries as St. Petronio's one, until a terrace, still practicable, was added in 1931. Numerous among Rossini's operas were performed here and in 1850 Giuseppe Verdi, whom the facing square in front of the theatre is dedicated to, successfully directed Luisa Miller première. The composer from Busseto, ideal interpreter of the patriotic feelings, is also portrayed in some engravings conserved inside the Museum of Risorgimento (19th-century movement for Italian national unity and independence). Nevertheless, the Teatro Comunale is mostly famous for the Wagnerian devotion of its directors (A. Mariani, L. Mancinelli, G. Martucci), who, since the performance of Lohengrin in 1871, made it the stage of almost all the Italian premières of the German innovative romantic composer. Not even escapes to the historical report the shame of the slap to the "maestro" Arturo Toscanini who, in 1931, refused to direct a concert starting with the fascist hymn "Giovinezza" (Youth).
The Theatre is visible during the performances and the visits organised by the guides associations. |
Just a few steps from the Teatro Comunale walking along via De' Castagnoli, there is a worth seeing luthier's workshop in via Belle Arti, in which the luthier's art technique of Bologna has still been handing on. This art of making stringed instruments rose in Bologna in 15th century thanks to some German craftsmen presence in the city. Some differences in the models and in the phases of the construction process differentiates it from the classical art of lute making from Cremona and bring Bologna to achieve the role of important productive centre in the first half of 16th century.
On the way back to the theatre you can now stop at Palazzo Poggi, via Zamboni 33, where the Musei Universitari - main University Museums - are located. On the first floor you can admire Niccolò dell'Abbate's paintings of the mid 1500's, refined scenes of social life and episodes of Hercules's life. Ladies and gentlemen wearing elegant contemporary clothes are playing cards and attending a concert surrounded by roses and flowered jasmines (Concert Hall).
For opening hours see >>> List of the University Museums. | |
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Bologna Turismo | Ottorino Respighi, considered one of the most representative Italian authors of the symphonic and theatrical school, had his Studio in the street with the same name next to the theatre.
Going towards via St. Vitale, through via G. Petroni, you can see palazzo Fantuzzi (8, via Guido Reni), one of the most sumptuous senatorial palaces in Bologna as well as Respighi's birth place. On this brick building there is a commemorative inscription which remembers the musician.
Ottorino Respighi's birth place is a private property, externally visible only. |
Vicolo Fantuzzi leads to Piazza S. Michele which is nearby Gioacchino Rossini's house, Strada Maggiore at number 26.
Considering the number of apartments in which his parents and the musician himself lived (house at the no. 100 in 1804, Palazzo Raffanini at no. 18 since 1823 and Palazzo Belvedere at no. 32 between 1816-22), this can really be considered Rossini family's favourite street. The master bought this house in 1822, next to the one of his friend marchese Sampieri, and he restructured it according to his taste and his family requirements. On the classical styled façade, planned by architect F. Santini, are musical references, as well as the Ciceronian epigram "Non domo dominus, sed domino domus" which continues on the side wall with two verses from Virgil's Aeneid.
Gioacchino Rossini's house is a private property, externally visible only. | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
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Bologna Turismo
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Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica | After his father Giuseppe's death, who lived here for a few years in a difficult cohabitation with his daughter in law Isabella Colbran, in 1838 the master decides to sell the palace, full of too many memories, and to move to the near Palazzo Aldini Sanguinetti in Strada Maggiore number 34, as a guest of the tenor Domenico Donzelli.
In this splendid residence, formerly belonged to the Riario family, Rossini lives with his second wife Olimpia Pélissier, during the last years of his stay in Bologna (1846-51). During the years of independence riots of 1848 some unpleasant episodes of political nature take place and deteriorate his relationship with the city. The master, famous as gourmet but not as an open opposer of the Austrians, is so strongly contested that he decides to leave the town forever.
