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The Musical Chapel of Lodi’s Cathedral: her history…

If actually there is a story of our Chapel, written over the years, in the events and in the experiences,
likewise there’s an image of our Chapel made of memories, projects, choices and ambitions, and made also of effort and of enthusiasm.
That’s simply everyday plain and genuine life, but also becoming life!

The Musical Chapel tells her tale by herself, and the tale I can tell is surely incomplete and, mostly, subjective.
I’m thinking about the Impressionists and about their way to paint: approximate but essential touch, nothing is clearly delimited; the actual essence of beings and things has shown itself without predictable rules. I would like to tell my tale in this way.
Unfortunately anyone can paint just what has experienced.
My Experience with the Chapel cantors began in 1989, under the direction of Don Pietro Panzetti: it was a gateway from the parish choir to the Cathedral choir.
There my tale can begin, as a painting of my memory.

PEOPLE
I remember faces… men and women variously aged, coming from different places, experiences and sensitivity. People remaining and people passing away: but no one anonymous or unnoticed. In the beginning we were a narrow and uncertain group, growing more numerous and firmer year by year.
Someone is more skilled than the others, veterans welcoming us because of their previous experience with the former director Mons. Beccaria. The tradition doesn’t interrupt, it goes within the events, compliant and indissoluble. We can feel a mysterious déjà vu, something like being there all along: the place and the people are comfortably familiar.
The vault of the Cathedral holds us intimately and warmly in her stalls, behind the little altar, where the crystal urn of S. Bassiano is placed. The Saint keeps an eye on us and supports us; we breathe the ancient sacredness of the place.
We rehearse all together once a week, and we sing during the solemn rites. We meet other choirs to share different experiences. How could we forget the originality of the celebration for the consecration of the renewed Main Altar, or the emotion for the recurring S. Bassiano vigils?
There’s a time when we feel the strong desire – almost a need – to meet each other: it is the time of the journeys (Switzerland, Bavaria, then Cannes, Montserrat and Solesmes).
The reciprocal acquaintance, the harmony and the urge to stay together are the strength of that time: the good quality of our singing is primarily enforced by our friendship and pleasantness.
Nonprofessional and professional singers work together: who’s less skilled learns “by infection” from the cleverer. The voices amalgamate to raise a prayer, not always consciously. Spirituality spreads gently from heart to heart.
“We should thank God because He keeps us humble while we are sharing our experiences and keeps us stubborn while we are learning: by this way we have a warranty of a profitable and durable path”. This was an expression Don Piero wrote to the singers in March, 1990; and the people walks, step by step, like guided by Someone. When we achieved a goal, drawing breath and enjoying the satisfaction for the road covered, we suddenly realize that the goal itself was near us, as a respectful and discreet companion. Each person is tracing her way.

CANTORS
It is the right time for a more demanding proposal: spiritual retreats and thinking in the beginning of a new yearly span of learning time seems to be marking a turning point. It is the right time to give a meaning to the role of each of us. “…We form a Church Choir. If a generic earnest choir is searching an artistic goal, for us this goal is just an intermediate step. Our artistic destination is much higher: once achieved a suitable musical level, we must let it blossom until it will become a prayer in our heart and in our mind, and in the heart and mind of the faithfuls taking part in the rites…” (Letter to the cantors, 1990). The person vanishes into the cantor, both bound to become a single being.
Yesterday the fact that the Choir could give voice to the single cantors was beautiful and encouraging; by this way the group achieved his identity and his shape. Once again, it seemed to us that we got the result, but it was just a step. Now the Cantor has to give voice to the Choir, and many single and peculiar voices to become a single singing.
1993. The Choir has her own place: the ancient sacristy of S.Filippo Church, Via Solferino. It is a little jewel and now it becomes our audience, a cozy and welcoming hall where we can learn and sing: towering carved wooden cupboards are all around the walls; The Blessed Virgin and Christ are looking at us from two big paints located in the middle of right and left walls, just between the wooden doors. We feel treasured under the light vaulted ceilings and amidst four stern marmoreal columns, emblem of our learning.
It is the beginning of a new age; if we can now call ourselves Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral, we feel just now piece of more strict expectations.
These are the years in which the Choir extends its horizons, opening itself up to different realities, and comparing its experiences with those of others. Learning and friendships introduce us to foreign traditions and to the heritage of different cultures.
The weekly rehearsals are now two: one for the male voices separately from the feminine voices, and the second for the whole choir.
Suddenly I find myself like in a classroom, to learn music. I bump into the effort of solfeggio: notes, exercises and examinations. I reckon the embarrassment of my errors and my failures, with my difficulties and my gaps…even with some absence note and the temptation to fail to attend some lesson. More: do you think I escaped the remedial courses?
I find myself in a classroom to follow the solfeggio training and the vocalization training. I remember the teaching of Angus, who was coming from England; he was contemporarily teacher and part of the Choir for a whole year. I remember the impact of the peculiar English techniques, and I remember too our surprise and our bewilderment.
Through all these efforts, in spite of my kidding, the Cantor grows up in skill and preparedness: another step.

