The phenomenon of the Band Club
One of the angles to comprehend contemporary Maltese social
life is to have a look at the custom of forming and joining
local band clubs. What follows is an article about it from
a Maltese point of view.
Birth of a Band Club in the late Nineteenth Century: A
Case Study
Source: Proceedings of History Week 1992.
(1992)(117-126)
Joseph F. Grima
Band-playing in Malta is usually associated with
participation in the local titular village and town feasts
and also in the Holy Week processions. However, some kind
of music-playing was present in religious festivities long
before the advent of clubs. In fact, music-playing is
recorded at the Valletta Good Friday procession of 1673
whilst, by 1761, tamborlini e fifera and violincello e
violini seemed to have become regular features in the
Naxxar Good Friday manifestation. In 1770, there is record
of the payment of 30 scudi per la musica di Pascua Grande
of Naxxar whilst in 1804, two bands used to accompany the
Vittoriosa Easter Sunday procession right into the church.
However, this participation does not mean that in Malta
there existed organised band clubs which started to come
into existence around the middle of the nineteenth century,
influenced by the presence in Malta of a number of Italian
refugees who showed interest not only in spreading their
political ideas but also education and culture. One such
refugee was Tommaso Zauli Sajani (1802-1872) who lived in
Malta between 1836 and 1847. His activities in Malta
included the founding and direction of La Speranza and
intimate collaboration with Il Mediterraneo6 in which he
complained of the lack of a spirit of association in the
Maltese islands. He proposed the setting up of le basi di
un’associazione vasta, non dispendiosa, di fac[il]e
esecuzione e proficua a tutti i rami dell’umano
sapere which would also include philharmonic societies.
It is a moot point whether organized band clubs in Malta
came into being as a result of Zauli Sajani’s 1838
plea but it is a fact that their existence is traceable to
the middle of the nineteenth century. To quote a few
examples, in 1851 the St Philip Band Club of
Żebbuġ (Malta) presented its first musical
programme, the Pinto Band Club was formed at Qormi in It is
an unfortunate fact that, on various occasions, the real
reason which prompted the settingup of a band club has
remained unknown, mainly through the loss of the relevant
records or, quite simply, because no records were kept.
However, one of the reasons which prompted the formation of
a second band club in a village or town was usually
disagreement between the members, known as Socii, of the
senior organization. This, in fact, was the main reason
which led to the formation of St George M. Band Club at
Qormi in 1893.
A New Club in 1872?
However, it is a curious fact that, twenty-one years
previously, a band club with a similar name was apparently
set up in the same village. What seems to be a
‘book’ of minutes, dated 1872 and presently in
a private collection, records two meetings held on 7 and 15
April to set up and organize a new band at Qormi.12 A third
meeting was presumably held on 20 April because the minutes
of the meeting of 15 April were signed and dated on that
day. No reason whatsoever is given for the formation of
this new club and, although there is mention of club
premises, there is no indication of their location. The
first meeting elected the officials, took steps to secure
the services of a band-master and agreed to decorate the
club for the village feast of St George, which was
celebrated on 23 April in those days, though it was
acknowledged that the fledgling club was not in a position
to take an active “musical” part in the village
festivities.
Two important points were the choice of the new
club’s name and emblem which are also significant in
relation to future events in 1893. The chosen name was
Societˆ Musicale San Giorgio Martire whilst the emblem
was to be made up as follows: two branches of olives and
palm surrounding a vine leaf on which would be superimposed
a representation of St George on horseback and with the
whole surmounted by a crown. The elected president was
Giorgio Bonnici whilst Pietro Paolo Cardona and Mario
Psaila were the chosen Secretary and Treasurer.
In the second meeting, it was decided that members were to
pay a subscription fee of three pence per month and an
anonymous donation of five pounds was received and
accepted. An English army sergeant, named John Brian West,
was introduced to the committee and engaged as bandmaster
to the newly-formed band which ‘boasted’ of ten
member bandsmen. This is the sum total of what is known of
this ‘new’ band; the rest is silence. However,
one of the committee members was Giuseppe Farrugia. It is
also a fact that the acknowledged founder of the present
day St George M. Band Club was also named Giuseppe
Farrugia. Was he the same person?
Marriage Legacies Affair
However, one thing is certainly known: the reason for the
formation of a new band club in 1893 which had a
politico-religious flavour. In 1893, Dr Goffredo Adami
moved a radical ordinance in the Council of Government to
control what were termed as the “scandalous
abuses” which permeated the Episcopal Curia’s
administration of marriage legacies. This raised a storm in
the island with vociferous factions backing or attacking
the Bishop who, on his part, threatened interdiction on
those members of the Council who supported Adami. The
question was further aggravated by a despatch sent by Lord
Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who made it
clear that any interference by the Church in the
legislature was intolerable. The same
“religious” fervour was present at Qormi.
