Musica

Published in Florence from September 1942 to May 1943 by the publisher Sansoni as an intended annual basis, Musica [RIPM code MCZ] consists of two volumes — Musica I and Musica II — which consist of 271 and 282 pages respectively.

The periodical was born during the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and had the intention — stated by the publisher in the preface to Issue 1 — to address an increasingly wide, cultured and sensitive audience so as to spread knowledge of music in all the artistic fields to which it is related, while at the same time trying to fill any musical gaps in the reader's knowledge. The activity of the publishing house, founded in 1873 by Giulio Cesare Sansoni, focused almost exclusively on literature until the 1930s, especially school and university texts. In 1932, the philosopher Giovanni Gentile, minister of education in the first Mussolini government, acquired all shares in the publishing house and expanded the publications to historical and philosophical disciplines, including periodicals.

The journal is primarily structured as a collection of essays aimed at presenting the contemporary artistic and musical scene. Such long-form contributions are signed by nationally renowned critics, composers, musicologists and historians such as Guido Pannain, Luigi Ronga, Andrea Della Corte, Ulderico Rolandi, Mario Labroca, Antonio Capri, Sebastiano Arturo Luciani, Guido Gatti, Massimo Mila, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Carlo Holl, Alfredo Casella, Lele D’Amico, Gastone Rossi-Doria, Aurel Millos (dance), Enrico Prampolini (scenography), Luigi Colacicchi, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Attilio Cimbro, Bettina Lupo, Paul Collaer, Gino Damerini, Luigi Dallapiccola, Bernardo Previtali, Adelmo Damerini, Ferdinando Ballo, Goffredo Petrassi, and Jean Binet.

The first issue of MCZ devotes no less than 70 pages to Gioachino Rossini: his conception of melodramma and reception by critics and audiences, Rossini's vocalism, his librettos and collaborating librettists. This is followed by an extensive homage to Luigi Cherubini on the centenary of his death by Antonio Capri. Enrico San Martino Valperga reports on the musical life of Rome, with a focus on its musical institutions.  A founder in 1922 of the National Union of Concerts at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Valperga was also chairman of the board of the Teatro Reale dell'Opera in Rome. Other well-represented topics in this periodical include German music theater, treated in Carlo Holl's essay, and Italian instrumental music in relation to European music in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, by Alfredo Casella. Gastone Rossi-Doria discusses the genre of folk song and its value as an educational tool and for religious and political dissemination.

The periodical's openness to other arts, treated in their connection with music and especially with musical theater, is exemplified by essays on dance disciplines by the choreographer Aurel Millos, on contemporary stage design by the set designer Enrico Prampolini, and on various cultural-historical aspects of music presented by Luigi Colacicchi. To provide a panorama of Italian musical cultural reality, Mario Labroca illustrates the nation's entire system of operatic theater: the education and training of young artists, theatrical institutions, orchestras, choirs, and the difficulties of young professionals. Ottavio Tiby also offers a reflection on contemporary reality at the conclusion of the year 1942, through data tables provided by the SIAE (Società Italiana Autori ed Editori).

Musica II (1943) devotes more than half of its pages to the composer Claudio Monteverdi on the three-hundredth anniversary of his death. Subjects of analysis are his compositional art; his sacred, secular, operatic and vocal production; the city of Venice that welcomed him professionally into its social and cultural milieu; and the orchestral instruments used by the composer. The column Cronache e rassegne, by Adelmo Damerini, reports on the activities of the eighth Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival, and afterwards Luigi Colacicchi discusses the season of the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. Other correspondents are Ferdinando Ballo for Milan, Goffredo Petrassi for Venice, Virgilio Mortari for Siena, and Jean Binet for Switzerland.

Musica is rich in illustrative plates included in the various essays: portraits, photographs, stage sketches, reproductions of frontispieces, and period prints.

This RIPM index was produced from a copy of the journal held by the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University.