Accademia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia
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The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia ( en, National Academy of St Cecilia) is one of the oldest musical institutions in the world, founded by the papal bull ''Ratione congruit'', issued by Sixtus V in 1585, which invoked two saints prominent in Western musical history: Gregory the Great, for whom the
Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe dur ...
is named, and
Saint Cecilia Saint Cecilia ( la, Sancta Caecilia), also spelled Cecelia, was a Roman virgin martyr and is venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the patroness of music and musicians, ...
, the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...
of music. Since 2005 it has been headquartered at the
Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2 ...
designed Parco della Musica in
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
. It was founded as a "congregation", or "confraternity", and over the centuries has grown from a forum for local musicians and
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...
s to an internationally acclaimed academy active in music scholarship (with 100 prominent music
scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
forming the body of the Accademia), music education (in its role as a conservatory) and
performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...
(with an active choir and a symphony orchestra, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia). The category of alumni of the associated conservatory (which in 1919 succeeded a ''liceo'') includes many noted composers and performers.


History

The first seat of the Congregation from 1585–1622 was the church of Santa Maria ad Martires, better known as the
Pantheon Pantheon may refer to: * Pantheon (religion), a set of gods belonging to a particular religion or tradition, and a temple or sacred building Arts and entertainment Comics *Pantheon (Marvel Comics), a fictional organization * ''Pantheon'' (Lone St ...
. Successive relocations were to the church of San Paolino alla Colonna (1622–52),
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th-century church in Rome, Italy, in the Trastevere rione, devoted to the Roman martyr Saint Cecilia (early 3rd century AD). History The first church on this site was founded probably in the 3rd century, by ...
(1652–61), San Nicola dei Cesarini (1661–1663), Chiesa della Maddalena (1663–85), and, finally, San Carlo ai Catinari in 1685. During the first century of existence, the Congregation was the
workshop Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the ...
of a number of prominent musicians and composers of the day, including Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The institution in that period was often in rivalry with the other important musical organization of Papal Rome of the day, the Sistine Choir. Rivalry centred on the rights to control access to the musical profession, to train musicians, and to publish music. The rivalry never really ended and can be said to have lasted through the entire existence of the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
, that is, until 1870, when the "temporal power of the Church" was ended by military action of the new nation state of Italy. The early 18th century is considered to have been a particularly glorious time for the Accademia. Among names associated with the organization during that period are Arcangelo Corelli,
Alessandro Alessandro is both a given name and a surname, the Italian form of the name Alexander. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Alessandro * Alessandro Allori (1535–1607), Italian portrait painter * Alessandro Baricco ...
and
Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the devel ...
, and
Niccolò Jommelli Niccolò Jommelli (; 10 September 1714 – 25 August 1774) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic reforms including r ...
. In 1716,
Pope Clement XI Pope Clement XI ( la, Clemens XI; it, Clemente XI; 23 July 1649 – 19 March 1721), born Giovanni Francesco Albani, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 November 1700 to his death in March 1721. Clement XI w ...
decreed that all musicians practising their profession in Rome were required to become members of the Congregation. The Accademia suspended operations during the revolutionary period of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...
but opened regularly again in 1822 a few years after the Restoration brought about by the
Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon ...
. The years between that reopening and the end of the Papal States in 1870 were ones of great change. The organization opened its membership to hitherto excluded categories, such as dancers, poets, music historians, musical instrument makers, and music publishers. In 1838, the Congregation of Santa Cecilia was officially proclaimed an Academy and then a Papal Academy. The list of active and honorary members of the Accademia during that period is formidable and includes Cherubini, Mercadante, Donizetti,
Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards ...
, Paganini, Auber, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Gounod, and Meyerbeer. Among the crowned heads of Europe who were honorary members was
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
. After the unification of Italy, the Accademia reestablished itself with the formation of a permanent symphony orchestra and choir, beginning in 1895. It went from being the seat of a
Liceo The Gran Teatre del Liceu (, English: Great Theatre of the Lyceum), known as ''El Liceu'', is an opera house in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Located in La Rambla, it is the oldest running theatre in Barcelona. Founded in 1837 at another ...
musicale—a music "high school"—to being a full-blown conservatory; also, it hosts the "Eleonora Duse" Drama School, as well as a centre for experimental cinema. The most recent innovation has been the digitisation and cataloguing of centuries of musical documents—including an important collection of traditional music in the ethnomusicological archives—and their preservation and eventual display in the Accademia's
multimedia library A multimedia library is a public institution functioning as a library, containing not only paper and electronic books, newspapers and magazines, but also multimedia materials like videos (movies, documentaries) and sound recordings (music, audio b ...
and
archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual ...
also available to the public online. The Accademia also maintains a
musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...
museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...
(the MUSA).


Alumni

* Paolo Aralla * Gaqo Çako * Alfredo Costa * Franco Donatoni * Ferenc Farkas * Jorgjia Filçe-Truja *
Beniamino Gigli Beniamino Gigli ( , ; 20 March 1890 – 30 November 1957) was an Italian opera singer (lyric tenor). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tenors of his generation. Early life Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoem ...
* Aristodemo Giorgini * Aurelio Giorni * Gaetano Giuffrè * Preng Jakova * Ramiz Kovaçi *
Sylvia Kersenbaum Sylvia Haydée Kersenbaum (born 27 December 1941) is an Argentine pianist, composer and teacher. Among other things, she is recognized for performing the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas twice (in 1989–1990 and 2003–2004), and he ...
* Giorgio Magnanensi *
Hersi Matmuja Hersjana Matmuja (born 1 February 1990), also known as Hersi Matmuja or simply Hersi, is an Albanian singer and songwriter. After winning the Festivali i Këngës 52, 52nd edition of Festivali i Këngës, she Albania in the Eurovision Song Contes ...
*
Anna Moffo Anna Moffo (June 27, 1932 – March 9, 2006) was an American opera singer, television personality, and actress. One of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of her generation, she possessed a warm and radiant voice of considerable range and agili ...
*
Bruno Nicolai Bruno Nicolai (20 May 1926 – 16 August 1991) was an Italian film music composer, orchestra director and musical editor most active in the 1960s through the 1980s. While studying piano and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, ...
* Piero Niro *
Carlo Peroni Carlo Peroni (29 November 1929 – 13 December 2011), also known as Perogatt, was an Italian comic book artist. Born in Senigallia, Ancona, Peroni started his career in 1946 as a restorer and an icon painter. In 1948 he started collaborating w ...
* Zoltán Peskó *
Franco Piersanti Franco Piersanti (born 12 January 1950) is an Italian composer and conductor. Born in Rome, Piersanti graduated in double bass at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he studied composition under the guidance of Armando Renzi and conducting unde ...
*
Sergei Rachmaninoff Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
* Diogenes Rivas * Sonya Scarlet * Victor Togni


References


External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Music schools in Italy 1585 establishments in Italy Education in Rome Learned societies of Italy Educational institutions established in the 1580s