TO BE SERVING

With the wisdom of hindsight, we become aware that our efforts and our sacrifices gave character to our learning.
Forged as we are by method and by choice, we can gently make our work happen to be “service”, we can day by day let our singing to be turning away from us and becoming a prayer. It is no more an event or an extraordinary chance, but simply a daily effort: mens ordinaria.
“The Lord, Who gives us time and life, may grant us to blend our voice with our heart, so that we become witnesses of the Truth”.
We entrust all of our aspirations to this humble and burning prayer. It is THE Choir’s prayer, unremittingly and firmly renewed.
We pray all together, each one at his own place in the Chapel Hall before an evening rehearsal, or standing around in semicircle preparing a rite; the harmony of these words lets our hearts sing.
The style of our learning adopts new facets: Liturgy is par excellence the space and the time that welcomes and drives us; we patiently linger over the listening of the sacred that gives voice and meaning to the music.
We put ourselves now against a different effort: to draw back in front of the Mystery overwhelming our singing.
The proposal of the choirmaster is insistent but attentive: often he sends us other masters; we can remember Don Vignolo and Father Baroffio’s lessons, as keys to the reading of our history.
We are still walking, with our own pace, step by step, without abrupt jumps or sharp turns.
If sometimes we slow down or we feel tired and confused, immediately we are invited to rest and to become aware of important things: the traditions of the Fathers are marks of already gone paths, and track the way for the next goal.
A far-sighted project drives us, without anxiety, so that no goal may be too ambitious or premature.
There’s a name, the name of each of us, upon the folder containing our musical parts. It is like to be personally named, one by one, to be a voice among the voices, with an always greater inclination to the spirit of service.
The Cantor grows up slowly in consciousness; he recognizes itself in a chant, in his personal style that is intensely akin to him: habitus.

HABITUS

“…we consider the time is ripe to contribute to decorate the sacred action in the Cathedral, arranging an appropriate robe for the Cantors; it will answer to the specific service they are performing” (Don Panzetti, march 1994).
Once again we perceive the sheer but strong plot that drives us along our path.
The Choir receives his own robe; the Cantor wears a tunic that identifies and represents him: the Habitus.
The Bishop himself gives his blessing to the tunic before handing it to each of us. The simple and evocative rite takes place in the Cathedral’s Episcopal Gallery.
I remember the long table in the center of the gallery, adorned with white, anonymous clothes, and I remember us all around, each one in his dress, each one with his own colors… many different voices for a single prayer.
The Bishop calls us by name, one by one, and the tunic moves from his hands to ours: the Cantor wears his identifying and representing tunic: Habitus.
Only a boundless white “impression”: an imprint, a trace, a path. A “blur” that unifies but that doesn’t confuse: a harmony. Dressed like this, we can unanimously raise one chant, thankful and praising hymn.
From that moment on, the faithful assembly, gathered in the liturgical celebration, recognizes the Choir for that Habitus, contemporarily austere and essential. And, by his side, the chorister is vowed to recognize himself in it: this means to accept it, each time like the first one. Everyone can wear a robe, the same robe, to be “equable”, well-ordered, eligible for an occasion, or in someone’s honor.
A robe can be a “uniform”, symbol and sign of a service or of a mandate. Moreover, there’s the robe, humble and familiar, that I can wear “at home”, in the daily routine, spontaneous and authentic image of myself, personal and intimate choice. A service, a cantor, a person: the Habitus.

