FOOD, WINE, MUSIC
AND THE PANETTONE PLAYERS

Sì, la vita è bella!

   We believe that this Christmas dinner and program will make for a most enjoyable and memorable evening.  The cost will be $40 per person.  A copy of the menu is enclosed.

   Because of the advance preparations required for the dinner, we must have your reservations by December 15.  We will be unable to accommodate late reservations or “walk-ins” and we are strictly limiting attendance to 72 people.  There will not be a gift exchange. Instead of bringing a gift, we suggest that a donation be given to a charitable cause.

   The design of convent churches kept nuns out of reach – visual and otherwise, by dividing church space into a public, or outer, church and a private inner church used by the nuns.  Grilled windows placed in organ lofts separated the two churches.  In this manner, the so-called “angelic voices” of the convent singers resounded from the nuns’ inner church to the public in the outer church.  By performing from behind such screens, where they could be heard but not seen, the singing nuns seem also to have found a way around ecclesiastical prohibitions against musical professionalism and public performance.  Heard from behind these grilled windows, the nuns’ songs represented an especially effective method of withdrawal from the public world, while their physical invisibility only enhanced the mysterious allure of the disembodied voices, echoing and calling to one another from these openings high up in the vaults. 

   The tantalizing mystery of these unseen virginal performers must have helped lure the crowds to their churches on occasions when they performed.  What exactly did these singing nuns perform behind their screens?  As ecclesiastical authorities had a deep suspicion of polyphonic music, the music most frequently encountered in the nuns’ chapels would have been the time-honored, sacrosanct Gregorian chant, as determined from surviving chant books that can be traced to the nunneries; however, the nuns’ intense fascination with polyphony suggests that it was much more dangerously alluring and actually was the nuns’ artistic medium of choice. 

   Also, Monson’s research has shown that musical nuns indulged in secular music although forbidden by the church hierarchy.  Apparently, ecclesiastical complaints about nuns’ music had at least some foundation in fact.

   Musical nuns provided valuable service to their convents because their music served as a powerful means of drawing the public to services, loosening its purse strings, establishing ties with noble families, and fostering their patronage.  Consequently, it should not be surprising that promising performers were actively courted and, once accepted within the cloister, enjoyed a privileged lifestyle.  Also, in an era when providing for several daughters was perceived as a potential financial burden to the family, the development of a talented daughter’s musical gifts with an eye toward the nunnery was a very sound investment.  Not only could she be sent to a convent with a considerably smaller dowry, as little as one-fifth of what a potential husband would require, but her basic nun’s dowry could be substantially reduced by anywhere from 25 to 100%.  In Bologna’s post-Tridentine world, music became a means for nuns, both as communities and as individuals, to reach out to a world in which they had become invisible and, at least in theory, silent.  Music offered these women an indirect, somewhat ambiguous, but potentially effective means of influence to work toward their goals. 

   Educated at Yale, Oxford, and the University of California (Ph.D.), Craig Monson has written numerous books and articles and is a sought-after public speaker. 
For a complete listing of his work, visit his website at www.artsci.wustl.edu/~camonson

   The final film in the Club’s mini-film series for this year, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, will be shown at the Bocce Club, 2210 Marconi Avenue on Saturday, December 9 at 7:00 pm.  A truly great film, it is worth seeing over and over.  Don’t miss it.  The film will be in Italian with English sub-titles and will be introduced by Dr. Carla Bossola.  For information, call Gene Mariani at 352-5484. 
 

   Called “a stunning visualization of mood, melancholy and nostalgia at the passing of an age” by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, Il Gattopardo won the Golden Palm as Best Film at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Costume Design.  The film will be presented in its original uncut version with a running time of 205 minutes in Italian with English subtitles.  According to two industry sources, this is the only 35mm copy in Italian with English subtitles that is available for rental in the United States, where it has not been released on video cassette, so this is indeed a rare opportunity.

   Dr. Carla Bossola, a member of the Italian Club of St. Louis and a lecturer sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will introduce the film.  A graduate of Rome’s Sapienza University, Dr. Bossola is currently teaching Italian film, language and literature at Washington University and St. Louis University.

   Tickets are $3 general admission, $2 for members of The Saint Louis Art Museum or the Italian Club of St. Louis, and may be purchased at the door.  We hope for a good turnout, so please tell all your friends and pass on the enclosed flier!
 

   Sister Mary Elizabeth was born Cecelia Marie Smith 25 years ago.  Her life has always been full of love, music, and laughter but her mother knew from the start that she had a special calling.  As a Poor Clare she will be a cloistered nun, so this is the last chance to visit with her.  Anyone interested may greet her in the parlor during visiting hours on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of January 2001.  You will be most welcome.
 

