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The Domenico Zipoli Ensemble
Zipoli Ensemble performing in Chiesa S. Ignazio in Rome
The ornate, golden-yellow walls of the sanctuary provided a setting that mirrored the complex harmonies which seemed so much at home in the centuries-old church that once served the Roman College. Zipoli began his career as organist at the Gesù church only a few blocks away. Then he became a Jesuit and set off on a short-lived missionary journey.
Those who had the opportunity to watch "The Mission"--the well-known movie directed by Roland Joffe and starring Robert De Niro--will remember the emotion the movie evoked as it told the story of the Jesuit Reductions in South America. This story sparked strong curiosity about its cultural and musical aspects; sceptics found it difficult to believe that primitive indigenous people in 17th and 18th Century reached such a high artistic level relative to Europeans. Many documents attest to the cultural level of the Reductions, and a list of instruments that the indigenous people built and played shows a sophisticated practice. Without the actual scores, however, the music could not be played again.
The turning point came in 1972 when 5,000 manuscripts of this music were found in Chiquitos, Bolivia. Now musicologists can affirm what documents said about this fantastic music, and musicians can perform the original scores enabling audiences to experience the high level of Baroque music the indigenous population of South America achieved under Jesuit guidance.
The solemn Vespers in the Chiesa S. Ignazio provided a wonderful opportunity to experience Zipoli's work as interpreted by the The Domenico Zipoli Ensemble, an Italian group that started in 1995 to study, transcribe, perform and spread this music the world over. Maestro Luis Szarán from Paraguay leads the ensemble; he was among the first musicologists to study the recovered manuscripts.
The group performs either as an ensemble of seven musicians or as a full concert choir with soloists and a 28-person orchestra directed by Szarán. Giorgio Fornasier is the soloist tenor who sang at S. Ignazio's solemn Vespers and has been in contact with Jescom about the work of the Ensemble. Within Italy the full choir often performs while the ensemble of seven musicians travel to give performances and explain the general story of the Jesuit Reductions in South America and the extraordinary phenomenon of the music level the Guarani people achieved thanks to the Jesuits like the Italian Domenico Zipoli. The ensemble uses a power point presentation to introduce the concert and comment on the music pieces they perform live. They always bring an original violin which was made by a Guarayo man from Bolivia who keeps the tradition of building musical instruments, using the original Jesuit moulds. The violinist plays this instrument for the "Minuetto", an extraordinary canone inverso composed by an Indian pupil of Domenico Zipoli. Members of the ensemble include: Manuela Meneghello (soprano), Vanessa Costanzi (alto), Giorgio Fornasier (tenor), Mauro Adami (organ or harpsichord), Michele Antonello (oboe), Elisabetta Beghin (violin) and Teresa Pante (violoncello).
The performance in S. Ignazio was sponsored by the Missions Prokur S.J. Nürnberg; any Jesuit school or institution that would like to invite the ensemble to perform can contact them through their website: http://www.zipoli.it