SIENA – «We have reached the third edition of the rediscovered Chigian international conferences – says Susanna Pasticci, director of the scientific committee of the journal ‘Chigiana’, Journal of Musicological Studies -, whose rebirth, after the long history of the past, is primarily due to the director of the Nicola Sani Academy, which strongly wanted to bring back to life the historic musicological activities of the Chigiana».
And so, until 3 December, the elite of this science, teachers, musicologists and scholars from all over the world gathered in the evocative setting of Palazzo Chigi Saracini for ‘Chigiana Conference 2022’, dedicated to ‘Music and Spirituality from times of the French Revolution’.
This long-standing activity of international events came back to life in 2019 with the resumption of international publications and appointments. An important story full of episodes that deserve to be remembered. It began in 1939 with the volume ‘Antonio Vivaldi. Notes and documents on life and works’, on the occasion of the first edition of the ‘Settimana Musicale Senese’ festival, today available for online consultation, like the other volumes of the first series of the historic journal, on the Accademia Chigiana website. After years of conferences and publications, linked to the artistic programming of the Sienese institution, 1964 arrives, with the beginning of a second series. The Olschki Editions of Florence took over the publication of the magazine and the conference activity of the Accademia Chigiana, strengthened by international recognition. The business was discontinued in 2012.
«In 2019, we started again with the publication of the first volume of the third series – explains Pasticci. – From 2020, we have resumed the annual organization of international conferences, linked to the themes of the Chigiana’s musical and artistic programming. After a first study meeting in 2018 dedicated to Ildebrando Pizzetti, the important symposium dedicated to the philosopher, sociologist and musicologist Theodor W. Adorno was held in 2019; in 2020 it was the turn of the conference on the change of listening in the era of the dominance of the visual. Last year the international conference had as its topic ‘Music and Power in the Long 19th Century’. It is a source of pride to see how the top international experts in the field of musicology always respond enthusiastically to our proposals».
Again this year there were numerous requests for participation from all over the world, selected by the scientific committee. The goal remains to better understand our time, investigating its relationship with the past and with previous centuries. This year, the three-day event explores the impact of the multiple declinations of the concept of spirituality, in terms of creative activity, performance practices or the listening experience, on the musical cultures of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. A path that starts from the French Revolution with a decisive impact on the collective mentality towards religious practices: the start of a process of ‘secularization’ has paved the way for a progressive sacralization of art. In the last two centuries, the interactions of music with a non-dogmatic conception of spirituality have undergone various aesthetic redefinitions. In nineteenth-century sacred music, the syncretic unity of text, music and ritual weakened, leading to the configuration of new balances. In secular repertoires and musical practices, direct references or allusions to the sphere of religion and spirituality have multiplied. Since the 20th century, with a significant decrease in the production of liturgical music, many composers have shown a strong attraction to the sphere of spirituality, often hidden among the ins and outs of a secular and worldly poetic universe.
The musical outcomes of these complex interactions between the sphere of the sacred and that of the non-sacred have yet to be fully explored, to the extent that they intertwine with a series of wide-ranging issues: the relationship of composers with tradition and modernity; the concept of progress as a gradual approach to the idea of perfection; the aesthetic tendency towards abstraction; to arrive at the new dimensions of musical temporality, the interaction between religiosity and national identity processes, and more.
Ribbon-cutting of the works with a dialogue between Franco Cardini, ISUS/SNS professor emeritus, among the greatest historians of the Middle Ages and the writer, journalist and musical reporter of Corriere della Sera Giancarlo Riccio. ‘The celebration of death, between music and politics’, of the opening speech, was entrusted to Simone Caputo of the ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome. After the interventions of James Garratt University of Manchester, and Melita Milin Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, space for the Choir of the Cathedral of Siena ‘Guido Chigi Saracini’, directed by Lorenzo Donati, with the concert in the hall of Palazzo Chigi Saracini.
On the second day, protagonists as speakers Eftychia Papanikolaou Bowling Green State University, Antonio Cascelli Maynooth University, Hedy Law University of British Columbia, Matteo Macinanti and Lorenzo Corsini Sapienza University of Rome, Martin V. Clarke, Open University, Roe-Min Kok McGill University , Candida Felici G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan, Maria Rosa De Luca University of Catania, Federico Gon Giuseppe Tartini Conservatory of Trieste. Finally, on the closing day there were Mila De Santis University of Florence, Brian Inglis Middlesex University London, Graziella Seminara University of Catania, June Boyce-Tillman University of Winchester, Kerry Bunkhall Cardiff University, Stefano Lombardi Vallauri IULM University of Milan, Andrew Shenton Boston University, Massimiliano Locanto University of Salerno, Jan Christiaen University of Leuven, Sonja Wermager Columbia University, Germán Gan-Quesada Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
In the scientific committee of the conference, with the director Susanna Pasticci, Philip V. Bohlman, Simone Caputo, Mila De Santis, Roe-Min Kok, Eftychia Papanikolaou and Andrew Shenton. In the organizing committee, Antonio Artese, Marica Coppola, Stefano Jacoviello, Anna Passarini, Nicola Sani and Samantha Stout (www.chigiana.org).
Music according to the Chigiana Academy. Power yesterday, spirituality today