Times² delves into the Gaulitana 2025 exhibition that shines a light on British Malta, its salon music, composers and a family of printers
This year’s Gaulitana: A Festival of Music, now in its 18th edition, will open on 5 April 2025 with an exhibition In Harmony: 19th century Music Printing in Malta, curated by Anna Borg Cardona and Joseph Calleja. This exhibition shines a light on society in British Malta, its salon music, the composers, and the Brocktorff family who printed the music.
Baron Charles Frederick de Brocktorff (1781-1850) arrived in Malta with his wife around 1810, in the early years of the British period. He opened an artist studio and later also a lithographic workshop in Valletta, producing detailed watercolours depicting Malta’s daily life, trades, palaces, archaeological sites and lithographic maps. Charles Frederick’s sons all followed in their father’s footsteps. What is less known is that the Brocktorff family also printed music.
The earliest-known music the Brocktorff’s produced, using the printing technique lithography, was a booklet of 6 hymns in the Maltese language, printed at the Church Missionary Society in 1832, where Charles Frederick and his sons worked between 1832 and 1842. The artist lithographers went on to print a substantial number of salon pieces by Maltese and foreign composers in their own press in Valletta and later in Msida.
Most of the music printed was written for the pianoforte. The early nineteenth century saw great improvements made to the pianoforte, and the introduction of the more accessible upright piano. As a result, the instrument became one of the most popular of the day. This, in turn, created a local demand for music outlets selling instruments, sheet music and all other music requirements. By the end of the century, Valletta had a huge number of music shops and piano depots.
Maltese composers such as Alessandro Curmi, Dr Paolo Nani, Antonio Nani, and several others were fully aware of the rise of the amateur musician, and took advantage of this, writing music of varying levels of difficulty for their new public. Compositions were mostly fashionable dances of the time, such as quadrilles, waltzes, mazurkas, gavottes and polkas, or transcriptions of popular operatic arias. The music that was popular in the ballrooms and in the theatre was also played in the salon or the ‘sala’ of nineteenth-century Malta.
Through this printed music we get a rare glimpse of Malta’s society during the British period. We enter the drawing rooms where this music was enjoyed by amateur musicians who took their music very seriously. Composers were often very careful to dedicate compositions to those who held influential or high-ranking positions. We find dedications to Lady Stuart, Lady Houlton, Barone Augusto Testaferrata Abela, Napoleone Tagliaferro, Dr Fortunato Mizzi, amongst others.
This exhibition will be showcasing rare sheet music that provides a unique insight of Malta’s 19th century society. The event, tapping Gaulitana’s multi-dimensionality, follows on from the previous exhibition Folk Music in Gozo presented in 2023 as the festival seeks to kindle a deeper understanding of cultural heritage and traditions.
In Harmony: 19th Century Music Printing in Malta will launch on Saturday April 5 at 11am with performances of solo Maltese works by Jessica Ellul (clarinet) and Pierre Louis Attard (violin).
The exhibition is open daily until Sunday 4 May, 2025 (9am-5pm) at the Ċittadella Cultural Centre.
Gaulitana: A Festival of Music is principally supported by the Investment in Cultural Organisations – Gozo of Arts Council Malta and the Ministry for Gozo & Planning partnered by Bank of Valletta, VisitMalta and APS Bank.
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