On 8 October 1893, a demonstration and solidarity meeting
by Rev. Salvatore Chircop, secretary to Bishop Mgr Pietro
Pace, took place at Qormi. The committee of the local Pinto
Band Club decided to reject an offer to take part, a
decision which ran counter to the feelings of a number of
bandsmen. The upshot was that some bandsmen and club
members resigned and set up a new club under the name of
Societˆ Filarmonica San Giorgio.
A report in a local newspaper entitled “X’giara
f’Hal Kormi” (what happened at Qormi) four days
later, was quite categoric in stating that the speech of
the priest in question was ‘a fire and
brimstone’ affair in which all opponents to the
Bishop’s stand were warned that there would be all
sorts of religious repercussions if the Government was
allowed to have its way. The anonymous reporter was of the
opinion that the speaker had mixed up the issues and put
them into one melting-pot. On the other hand, it was later
alleged that the band club had refused to support the
bishop because a number of the committee members were
Government employees and were therefore unwilling to oppose
their employer.
Date of Formation
Although the motive, or rather the immediate cause, which
prompted the formation of the new band club is known, the
exact date of its formation has so far eluded the
researcher, though it can be narrowed down to between 8
October and 20 December 1893. The former date records the
disagreement in the ranks of the Pinto Band Club whilst the
latter is the publication date of a letter in a local
newspaper which states unequivocally that in Qormi there
existed two bands, the Filarmonica Pinto and the
Filarmonica San Giorgio, and goes on to give a racy account
of the Rev. Salvatore Chircop affair over two months
before.
But here, another difficulty presents itself. It has always
been traditionally held at Qormi that the St George M. Band
performed on the main platform on the occasion of the
titular feast of St George on 23 April 1893 when a new
street statue representing Grand Master Pinto, the work of
the well-known Maltese statuary Carlo Darmanin, was
inaugurated. If this is true, then the band was organized
during the first months of 1893 and not at its end. There
is no doubt whatsoever that the Pinto statue was in
existence and in use by 1893 as clearly stated in a local
newspaper which, when commenting on that year’s
feast, stated that “everyone was pleased with the
performance of the bands, especially that of the
Ġużeppini which performed on the principal
platform near the church where there is the well-known
statue representing Grand Master Pinto, a statue which is a
credit to its statuary, Mr. C. Darmanin.” No mention
is made of a new band but only of the
“Ġużeppini.” Was this a band named
after St Joseph hired from another village? A possible
explanation was that the new St George M. Band was called
the “Ġużeppini” because the founder
was Giuseppe Farrugia. However, a letter dated 8 January
1894 carried in another local newspaper puts matters in a
clearer perspective. The anonymous author stated
unequivocally that “Last Sunday, at Qormi, the new
band which has been formed in the lauded St George’s
Club performed for the first time.” The Sunday
referred to was 7 January 1894. This letter indicates quite
strongly that the St George M. Band Club was organized
towards the end of 1893, as outlined above, and
consequently could not take part in the feast of 1893.
The January letter gives us more information. We are told
that the band was directed by two band-masters: Giuseppe
Portelli, who was also bandmaster of the Senglea Band, and
Ġorġ Zarb. Another letter, carried in another
newspaper a couple of weeks later, recounts the part played
by this new band in the secondary feast of St Sebastian on
19 January 1894 and also states that the band was led by
Maestro Giuseppe Portelli. But this information poses
another problem.
It has always been traditionally held and acknowledged that
the first bandmaster was Carmelo Abela who held the post
between 1893 and 1898. So how does Mro Portelli fit in the
picture? Unfortunately, no satisfactory answer can be given
though it could be that Mro Portelli was simply giving a
helping hand to a new organization. A letter dated 12
February records the new band’s participation at the
feast of St Paul in Valletta two days previously, where it
executed a musical programme At the square facing St John's
Co-Cathedral but, unfortunately, the bandmaster’s
name is not included in the report. However, the band
seemed to have become quite popular at Valletta because it
was invited to take part in the city’s two other
feasts: Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July and St
Dominic’s on 4 August. To round up its Valletta
participations in their first year of existence, the St
George M. bandsmen also took part in the “Otto
Sepembre” celebrations by performing a musical
programme on Sunday, 2 September at Piazza Tesoreria in the
morning.
