Giovanni Battista Vitali - The Bolognese Academies

The Bolognese Academies

Bolognese musical life was enhanced by the existence of academies. The Accademia dei Filaschisi was formed in 1633 by Domenico Brunetti and Francesco Bertacchi and Vitali claims to be a member of this institution on the title page of his first publication, Opus 1, 1666. In this year the Accademia dei Filaschisi was disbanded, and a new academy, the Accademia Filarmonica was set up, as shown in its archives, where he is classed as compositore rather than an instrumentalist. The earliest of Vitali’s own publications to state his membership in the Accademia Filarmonica was his Opus 7, (Modena, 1682). Most of his subsequent published works describe him as a member of both institutions – Accademico Filaschise, e Filarmonico, - despite the fact that the Accademia dei Filaschisi was no longer in existence.

The links between the orchestra of the San Petronio Basilica and the Accademia Filarmonica are apparent from a comparison of lists of members of both institutions. The most significant absentee from the membership of the Accademia Filarmonica is Maurizio Cazzati. The musical community of Bologna was split in the 1660s by a bitter polemic started by Lorenzo Perti, a priest at San Petronio. He identified some apparent musical errors in the Kyrie of Cazzati’s Missa primi toni, which had been published in his five-part Messa e salmi, Opus 17 (1655). Giulio Cesare Arresti (1619–1701), newly installed as organist at the San Petronio Basilica, sided with Perti and was consequently dismissed in 1661. This contentious affair invites the speculation that the Accademia Filarmonica was set up specifically in opposition to Cazzati and his followers. However, Vitali publicly acknowledged Cazzati as his teacher in the letter to the reader of his Opus 1 (1666) – an unexpected gesture from one of the Accademia Filarmonica’s most prominent members, if indeed hostilities were rife.