SATURDAY 21 ST MAY – BAROQUE CONCERT IN THE FORBIDDEN CITY. MUSIC IN THE JESUIT MISSION IN CHINA AT THE TIME OF PAOLO V BORGHESE
Saturday 21st May at 7.00 pm Baroque concert in the forbidden city. Music in the Jesuit missions in China at the time of Paolo V Borghese will be broadcasted from the Galleria Borghese’s Facebook account. On Saturday 21st May at 7.00 pm we will broadcast live from the Galleria Borghese’s Facebook account Baroque concert in the forbidden city. Music in the Jesuit missions in China at the time of Paolo V Borghese. The concert, created and promoted as part of the project “I Borghese e la musica”, launched by the Galleria Borghese last December 2020 to investigate the commissions of the Borghese family to musicians of the XVII and XVIII century, presents a new chapter dedicated to the musical activities of some Catholic missionaries active in Beijing at the beginning of the XVII century, alongside their religious activity.
Some of them, as good instrumentalists and carrying with them instruments used to play at the emperor’s court, were assiduously devoted to music. For example Johann Adam Schall von Bell and above all Teodorico Pedrini (1671-1746, arrived in 1711), a particularly gifted Italian lazarist specially chosen by Rome for his talent.
The scores available to missionaries in China were relatively few. Among these, there is a very interesting collection, the Harmonious Temple of the Blessed Virgin, published in Rome in 1599 by Giovenale Ancina, appointed bishop by Paolo V Borghese, who was interested in China. Even though Ancina did not compose most of the pieces, he collected and adapted them for the needs of the orators, especially those in distant missions. The music is thus simple enough to be sung by non-professional musicians, but it is still elegant, and chosen from the best compositions of contemporaries.
The program is curated by François Picard, musicologist and sinologist, and Jean-Christophe Frisch, who has given birth to numerous publications and founded the Ensemble of the Baroque Nomade project, both of them researchers of this curious repertoire for many years.
Download the program