|
Jaume Balius
i Vila
The Oratory of St. Thomas of Aquino 1783
Jaume Balius i Vila
is an important chapel master of Girona cathedral. Christened in the Sta.
Maria del Mar parish in Barcelona on 15th November 1750, he studied music
as a choirboy in Montserrat. He later became chapel master at the Seu
d'Urgell in 1778. Ordained as a priest in 1780, he obtained the post of
as chapel master in Girona in 1781 by means of eliminatory exams. There
he succeeded Francesc Juncà as chapel master and remained until
1785, when he left for Cordoba where he was paid a splendid salary. He
stayed in Cordoba until his death except for the years 1787-89 when he
was named chapel master of the Incarnation convent in Madrid by royal
command. He died in Cordoba, his adoptive home, on 3rd November 1822.
His testament is that of a successful musician, very hard-working, methodical
and generous to his relatives and assistants. He has left us a legacy
of more than 900 musical scores, 21 of which are to be found in the chapter
house archives of Girona.
Girona at that time was a growing city of
8000 inhabitants. Its population had doubled shortly before that time
without there being important changes in its social structure. The bishop,
Tomàs de Lorenzana (1727-96), an enlightened prelate of royal designation,
who came with a will to reform society from above, held a prominent position.
For this reason, encouraged by an agreement with the city council, he
created new literary and technical schools and also completed the Orphanage
and the Hospice (now a cultural centre). The city's cultural standards
were acceptable; proof of this are the activities promoted by the council,
the convents and certain small enlightened groups of French origin.
Cultured music in the Girona of that time
depended almost exclusively on the cathedral chapel master. He was the
only one who had the economic and artistic resources in order to offer
contemporary music of any quality. Not only did he compose for liturgical
events in the cathedral, but also received requests from the Council,
the city's convents, the army and private individuals. The city's musical
standards were quite acceptable: besides the 21 members of the music chapel,
who could frequently play more than one instrument, there were four choir
boys who stayed on until their voices changed and even longer in some
cases. Moreover, several convents also had their own interpreters. Such
a large number of interpreters can only be explained by the existence
of high musical standards, as is also evident in the high technical level
of the major musical scores that have been left us.
In this milieu, oratories were the most
important musical expression in the city, although it did lack an operatic
theatre. Between 1757 and 1793, there are documents referring to the performances
of at least 25 oratories in the city. These were always promoted by the
convents, either of the Dominicans, Jesuits, Servites (the Congregation
of the Virgin of Sorrows) or Benedictines, never by the cathedral. The
performances would be held in the churches of the respective convents,
becoming important events for each congregation, and in some cases, an
admission fee was charged. This would explain the fact that booklets containing
the lyrics, the benefactors' names as well as those of the order's leaders
were distributed among the audience. A few of these booklets have been
preserved allowing us a precise vision of the religious rhetoric characteristic
of those times.
The oratory of 1783 was commissioned by
the Dominicans of Girona to celebrate the feast day of Saint Thomas of
Aquino, a Dominican philosopher and theologian of the XIII century, one
of the most outstanding intellectuals of the Middle Ages. The great convent
of the Dominicans in Girona (at present this building is the Faculty of
Arts of Girona University) must have had around 40 monks at that time.
Their income was high enough to be able to afford fairly expensive commissions
like the present work and also to repeat them every year. Although we
do not know the name of the author of the lyrics, certain clues point
to the Dominican monk from Girona, Benet Llobressols, the former papal
legate in Beijing and a specialist in the Pentateuch as possibly being
the author. The plot is based on an incident in the history of ancient
Israel (Numbers chs. 16 and 26) when the Jews, led by Moses, leave Egypt
in XIII B.C. to cross the Sinai wilderness. The 12 tribes of Israel are
not completely organized and Moses and Aaron's clan try to carry out this
task to their own advantage by naming Aaron high priest. Certain clans,
however, oppose this situation to the point that Korah's clan and that
of his two friends, Dathan and Abiron organize a rebellion. In order to
determine who is right they agree to set up two altars, one for each side,
where they were to celebrate sacrifices at the same time. The direction
taken by the smoke was to indicate which one of them was chosen by God,
Aaron or Korah. God clearly favours Moses's clan and sends a fire - a
storm according to Balius- that eliminates their opponents and their families
who were near the altar. Thus Aaron is consolidated as High Priest and
his descendants were to succeed him. Only at the end of the oratory do
we discover how this historic example is related to the Dominicans: in
the same way that God in ancient times revealed by means of fire who the
enemies of his people were, at that time the Church, God's chosen people,
had managed to defeat their enemies thanks to the writings of the Dominican
Thomas of Aquino. Although these enemies are not named in the work, the
context indicates that they were either the protestants of former years
or the enlightened French authors of that time some of whose works were
present in Girona.
The musical classicism of the viennese school
is quite visible in this oratory, as Balius's musical style is the closest
to Haydn's that we can find in Girona. The maestro creates attractive
melodies and elaborates them following the viennese models by enveloping
them in a harmonious base with a light rhythm, a far cry from any resort
to counterpoint resources. This artifice produces compositions that can
easily be followed and constitute the basis of the pleasure obtained by
listening to his music. Balius presents his musical themes with both violins
and oboes, his main instruments, together with the voices. All of these
components hold a dialogue with each other allocating a prominent role
to the solo voices, the difficulty of which is surprising in a secondary
provincial capital like Girona, where the belcanto was not unknown. As
tradition did not allow female voices in religious singing and given the
technical difficulty of the voices in the present work, especially that
of the soprano, one wonders if at the debut this part would be sung by
a castrato or a falsetto. In the performances of this oratory between
1813-1816 these parts were sung by falsettos, but we do not know whether
this was the solution used at the first performance.
The couplets in honour of Saint Narcissus
are the first ones of the XVIII century to be written in Catalan among
those conserved in the chapter house archives. The same text as in the
1689 ones is used but with a different melody. Their singularity lies
in the fact that between 1660 and 1760 approximately the couplets in Catalan
in Girona were eclipsed and substituted by villancicos of Castilian tradition,
but towards 1760 couplets began to come back accompanied by the villancicos
in the chapter house archives, thus couplets can found in Castilian and
Catalan. They are works that were commissioned by one of the city's 14
convents. This one dedicated to Saint Narcissus must have been commissioned
by what was then the abbey of Saint Felix, now a parish church, or maybe
by the cathedral chapter house itself. This surprising evolution deserves
to be studied in more depth. The music of the work appears to have popular
influences - we do not know whether it was finally sung by the people
at a time when the congregation's role in the liturgy was completely passive-
but its accompaniment shows the maestro's skill at dignifying popular
melodies. The text follows the traditional legend of Saint Narcissus which
probably conceals unknown historical events.
|
