español | français Marin Marais Domenico Zipoli: The double life of Domenico Zipoli 10 CDs for a desert island : Vincent Dumestre Alan Curtis Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin Víctor Torres The saddest song The English ‘Classical’ Organ   53 - 52 - 51 - 50 - 49 - 48 - 47 - 46 - 45 - 44 - 43 - 42 - 41 - 40 - 39 - 38 - 37 - 36 - 35 - 34 - 33 - 32 - 31 - 30 - 29 - 28 - 27 - 26 - 25 - 24 - 23 - 22 - 21 - 20 - 19 - 18 - 17 - 16 - 15 - 14 - 13 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 09 - 08 - 07 - 06 - 05 - 04 - 03 - 02 - 01 - DOMENICO ZIPOLI: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF DOMENICO ZIPOLI Zipoli the American The Jesuits recruited many composers to work on settlements in Paraguay from the beginning of the seventeenth-century until the order’s expulsion in 1767. Among them were Jean Vaisseau Louis Berger, the Tirolese composer Antonio Sepp -who played a very important role as a pedagogue in the missions from 1691 to 1733-, Martin Schmid -who was also the architect-constructor of various churches of the region- and the Austrian Florian Paucke. But Zipoli was the most renowned composer to join the Jesuits and to move to the New World. During his lifetime, his works were reclaimed from the most remote places and the viceroy of Peru, who resided in Lima, even requested them by mail. There is no information confirming that he was offered the post of maestro di cappella organist of the Jesuit church in the province of Córdoba (today Argentina), but this was precisely his destination upon arriving. In relation to Domenico’s musical activity in Córdoba, Father Pedro Lozano, the author of his obituary, states: “His extreme interest led to the celebration of feasts with musical accompaniment…with incredible satisfaction on the part of both the Spanish and the neophytes. Elated by the pleasure of listening to him, an immense multitude filled our church on all the solemn festivities”. By 1724, eight years after his arrival, Zipoli had completed his theological studies, but he had to wait before being ordained because the bishop’s headquarters in Córdoba were vacant. Judging by his American output, he seems to have passed the time composing. Despite certain knowledge of the existence of sacred works composed during his European period (the above mentioned Santa Catalina and San Antonio de Padua oratorios), today they are lost, making it impossible to carry out a comparative analysis of his predominantly liturgical American output. The expressiveness of his American works was specifically designed to fulfil an evangelising role. Conveniently adapting his works to the means available, Zipoli simplified his resources, working in a predominantly homophonic style employing basic harmonies and elemental orchestration in the style of pedagogical music. Besides the omission of the bass voice (rare among the indigenous), the music uses rhetoric to emphasise the evangelising message of the text. The solutions chosen by the composer are half way between the aesthetic complexity of the late baroque and a need for simplification in pursuit of the indigenous population, the only available performers on the missions. In America, as the researcher Bernardo Illari notes, “he went from being a religious composer to a member of a religious order who composed”. At the end of the 1930s when the musicologist Francisco Curt Lange first took a critical interest in Domenico Zipoli, he still had doubts as to whether “a certain brother Domingo Zipoli, organist of the Jesuit Church of Córdoba, was the same Zipoli who composed the Sonate d’intavolatura… Sick with tuberculosis, he was transferred to the Santa Catalina settlement located just north of Córdoba, but his illness worsened and he died in 1726. His remains were buried in the cemetery adjoining the mission church. Coincidentally, the province of Córdoba played host to two of the greatest European composers who sought its dry and mountainous climate to cure their illness. As well as being Zipoli’s last resting place, two centuries later, it was to become that of Manuel de Falla. Biography Work catalogue Discography Goldberg Articles ABOUT US | CONTRIBUTE   web map - home page - cover Legal warning Copyright 2003, Goldberg. info@goldberg-magazine.com