Carlo Diacono page with free midi's to download

CARLO DIACONO

1stApril 1876 --- 15thJune 1942

Carlo Diacono,  born in Zejtun on April 1876  and died in June 1942,  you will have to remember that up to the  early decades of the
present century, Maltese music, or, better, music written by Maltese composers, was predominantly liturgical. The reason is simple
the only significant patron for Maltese composers was Malta's Roman Catholic Church. This was a consequence of the Churchs own
requirements  of music for use in  its sacred rites.  These demand music  of the highest and  the most expressive order  for music in
worship is,  first of all, an uttering to the One who is worshipped. It is indeed a remarkable tribute to its perceptive faculty that the
Maltese  church was able to  select the finest  and most-gifted  Maltese  composers to be its maestri-di-cappella.  One of  them was
Carlo Diacono.

Born at Zejtun on April 1,1876, into a middle-class musical environment where the church was one of the most palpable realities of
childhood  Diacono exhibited from his early years a determined inclination towards the profession of church musician, in the mould
of the  legendary Maltese  maestri-di-cappella  of the 18th  and 19th centuries.  Whilst still young,  he showed  exceptional musical
talent and,  under the tuition of his father Orazio,  learned to play proficiently the high clarinet,  the piano and the organ.  Between
1892 and 1902,  he worked with PaolinoVassallo  (1856-1923) who had studied in France with Jules Massenet and it was from him
that he acquired the Gallic elegance that was, later on, to imbue such major compositions  as PStevenhiera ala B.  V.  Maria (1924)
Il Cantico di Frate Sole (1927), Laudate Pueri(1937), and Messa di Gloria in E flat(1938).

In 1899,  Diacono was appointed organist of the Zejtun Parish Church, the first concrete appointment in the path he was destined
to follow.

The promulgation, on November 22,1903, feast of St. Cecilia, Patron Saint of Music,  of Pius X's Motu Proprio  on church music, led
to great upheavals in Maltese liturgical music which, in the hands of such maestri-di-cappella as Vincenzo Bugeja  1805-1860 and
especially Paolo Nani (1814-1904), had become very operatic and extremely dramatic.

One of the first to conform to the Churchs new Stevenulations and compose liturgical music within the prescribed parameters was
Paolino Vassallo.  Vassallo appointment in 1912 for a prestigious post of maestro-di-cappella to the Mdina and Valletta Cathedrals
was a tangible sign of the Maltese Churchs firm intentions to implement the Motu Proprio. In a contemporary environment, which
was very ecclesiastical, the popularity of such gifted  musician/composers as Carlo Diacono  and Giuseppe  Caruana  (1880-1931)
both students of Paolino Vassallo,  were also willing to compose liturgical music within the new dictates,  increased.  Many parish
churches,  especially  in the southeast  of Malta, engaged Carlo  Diacono  as their  maestro-di-cappella  and in order to be  able to
service them,  he set up his own independent cappella (i.e. a group of male singers and instrumentalists who, under the direction
of Diacono himself, performed his music in these churches).

Diacono's  popularity and musical  standing were enhanced when,  following the death  of Paolino Vassallo,  he succeeded him as
maestro-di-cappella and at  the same two Cathedrals on February 9,  1923.  He thus achieved the highest  possible position in his
chosen profession. The number of parish and other  churches who contracted  him to supply music increased remarkably, and his
cappella achieved a popularity which has had few equals in the annals of the history of church music in Malta.

Carlo Diacono died at Lija on June 15,1942, aged 66

Donated © From someone who wishes to remain anon.

Last Updated on 2017
By Steven Ritchie

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(2571)"Marcia in Sib maggiore". Sequenced by David.

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