The 16th cent. building structure, to which a spectacular grand staircase was added to, takes a neoclassical look between the 18th and the 19th century under the direction of architect G. B. Martinetti, who assigns some of the main Napoleonic artists to the decoration work. The suggestive rooms decorated by V. Martinelli, P. Pelagi, S. Barozzi and A. Basoli ideally frame the newly-born Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della musica - International Music Museum and Library -, inaugurated in 2004 according to the family Sanguinetti last heir's will, who gave to the Municipality great part of the building. The visitor is welcomed by the vision of a trompe l'oeil garden at the entry's courtyard, the surprising effect occurs again in the first room of the piano nobile with sylvan decorations. Here the mythical singer Orpheus introduces the visitor to the route of the Museum, which goes over five hundred years of western music history through the collections from Bologna. Remarkably enriched from the original consistency of the eighteenth century, the central nucleus is constituted from the bibliographical collection and the picture gallery of Father G. B. Martini. Here a library of approximately 110.000 volumes will be transferred, one of the first musical libraries in the world. An important madrigal fund, the first musical printed book of 1501 and the autographs of Claudio Monteverdi are part of this library.
From the picture gallery we cite only some important pictures (library of G. M. Crespi, portrait of J.C. Bach, only painting by T. Gainsbourgh in the southern Europe). Another section is dedicated to the reconstruction of the laboratory of lute maker's shop of Otello Bignami, while other spaces are dedicated to laboratories, temporary expositions, concerts and events which propose the museum as a polyfunctional place in which music is watched, read, listened to and learned.
For opening hours see >>> List of Museums and Collections. |
In Strada Maggiore at no. 44, the powerful telamons that support the portal of Palace Davia Bargellini sign the entrance to the museum with the same name in which a harpsichord realised in 1729 by U. A. Traeri is conserved, with four wooden robots that stroked the hours in the fifteenth century clock of the Communal Palace (replaced by the present one in 1773).
Museo Davia Bargellini.
For opening hours see >>> List of Museums and Collections.
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Bologna Turismo | The organ with mechanical transmission, masterpiece of the Tamburini company (1967), deserves a particular mention and it is situated in Strada Maggiore no. 43, next to the Church of Santa Maria dei Servi.
It is equipped with 5000 canes and 60 registries and it is still protagonist of numerous concerts. A celebrated musical chapel beside the sacristy is evidence of the long musical tradition of the basilica, that culminates in the seventeenth century with the presence of four organs.
For opening hours see: List of the most interesting Churches | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
Accademia Filarmonica - Philharmonic Academy, 13, via Guerrazzi.
In the palace of the nobleman Vincenzo M. Carrati is founded in 1666 a corporation of professionals musicians destined to play a "certification of excellence" role in musical field. The patent issued by the Academy was considered such a title of great prestige that in 1770 even the fourteen years old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart underwent the strict entrance exam, but only after having followed the lessons of counterpoint by father G. B. Martini. The three copies of the test would demonstrate as the Franciscan father would have facilitated the exam of the enfant prodige from Salzburg correcting himself some errors before the handing in. However he passed with the lowest necessary mark (Sufficiente) in order to exercise the profession of chapel maestro.
The room where the organ of Carlo Traeri from Brescia (1673) is conserved is entitled to his name, the organ was very likely used by Mozart too. Other important components of the academy, just in order to cite some of them, were Farinelli, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini, Liszt, Brahms and, in our century, honoris causa Riccardo Muti and Claudio Abbado. On a project of the latter the Mozart Orchestra is founded in the November 2004, a promise of young talents under the aegis of the Academy itself.
Museo dell'Accademia Filarmonica - Museum of the Philharmonic Academy.
Tel. 051 222997, visits for groups on appointment (admission free) | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
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Bologna Turismo | Moving from via Guerrazzi to via St. Stefano number 31 you can see the façade of the Teatro del Corso. Here a thirteen years old Rossini debuts as a singer, just after the inauguration of the theatre in 1805, playing Adolph in the "Camilla" by F. Paer. The theatre laid the end of the stage on the wall of the near St. Giovanni in Monte Church, before being destroyed by the bombing raid in 1944. This theatre shared with the Communal Theatre a prominent role in the city opera performances.
St. Giovanni in Monte, 3, Piazza St. Giovanni in Monte.
According to the English historian Charles Burney, on the 30th August 1770 Mozart is present with his father Leopold in the crowded church at a competition of sacred music among ten composers of the Accademia Filarmonica. At that time in the chapel of the blessed soul Elena Duglioli they could still admire the original painting by Raffaello representing the Ecstasy of St. Cecilia (today visible in the Pinacoteca - Bologna National Picture Gallery). Franz Listz, passing in Bologna in 1837 during his first travel to Italy, is bewitched by this painting about the protector of music, where the earthly musical instruments lay on the ground overwhelmed by the harmony of the divine music.
