Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

132 ROME EOME
and instrumental music), a Secretary, a Chancellor,
twelve Counsellors, two Prefects, etc. ;
there were also professors for almost every
branch of music ; Corelli was head of the
instrumental section in 1700. Those qualified
for admission into the institution were chapelmasters,
organists, public .singers, and wellknown
instrumentalists. By a papal decree
of 1689 all musicians were bound to observe
the statutes of the Academy ; and by a later
decree (17 OS) it was ordained that its licence
was necessary for exercising the profession.
Soon after this the Congregation began to suffer
from an opposition which, though covert, was
none the less keenly felt ; and in 1716 a papal
decree unfavourable to the institution was
passed. In 1762 it was flourishing again, for
in that year we find that a faculty was gi-anted
to the cardinal protector, to have the general
direction of all ecclesiastical music at Rome.
By another decree of 1764, it was enacted that
none but those sHUed in music should be in
future admitted as members. The entrancefee
was, as it has continued to be, a very small
one. The demands made upon members were
also very slight. At first they were only expected
to assist, by their compositions or performances,
in the grand anmial festival in
honour of the patron saint. Towards the close
of the 17th century were added one or two
annual services in memory of benefactors ; in
1700 a festival in honour of St. Anna, and in
1771 a 'piccola festa di Sta. Cecilia.'
The Congregation originally took up its
quarters at the College of Barnabites (afterwards
Palazzo Chigi) in the Piazza Colonna, where they
remained for nearly a century ; thence they
moved to the Convent of Sta. Maria Madd&lena,
and again to another college of Barnabites
dedicated to San Carlo a Catinari. Here they
resided for the greater part of two centuries,
and, after the temporary occupation of premises
in the Via Ripetta, finally, in 1876, settled at
their present quarters, formerly a convent of
Ursuline nuns, in the Via del Greci. Besides
the hostility which the Congregation had to
undergo, as we have seen, from outsiders, at
the beginning of the 18th century—which was
repeated in another form as late as 1836—it
has had its financial vicissitudes. Indeed at
the end of the 18th, and beginning of the 19th
century, the funds were at a very low ebb, from
which they have been gradually recovering.
The institution was dignified with the title of
Academy of Gregory XVI. in 1839. Two years
later Rossini's ' Stabat Mater ' was performed
for the first time in Italy in its entirety by
the members of the Academy. Pius IX., who
became Pope in 1846, though he founded several
other schools for singing, such as that of 'S.
Salvatore in Lauro,' did little more for the
Academy than to bestow upon it the epithet
,'Pontificia.' [During the early years of his
reign two attempts were made to found a Liceo
musicals or music-school in connection with the
Academy. The first, in 1847, received encouragement
and sympathy from the pontiif,
but efforts to obtain a government subsidy for
the purpose failed owing to the political disturbances
of 1848-49. Another endeavour by Professor
Filippo Bornia in 1857 had no better
result. It was not until 1869, when two young
associates of the institute, Giovanni Sganibati
and Ettore Penelli, opened gratuitous classes
for pianoforte and violin on the premises of the
Accademia that a practical start was made in
this direction. In the following year the two
professors sought and obtained from Cardinal
Di Pietro, Protector of the Accademia, official
sanction for their venture. This was given in
a decree, dated May 23, 1870, establishing the
classes on a recognised footing as belonging to
and dependent upon the institution. The
fresh departure received further impetus later
in the same year. Soon after the fall of the
pontifical. government in
September, the associates
of the Accademia, now a Royal ' ' institution,
expressed in general assembly unanimous
approval of the classes, and entrusted a
provisional committee with Professor Bornia at
its head with the task of formally constituting
a Liceo Musicale.
From this period the energies of the Accademia,
which until now had been little more
than a body of examiners and licentiates, became
centred in the new development, and its
history identified with that of the daughterinstitute
of which the classesformed by Sgambati
and Penelli were the nucleus, and of which,
therefore, they are rightly considered the
founders. The provisional committee remained
in office until 1875, when its duties were takei
over by the Accademia's newly constitutecl
Council of Direction, of which Comm. Emilio
Broglio was president. Meanwhile the musicschool
had been rapidly growing. Sgambati
had engaged three assistants for pianoforte
teaching, Alessandro Orsini with a sub-professor
had opened classes for singing, and violoncello
and brass instruments were being taught by
Ferdinando Forino and Vedasto Vecohietti.
At length after seven years of careful preparation
the Liceo Musicale was formally constituted
under the direction of a Commissione ' disoiplinare
and a Comitato ' ' tecnico,' with a staff of
twenty-nine professors. The new institute was
launched on March 3, 1877, in the presence of
the Crown Prince and Princess (Umberto and
Margherita) of Italy.
The Accademia now occupied itself with the
compilation of a Statute for the Liceo, and in
accordance with the wishes of the Government
the 'Commissione disciplinare' was substituted,
in 1886, by an administrative council. On this
the Government, the Province of Rome, and
the Municipality, as contributors to the main-