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L'Arte musicale

(Palermo, 1898)

Prepared by Laura Surian
Online only (2025)

L’Arte musicale [RIPM code LAM] was published in Palermo at the Tipografia Cooperativa fra gli Operai—Piazza Croce dei Vespri, Campofranco, 8—on a fortnightly basis on the third Sunday of each month. The journal lived a short life, from 9 March to 4 June 1898 only, for a total of six issues, separately page numbered.

The editor and director was Giuseppe Aglialoro, who did not declare his intentions or aims for the journal, though an introductory article was contributed by Alberto Favara which expressed the vital need for modern music to return to the values of simplicity and authenticity proper to popular song. The valorization of traditional music, and its role in the constitution of a national musical identity, are among the topics most strongly supported in L’Arte musicale.

L'Arte musicale appeared during a period of turmoil in the Kingdom of Italy, with popular insurrection movements developing from January to July 1898 due to conditions of severe poverty. The uprisings in Milan, culminating in the four days of revolt in May 1898, led to the suspension of performances at the Teatro alla Scala from 7 to 16 December, following the end of a subsidy from the city council. In this socio-political situation, Italian musical production was troubled, especially when compared with German and Austrian production. L’Arte musicale describes this though the topical reports of Guglielmo Zuelli, who identifies the causes of this musical inadequacy with a lack of attention paid by the music schools, which alone do not have the economic sufficiency to increase investment and thus raise the Italian cultural-musical level. However, 1898 was also the year of the Italian General Exhibition in Turin, at which, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Albertine Statute, composition competitions were announced and a full orchestra was hired by the executive committee of the Exhibition, with conductor Arturo Toscanini. L’Arte musicale documents this event by publishing the orchestra list in the fourth issue.

Aglialoro was a vocal and literature teacher at the Instituto dei Ciechi “Florio,” Liceo Musicale Femminile “A. Scarlatti,” and the Instituto Musicale “Luigi Cherubini” in Palermo. In 1891 he was a member of the examination committee for the Concorso della Canzone Siciliana, announced by the singer Tina Whitaker, which aspired to include Palermo into a network of national musical competitions. Similar themes characterized the interests of Alberto Favara, a regular contributor to L’Arte musicale where he published a series of articles on popular song (“Il Canto populare nell’arte”). Born in Salemi (Trapani) on 1 March 1863, he studied harmony and composition in Palermo and Milan before returning to Sicily, devoting himself to teaching, conducting, and the study of popular music. Another regular collaborator was Guglielmo Zuelli, a friend of Aglialoro. Born in Reggio Emilia on 20 October 1859 and educated in Bologna, he became a conductor and won numerous prizes as a composer. From 1894 he taught composition at the Conservatory in Palermo and became director in 1895, turning around the fortunes of the institution, renewing teaching programs, strengthening orchestral and choral ensembles, and organizing concert programs of composers never performed in Sicily.

The journal demonstrates an openness to the thought and art of the composer Richard Wagner whose correspondence with August Röckel (twelve letters of Wagner to Röckel) were published in installments from the first issue, with a preface by Houston Steward Chamberlain. Other correspondence published in the first three issues is that between Vincenzo Bellini and Filippo Santocanale, edited by Francesco Guardione, focusing on the score for I Puritani.

The character of openness towards the world of contemporary musical thought, very much connected to Wagner, is clear in Francesco Paolo Mulé’s article “Il libretto per musica,” published in the second issue of L’Arte musicale and addressed to Aglialoro, in which the realism of modern librettos is negatively criticized, reveals a closure towards that musical current – Verismo – inherent in many contemporary theatrical works. However, the journal appears willing to embrace naturalism in music: see Pietro Lo Jacono Levante’s article “Sui rapport estetici tra le diverse espressioni artistiche nel naturalismo” in issue 6.

Regular rubrics include: “Opere nuove,” with premieres from around the world; “Rassegna letteraria” which reviews new publications; “Concorsi,” announced by the journal. Musical supplements (“La nostra musica”), all five of which are included in the RIPM Index, are noted.

This RIPM Index was produced from a copy of the journal held by the Conservatorio “Alessandro Scarlatti” in Palermo.

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