– Aurelio Porfiri
The musical history of Macau is a largely unexplored field. In the last decades, some studies have started to bring to the attention of the musicological community some names, some places, some events. But still there is a lot to do, especially considering that most of these studies considered a very limited range of sources, especially sources in languages that are not accessible for some of those that have undertaken this task. Indeed, when we want to deal with western music in Macau, with western masters in Macau, the (reading) knowledge of Portuguese, Latin, Italian, French, English, is not a secondary issue. Most of the important sources on these topics are in one of these languages. So, a lot has still to be done, and it will probably take time and a new generation of scholars.
Having personally investigated some of the composers active in Macau in the past centuries, one name caught my attention: Luigi Antinori. Indeed it is unlikely that you will find this name in the work of the few musicologists that have dedicated their attention to Macau; it is a name that is almost lost in the passing of time, unlike others. One composer and conductor to whom I have devoted an article published in the International Journal of Sacred Music is Father Ferdinando Maberini. But there is more about Italian musicians in Macau. Let us talk a little more about the main institution where these musicians were working: Saint Joseph Seminary.
As an introduction to Saint Joseph Seminary’s historical background, we can look up those who were running this institution during the centuries. The seminary was created during the 18th century. The first directors were the Jesuits (from the foundation to 1762); then there is an interval in which we don’t know the names of the rectors (1762-1783), then came the Lazarists (1783-1856), the diocesan priests (1852-1893), the Jesuits (1893-1910), then diocesan priests (1910-1930), Jesuits (1930-1939) and diocesan priests (1939 to modern times (See Teixeira, Manuel (1956). Macau e a sua Diocese III Macau: Tipografia Soi Sang, 383-384). We don’t forget that Saint Joseph Seminary was an important place of learning but was also an example of the influence of Western, European art on Asian sacred architecture. A recent book about the seminary by Cesar Guillen Nunez has shown how Italian art was taken as a model for the seminary building. About this influence of Western art in Asia (and Macau) Guillen Nunez told me in an interview published some years ago in O Clarim: “For me what is really special about Macau is that it formed a unique point of encounter between China and the West via Portugal. This may sound a bit clichéd but if one realizes that this was a period when Portuguese monarchs and great Chinese Ming emperors reigned, its importance is obvious. It was the perfect recipe for historical uniqueness and greatness, especially if one considers that it occurred during the wane of the Ming Empire. Several of the leading historians of Macau in the past, such as Austin Coates, Manuel Teixeira and others have noticed the disparity between Macau’s small geographical size and its great historical span. Though there is certainly a pre-history of Macau before the arrival of the Portuguese, just as there is one for Hong Kong, Macau only becomes historically significant for China and the West from about the middle of the 16th century, after it became a wealthy Portuguese entrepôt. The exact year of its founding as a Portuguese settlement is uncertain but the general consensus among historians is that it was in 1557. It is this reflection of the historical ascendancy of Iberian kingdoms, from the 16th to the 18th century AD as global powers and of Portuguese expansion in particular, which forms one of the most unique aspects of Macau’s history. From then on it was to acquire a Sino-Portuguese culture peculiar to Macau, a culture that has survived the centuries and which makes it very attractive to literally millions of tourists who visit the city every year, mostly from mainland China. From the perspective of the history of art this means that Portugal was importing not only silver to the territory but also works of art, of religious art, especially, from Portugal and Europe.”
It is interesting to read the Bulletin that was published by the diocese many decades ago (in Portuguese) because it is a very important witness on the activities of the Seminary. It is really easy to realize that this institution was at the heart not only of the life of Macau but also had a huge importance for the development of missionary life in Asia. Countless priests – Chinese, Asians, Westerners – were educated here.
We may think, as already said before, that Father Ferdinando Maberini (1886-1956) was the first Italian to work in Saint Joseph Seminary in Macau but this is not so. There is information suggesting that another Italian professor, Father Francis Xavier Rondina (1827-1897), also worked in Saint Joseph Seminary in the 19th century. Fr. Rondina entered the Roman Jesuit house in 1841. He is considered one of the main influences of Neothomism in Portugal: “In Macau, the Jesuit Francis X. Rondina (1827-1897), an Italian by birth, published in 1869 a course of philosophy in harmony with the Scholastic principles. The title of the work is: Compendio de Philosophia theoretica e pratica para uso da mocidade portuguesa na China. The author has been directly inspired by St Thomas, Suarez, Goudin, Balmes, Gonzalez, and, to a certain extent, by Rosmini.” (Perrier, Joseph Louis (1909). The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Columbia University Press).
Father Rondina arrived in Macau in 1862, after some years of teaching in Portugal. Indeed it is said that “it was Fr Rondina who made the Italian Maestro Luigi Antinori, who arrived from Rome, introduce here a taste for true and good music”. (Ferreira, Leoncio A (1872). Un Brado pela Verdade: ou a questão dos professores jesuitas em Macau e a instrucção dos Macaenses, p 20, author’s translation). There is information that the said maestro donated 10 patacas to the Salesian College of the Immaculate Conception in 1868 (O Boletin do Governo de Macau. 22 March, 1869. Vol. 15, N. 12, 72). Fr Rondina had to leave Macau because of persecution against the Jesuits.
In 1868 the Seminary students went to visit the place where St Francis Xavier died, Shangchuan, and Luigi Antinori conducted the Seminary Choir. The interesting chronicles (written years later) coming to us from La Civiltà Cattolica informs us: “Beyond the low masses, that if I remember correctly were around 10, the students of Saint Joseph sung a solemn Mass, under the direction of Mr Luigi Antinori, singing and piano master of the same college, arrived from Rome recently. Maybe that was the first time that in those wild places resounded the harmonies of Italian sacred music. The clear and pure voices of children never resounded so sweetly to the pilgrims’ ears, as around that adored tomb; never the harmony of sacred hymns, together with the one of nature that in that day appeared as rejoicing and celebrating, had for them a more pleasing and charming enchantment” (Anonimo (1883). “Flora Fauna Avventure. Appunti di un viaggio nell’India e nella Cina.” La Civilta’ Cattolica). Even if we know that traditionally La Civiltà Cattolica has articles that are not signed, we know that this article was compiled by Father Francis Xavier Rondina.
Maestro Antinori died after a few months in Macau. But what we know about this Italian master, outside these scattered news gathered from La Civiltà Cattolica e few other sources? Not much indeed, but researching here and there, it was possible to find some scattered news that may shed some light on this forgotten protagonist of Macau’s religious and artistic life in the 19th century. Now, it is said that he was coming from Rome. A first obstacle, that can be easily solved with some care, is not to mix our own Maestro with another musician with the same name: he was a tenor and has lived much earlier than our Maestro (the dates for the tenor were 1697-1734). Indeed in the documents we have seen in the archive of the Academy of Saint Cecilia, he is said to be born in Nocera. There are several villages in Italy with these names, we assume that he was born in the one in the Umbria region, called “Nocera Umbra.” We know that a certain Luigi Antinori, most probably the same person we are talking here and who will be in Macau some years later, was admitted to the Roman Congregation of church musicians in 1854 as a composer (Congregation and Academy of Saint Cecilia, an organization that was active since Renaissance time and that was a sort of corporation of Church musicians in Rome under Papal tutelage). Indeed we have also the actual examination task he had to take, a fugue in 4 parts. From 1855 to 1861 he will be present to all the general gatherings of this congregation, as stated from the reports of these gatherings. But we will see more about these documents.
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