SENGLEA THROUGH THE AGES - 9 & 10
Musical arrangements for the period of the feast in the beginning of the 20th century
Unfortunately when the parish of Senglea was elevated to the statue of Collegiate in 1786, the keeping of registers was falling by the wayside. The Capitular’s Acts give us further information regarding the new stature of the parish. Apart from these facts we also have other registers from which to delve for further information. So we leave aside the first year of the Collegiate. We already know a lot of what went on then under the leadership of Arch Priest Dun Salv Bonnici, the first Arch Priest. He died in 1800, when Malta was passing through the horrible days of the French occupation.
Canon Dun Vincenz Cachia became the new Arch Priest and from then on receipts for every legal deed were kept all together in one register. This scheme was started in 1802. We are going to go into detail taking as a study case the music and orchestration carried out during the titular feast of Our Lady.
We used to have the orchestra and singers for the first and second vespers; for morning prayers and for the Solemn Mass on the day of the feast, the 8th September. Two violins were hired to play during the procession.
The Mass on the last day of the Novena (a nine day devotion prior to the feast) used to be accompanied by the organ and the singing but not by an orchestra. The orchestra used to be made up of the following instruments: trumpet, double-bass, the violin, the violoncello and the trombone. The violin was the most common instrument used. In the 1802 orchestra there were at least six violins. Naturally there were also many people singing. A tenor who usually sings in the theatre had a good remuneration. By 1804, payments were increased to all those taking part. The singers were being paid at least three skudi each or even more.
Most of the people who played the instruments or formed part of the choir came from outside Senglea so boats had to be hired to carry them to and fro. The boatmen used to be paid the same fee paid to a singer or music player, and at times he was even paid less. In 1803 two skudi were spend to hire the boats and in the following year the expense went up to two and half skudi.
For the feast of 1803, the expenses for the orchestra amounted to sixty four skudi and in the following year it leapt to over seventy one skudi. Dun Gusepp Burlo’ was ‘Maestro di Cappella (orchestra and choir director) in those days. The orchestra was also call for during the ceremonies of the Passion Week where it used to take part on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday in the morning and evening and on Easter Saturday in the morning. The expenses paid for the orchestra in 1805 for the duration of the Passion Week was fifty one skudi. The director used to see to it to collect the money and pay each his due while at the same time keep detail of all the transactions made.
SENGLEA THROUGH THE AGES - 10
When the Vittoriosa porvlista (gun powder magazine) exploded
Malta had just passed under the protection of the British and Senglea parish was going to celebrate twenty years since it was elevated to the state of Collegiate. Can Salv Bonnici, the first Archpriest of Senglea had just died and he was replaced by Can Vincenz Cachia who was elected as Archpriest in 1800. At that time he was the chaplain of the Filippini (the priest in charge of the community residing at St Philip convent) in Senglea. For the people of Cottonera, 1806 was an unforgettable year. Many residents of Vittoriosa lost their lives. Buildings in Vittoriosa and Senglea were extensively damaged and some even destroyed. The rebuilding and maintenance of these buildings meant a huge expense for the residents. There were also a lot of people who lost their lives, especially in the area near the porvlista.
The cause of this tragedy is still not known. At about 6.30 a.m. on the 18th July 1806 a terrible noise, was heard all over the islands of Malta and Gozo. The ground vibrated heavily because of the explosion of the porvlista. The provlista was situated at the entrance of Vittoriosa as you come in from the Cospicua side. The provlista was a magazine where gunpowder and other relative material were stored. It was a very unfortunate accident and its impact was tremendous.
The little bits of news that we have are found in the documents kept at the Collegiate of Senglea. These are found in details in the resister called ‘Libro d’Introito e d’Esito della Ven. Lampada: 1802-1809.’ There is a list of the persons killed during tragedy and other information. There are slight ambiguities in the registers but they all tally with the details of the persons who tragically lost their lives.
Naturally Vittoriosa was the city worse hit by this explosion. It was as if it was in a state of war, there were demolished buildings everywhere. The records kept at Senglea say that four hundred persons lost their lives in Vittoriosa alone and this tragedy is put down as the worse tragedy which ever hit our islands.
The explosion also caused a lot of damage to buildings in Senglea. For the first time the British felt the obligation to help those hit by this terrible incident. The Royal Commissioner Alexander Ball asked the people hit by this tragedy to submit in writing a list of the damage sustained. Various commissioners were appointed to help the people hit by this explosion.
Up to the time of writhing we have not seen any of the requests made by the people of Senglea. We know that the Parish Church was badly hit too and the damage caused was extensive. All glass panes were broken and a lot of damaged was done to doors. The currency in use was still that used by the Knights, namely the skudi, irbajja and habbiet, even though the British had been occupying Malta for some years. A skud was worth twelve irbija and each irbija was worth twenty habba. The British Government paid the church two hundred and ninety five skudi to cover the damage suffered by the church. Master Lawrenz Calamatta was entrusted by the Archpriest Cachia to repair all the glass panes. He was paid thirty eight skudi for his work.
The church was extensively damaged but fortunately it was not destroyed like many buildings. The master carpenter Leonard Delanda was paid twenty eight skudi and two irbajja for his work on repairing the church wooden doors, windows and other wooden fixtures.
This terrible tragedy caused the death of at least four hundred persons in Vittoriosa alone. Senglea was not so badly hit in fact only four persons were reported to have died because of the explosion. A mass for the repose of those killed in this tragedy was held in Senglea’s church.