On behalf of the Club, we wish to extend our prayers, sympathy, and condolences to member James Hughes, his wife Patricia, and their family on the death of their son, Danny, on November 8, 2000
 

In our November La Rondine, we erroneously reported that John Cento was elected a member of the Club.  I was soon made aware that it was Frank Cento that had become a member, not John.  Sorry Frank and welcome to the Club. 

Congratulations to member Matt Melucci on his recent election to a third four-term as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Madison County, Illinois.
 

Best wishes to member Valerio Bianco for a full and speedy recovery from his recent heart by-pass surgery.  Val is now home from the hospital and doing well.

26.  Vincenzo Monti (Fusignano 1754 – Milano 1828) esercitò grande autorità culturale e poetica in tre periodi cruciali della storia italiana:  nella Roma neoclassica e papalina, nell’Italia napoleonica e repubblicana e nella Milano della restaurazione asburgica.  La sua fama è oggi legata alla traduzione dell’Iliade di Omero.  Questi versi fanno parte di una canzonetta composta nell’anno 1800 per celebrare la vittoria di Napoleone sugli Austriaci a Marengo.  E’ una composizione che esemplifica il gusto classicista e il rinnovato interesse nell’Italia fine Settecento per immagini e suggestioni dell’antica romanità.

     Bella Italia, amate sponde,
Pur¹ vi torno a riveder!
Trema in petto, e si confonde
l’alma oppressa dal piacer.
     Tua bellezza, che di pianti
fonte amara ognor ti fu,
di stranieri e crudi amanti
t’avea posta in servitù².
     Ma bugiarda e mal sicura³
la speranza fia⁴ de’ re⁵.
Il giardino⁶ di natura
no, pei barbari non è.
     Bonaparte al tuo periglio
dal mar libico volò⁷,
vide il pianto del tuo ciglio,
e il suo fulmine impugnò.
     Tremar l’Alpi, e stupefatte
suoni umani replicar,
e l’eterne nevi intatte
d’armi e armati fiammeggiar.

    (vv. 1-20)

¹ finalmente.  ² (riferimento all’occupazione austriaca dell’Italia settentrionale). ³ mal riposta.  ⁴ sia.  ⁵ (delle monarchie dei regni italiani, più o meno filo-austriache). ⁶ (L’Italia).  ⁷ (Napoleone era impegnato nella campagna d’Egitto).
 
 

    17.  L’impero di Augusto.  L’anno 27 a.C. segna la conferma legittima di tutti i poteri di Ottaviano Augusto, il quale poté quindi dedicarsi a riordinare e riformare lo Stato e la società romana. 

   Augusto fu certamente uno dei più abili amministratori che siano mai esistiti.  Con le sue riforme creò la Pax romana, diede impulso alla comunicazione e al commercio e migliorò le condizioni di vita della maggioranza dei cittadini italici, esclusi quelli dei ceti più umili.  Non essendo eccezionalmente portato all’arte militare, ne diede l’incarico al suo fedele amico Agrippa, ma non trascurò l’esercito e diede premi in terre e denaro ai veterani congedati, i quali fondarono 28 colonie, tra cui Torino e Aosta in Italia e Saragozza in Spagna. 

   Nelle province diminuì le imposte e, per impedire gli abusi, adottò il sistema dei funzionari imperiali stipendiati.  Accurate operazioni catastali e di censimento resero possibile una tassazione più equa, potendosi conoscere meglio il reddito delle singole regioni e dei singoli gruppi familiari.

   Durante il governo di Augusto ci furono tre censimenti della popolazione italica con i risultati seguenti: 

28 a.C.     4.063.000 cittadini maschi
  8 a.C.     4.233.000 cittadini maschi
14 d.C.     4.937.000 cittadini maschi

   In tutta la penisola furono costruiti nuovi centri abitati, fortificazioni, strade, ponti, grandi edifici pubblici e porti.  L’Italia fu divisa in 11 regioni (1.  Latium et Campania.  2. Apulia et Calabria.  3.  Bruttii et Lucanta.  4. Samnium.  5.  Picenum.  6. Umbria.  7.  Etruria.  8.  Aemilia.  9. Liguria.  10.  Venetia et Histria.  11. Transpadona) che conservarono la loro autonomia amministrativa e continuarono ad eleggere i propri magistrati. 

   Come l’Italia fu divisa in regioni, così nell’anno 7 a.C. venne fatta una nuova divisione topografica di Roma, che venne organizzata in 14 regiones, 7 entro il pomerio e sette fuori.  Questa divisione permise la definizione di un piano regolatore per lo sviluppo edilizio dell’Urbe.  Oltre alla costruzione di nuovi edifici nel Foro Romano, Augusto inaugurò un altro centro monumentale ai margini della città dopo aver risanato la zona con opere idrauliche. 

   Il regno di Augusto coincise con il secolo d’oro della letteratura latina:  vissero in quest’epoca scrittori come Cicerone, Virgilio, Lucrezio, Orazio, Ovidio, Livio e Tacito.