Stormy Aftermath
The formation of the new band club understandably created a
lot of bad blood as is quite evident from letters and
reports in various local newspapers. It seems to have
contributed also to a musical rivalry which resulted in
musical programmes being organized at the Qormi squares, a
case in point being January 1894. It is quite evident
though that, because the new band favoured the
bishop’s stand on the marriage legacies affair, it
was also being preferred to the senior band by the Qormi
titular feast procurator, Rev. Joseph Mifsud. An anonymous
letter in the local press even alleged that Fr. Mifsud went
so far as to dash to the ground a bouquet presented to the
altar of Baby Jesus, it being Christmastide, by the
bandmaster of the Pinto Club and uttered words to the
effect that “Here we want nothing from
freemasons.” That the Pinto Band Club was excluded
from commissions during the external celebrations of the
titular feasts of 1894 and 1895 is also borne out by
letters to Il Ħabbar. In February 1894, the editor of
this newspaper, Antonio Muscat Fenech, a writer of Maltese
and President of the Pinto Band Club between 1878 and 1906,
commented that both sides had supporters who wanted to
exacerbate matters, though it has to be noted that the only
letters printed in “his” newspaper were those
in favour of ‘his’ club.
For the feast of 1894, collections were bigger than usual
and bigger celebrations were expected. However, the Pinto
Band Club was completely excluded by the procurator and the
writer of a letter in the local press pleaded that both
bands be utilized. Although both bands were present in the
Good Friday procession of 1895 and no incidents were
reported, Fr Mifsud again excluded the Pinto Band Club from
the titular festivities of 1895, allegedly in defiance of
episcopal orders. Eventually, things returned to normal
after even more trouble reared its head, with both bands
being utilized on the titular feast and playing on specific
occasions in the case of secondary celebrations.
But the formation of the new band club also had its
political overtones. In our case, its beginning goes back
to the already-mentioned proposed ordinance by Dr Goffredo
Adami with regard to the administration of marriage
legacies by the Curia. It is not the intention of this
paper to delve into the whys and wherefores, rights and
wrongs or whatever of the matter in question which was
further aggravated and complicated by Lord Ripon’s
despatch. A result of this dispute was that Sigismondo
Savona, aided by Canon Ignazio Panzavecchia, became the
foremost “lay defender” of episcopal rights and
thus acquired a new lease of political life.
As is to be expected, the new club backed Savona. Nothing
has been found so far to indicate a political background
behind the formation of the new club. Actually, before a
detailed analysis of its founders is made – a
seemingly impossible process so far – to understand
not only their professed motives but also the real impetus
behind their actions, one has to accept the view that the
“religious” question brought about the schism
in the Pinto Band Club and that the new association which
was formed showed its open support for the political
movement backing the bishop and the Curia.
That a band club should so openly support such a movement
was not the exception in those times. To quote one example,
it has been reported that the La Vincitrice band of
Senglea, Panzavecchia’s home town, was always present
at the series of public meetings which took place as a
result of the legacies affair. Likewise, we have reports of
the St George M. Band Club greeting, helping and hosting
Savona in the meeting he held at Qormi on 7 July 1895. The
same band, with about 50 to 60 bandsmen, also took part in
an electoral meeting held at Valletta on 11 August 1895.
It was, in fact, at the Qormi meeting, held at Victory
Square, that Savona accused the Committee of the Pinto Band
of having endorsed the Ripon dispatch because some members
were Government employees. It is difficult, however, to
establish which of the two clubs had the larger following.
The elections held on 26 and 27 August 1895 returned a
Savona candidate from Qormi but this is not indicative
enough, especially when it seems clear that, by the next
year, the “new” club was at loggerheads with
the Qormi parish priest. One last point. The similarity of
the names of the clubs established in 1872 and 1893 is
understandable since both would try to take the name of the
village’s patron saint, St George. But the 1893 club
was immediately given the nickname “Tal-Werqa”
(literally meaning “of the leaf”) and this
quickly recalls the emblem of the 1872 club which had as
its focal point a vine leaf to serve as a background to St
George slaying the dragon. However, although this seems to
indicate a continuity of sorts, anything else said now
would only be mere speculation.
Comment
This, then, is the case history of the setting-up of a band
club a century ago, by which time there already were no
less than 33 bands in existence in the Maltese islands,
three of them in Gozo. A cursory look at a report of a
meeting of the Council of Government also confirms that
they were all quite active and performed musical programmes
regularly. In fact, during the fifteen months preceding the
middle of April 1894, no less than 722 programmes were
performed by 32 clubs. Of these, eight were carried out by
the St George M. Band Club of Qormi43 in a period of less
than six months of existence, thus indicating the
popularity of band clubs in Malta of those days. The stormy
history of the St George’s Band Club in its first two
years of existence was not something peculiar to this
organization only. The same type of troubles beset other
new and similar organizations in Malta who tried to find
their feet after seceding from the mother club, something
which is still happening in our own times. Such events are
a reflection of the mentality of Maltese society of those
times which, in certain respects, has remained unchanged
after a century.