For opening hours see: List of the most interesting Churches |
The House of Gaetano Donizetti is in via Pepoli at number 1. Thanks to the support of his teacher Simone Mayr, Donizetti, native of Bergamo, arrives to Bologna in order to improve his musical studies. From 1815 to 1817 he lodges in this narrow street hosted by Tommaso Marchesi, teacher at the Liceo Musicale - Music School - and, with the guidance of Stanislao Mattei, he composes his first works of sacred and profane subject.
Casa di Gaetano Donizetti - House of G. Donizetti.
Private property, externally visible only. | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
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Bologna Turismo | Continuing along via Farini, walking through via Garibaldi, you can reach St. Domenico Church in piazza St. Domenico number 13. In this church you can admire the remains of the founder of the Dominicans inside the marvellous sculpture by Nicolò dell'Arca and the wooden choir realised between 1528 and 1551 by Fra' Damiano da Bergamo. The choir is considered by the contemporaries as the 8th wonder of the world and is one of the last inlaid masterpieces of the late Renaissance. In the scenes of the Old and New Testaments the virtuosity of the architectonic perspectives prevails over the novelistic intent. Some musical representations are worth seeing, such as the one on the right side where David transports to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant leading a parade of Jews who dance and sing. Wonderful still lives representing musical instruments decorate also the counter of the lectern for big choral books (some of them, dating back to the 14th century, are in the Museum) which lays in the middle of the choir.
For opening hours see: List of the most interesting Churches |
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Bologna Turismo | Palazzo dell'Archiginnasio, 1, Piazza Galvani.
A stop at the first seat of the University in Bologna is a must, although the building is partially in restoration until December 2004. Climbing the old staircase "dei legisti" on the left you can find the entrance of the Aula Magna of the Law students. Its name is "Stabat Mater" in memory of the solemn representation of the second version of the sacred opera in 1842, completely set to music by Rossini in the years of his stay in Bologna. When the maestro is practically at the end of his career of composer and is engaged to reform the Liceo Musicale as a honorary counsellor, he can't face the emotion
while watching the première directed by Donizetti and goes back home, where he is applauded by an enthusiastic crowd under the house balcony.
For opening times see>>> List of Villas, Historical Residences and Palaces of Bologna |
From Piazza Galvani you can reach Piazza dei Celestini crossing Corte dei Galluzzi. On the right side of the square starts via St. Margherita, where Carlo Broschi called Farinelli chose his city residence at number 6. We have very few evidences about the most famous castrated singer of the 18th century, even if he lived the last twenty melancholic years of his life in our city. He left the stage when he was only 32 years old after meeting with a great success in the best European theatres and badly concluding the stay at the court of Spain. The artist sought comfort in his country house in via Zanardi number 31(today destroyed) regretting the past glories and receiving the visit of personalities and musicians who passed through the city. A painting of Corrado Giaquinto, now at the Music Museum, portrays him in 1755 at the height of his glory in an aristocratic pose wearing the cloak of the order of Calatrava, that was the highest honour King of Spain Ferdinand 6th conferred upon him.
Casa di Farinelli - House of Farinelli is a private property, externally visible only. | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
The prestigious Palace Marescotti Brazzetti, in via Barberia no. 4, currently in restoration, hosts the first university course in musical studies (CIMES), instituted in 1982 to show the city has not lost its musical vocation as cradle of talents and music connoisseurs.
Convent of St. Francesco, Piazza S. Francesco.
Giovanni Battista Martini was born in a typical bologna-style house few hundreds metres far from this square in via Pietralata no. 57 and soon became a Franciscan friar, who lived his life of religious and musical erudite in this convent. Here he collects his library of beyond 17.000 volumes including publications , manuscripts and opera librettos and a picture gallery of approximately 300 portraits of musicians and music connoisseurs. In four rooms of the convent he reconstructs a monumental music history in which texts and images are linked by a indissoluble relationship. His encyclopaedic culture, by now become of European reputation, attracts students like W. A. Mozart and J. Christian Bach, last son of the celebrated Sebastian. In his cell, unfortunately destroyed, he teaches, is visited by Italian and European masters passing in the city and corresponds with renowned political and cultural personalities. He is buried here in 1784 as remembered by the inscription in the first right aisle of the church.
