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.
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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.
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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.
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