Father Stanislao Mattei, the spiritual and material heir of Martini, also works in the Franciscan convent. He is a strict teacher at the Liceo Musicale of G. Donizetti and G. Rossini, the latter ironically nicknamed by the friar "tedeschino" - "tiny German" because of his passion for Haydn, and he is the providential saver of the maestro's bibliographical collection and picture gallery. He succeeds in becoming Rossini's personal heir and moves most of the collection in his house in via Nosadella no. 38; he also manages to save it from the Napoleonic confiscation of ecclesiastic goods.
Father G.B. Martini's birthplace and S. Mattei's house are private property, externally visible only.
For opening times of St. Francesco Church see: List of the most interesting Churches | Photo:
Bologna Turismo |
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Bologna Turismo | Palazzo Pallavicini - Pallavicini Palace. In the representation hall in the palace of via S. Felice no. 24, Count Gian Luca Pallavicini organised on the 26th March 1770 a concert in which Mozart, just arrived in the city, played in front of a public of 150 people, among which was Father Martini. The façade dates partially back to the late eighteenth century restorations that saved only the terracotta cornice of the fourteenth century decoration. The magnificence of the dwelling where the musician exhibits was due to the spectacular baroque staircase planned by Paolo Canali and to its frescoes by G. A. Burrini at the piano nobile.
Pallavicini Palace is a private property externally visible only. |
| Some stores have played an important role in the city musical history or they make this tradition still alive. Coming back to the centre in via Ugo Bassi no. 31/f there is the shop of Bongiovanni musical editor. In the original store of the beginning of the 20th cent. in via Rizzoli, a goliardic circle of musicians met. From their discussions was born the idea of the first work of Ottorino Respighi, Re Enzo, represented at the Teatro del Corso in 1905, with the help of the university students. Near Ugo Bassi statue Caffè Verdi was founded, one of the many "caffè chantant" that abounded in the city between the end of the 19th cent. and the First World War. Here it was possible to have a drink while listening to concerts or assisting to other shows. Towards the end of the '40es a deep-felt jazz tradition, still alive today thanks to some bars in via Mascarella and via Polese, attracts big artists like Duke Ellington, B.B. King and Miles Davis. Some of them, like the trumpet player Chet Baker are usual guests of the city at the end of the '50es. Some of the artists that still make Bologna a music friendly city are: Lucio Dalla, Gianni Morandi, Francesco Guccini, Luca Carboni, gli Stadio, Cesare Cremonini for the pop music, Andrea Mingardi and gli Skiantos for the rock music or the basso Ruggero Raimondi in the lyric music and the Zecchino D'Oro of the Antoniano for the choir music. |
Among the choir traditions is worth quoting in particular the Church of St. Cristina in Piazzetta Morandi, that has been defined "machine à musique" thanks to the sound amplifier effect of a space behind the main altar. From here from the beginning of the 17th century the music and the songs of the enclosed nuns were diffused.
Chiesa di S. Cristina - Church of St. Cristina.
The Church of St. Cristina, currently in restoration, is not visible. The recently restored cloister, that will host the University Visual Art Department together with other institutions from October 2004, is visible from Mon. to Fri. from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (possible variations in visiting hours) |
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Bologna Turismo | Chiesa di S. Michele in Bosco - Church of St. Michele in Bosco. Piazzale S. Michele in Bosco. Worth noting inside is the great organ realised in 1509 by G. B. Facchetti from Brescia with elegant classical decorations of some years after. The choir of the church, inlaid by Fra' Raffaele from Brescia (1513-21) with still lives representing musical instruments is instead destroyed during the napoleonic abolition and readapted at the beginning of the 19th cent. in St. Petronio Church, where it is still visible in the fourth chapel on the right side. At the beginning of the 17th cent. when the monk A. Banchieri founded the musical academy dei Floridi inside the convent, Ludovico Carracci and his students frescoed in the octagonal cloister the history of St. Cecilia and Valeriano, nowadays very damaged.
For opening times see>>> List of the most interesting Churches |
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Bologna Turismo | Villa Gandolfi Pallavicini, via Martelli 22/24, in Croce del Biacco. This country house of the Count Pallavicini guests a young Mozart with his father in some rooms of the first floor from 10th August to 1st October 1770 during the preparation of the admission examination for the Accademia Filarmonica.
The visit to the park and to the ground floor of the villa is possible on a written request (villapallavicini@ceur.it, tel. 051 2091414) |
| by Redazione Turistica IAT. Last modification: | |
 3 December 2009 |
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