IN CONCERT

Only now, with “the Tunic”, the Choir is ready to perform in concert.
It is a new experience arousing enthusiasm and trepidation: we are asked for a kind of singing sympathetic and true as much as a ritual singing, and the same dense learning has to be dedicated to a rite as much as to a concert.
We become slowly aware that a new task is given to us: to evoke and amalgamate in our service the two essential aspects of our music: the liturgical and musical aspects.
Without this goal, a concert remains an event, a finishing line, or a good chance to say once and for all “Hey, We’re here!”. What we are experiencing is actually different.
Once we are capable of reading the part, once we know its melody, once we are capable to observe its times and pauses, to get the right rhythm and the right sonority, once we feel its inspiration and its emotion, then we realize that the real learning is actually starting right now.
You knew the Author, his epoch and his style; you learned the content of his work: now you have to interiorize the meaning, and to make your singing resound, to give the right meaning to your voice, to arouse the sacred also in a concert, out of a rite.
Once again the present enlightens the past and induces the readings of something that previously was obscure or underestimate.
I’m thinking back about the “Vespri d’Organo”, one of the first musical ventures in our Cathedral: once a month, on Sunday’s afternoon, the sound of the Organ (sometimes with some other instrument) entertained the people with an almost ritual composure and contemplation.
I remember the musical evening appointments on the first Saturday of the month and the “Course of improvisation”: many valued musicians elevated our spirits with a music worthy of the sacred place (our Cathedral).
At last I recognize those moments as the noble minded assumptions of something today persistently leaved to us as Cantors.

CONTINUITY

If a “continuous” can be there, if a basic and essential harmony can drive us, supporting and perpetuating the Cathedral’s Choir work, it has to be surely this renewed and meaningful marriage between liturgy and music: the continuity and the future of the Choir.
For some time our learning is placed side by side with the learning of a group of young cantors, children and adolescents; they append at their normal schoolwork this new course, learning solfeggio, vocalization, singing and at least a musical instrument. It is an educational project consolidating year by year: The Young’s Choir springs up.
“Not to be forgotten is moreover the reality of the young Cantors, who, while are rigorously learning, are looking at the “adults’ Choir” with admired but critical eye: in a not so distant future, we have to prepare a fully qualified environment, capable of welcoming them, for them” so wrote Don Panzetti in a letter to the Cantors on April, 1993.
Being different the methods and the learning paths, the project is unique: it is the synthesis and the result of the past experiences, a mirror and a guide for the current experiences, foundation and support for the tomorrow.
The Young’s Choir is not just different from the adult’s choir: it is a significant and essential purpose, tradition and future generations. Every year, during a mass for the Cathedral’s Musicians, the rite of the tunic’s benediction and presentation takes place: some young cantor wears the sacred tunic for his first time, as a symbol of their musical ministry in the liturgy. They are called by their name, the same way we were called the first time in the episcopal gallery, and the parish presents them the tunic (Habitus). Its color is red, burning and intense like their age, their mental engagement and the enthusiasm of their heart.
Once dressed, they finally join the cantors: young and adults together became the Musical Chapel of Lodi’s Cathedral.
During the concerts and the rites the white color (certainty of the present) and the red color (serenity for the future) dull themselves and distend themselves in a single Habitus who is the only speaker for all of us.
The Christmas Concert above all is the most significant and beloved expression of our way.

THE TIME IS RIPE

“Since the prefixed path seems to pursue the desired results, and the Musical Chapel members show their maturity in the understanding of the nature and the delicacy of the musical liturgical service…” (Don P. Panzetti, march 1994).
By this time the Cathedral has a firm Choir: the Cantors have made their choice and have taken their place; the time is ripe for more demanding proposal. Order is firmly requested to us. Prayer, silence and thinking start up, support and close our singing and any expression of our activity. The members of the Chapel accept roles and assignments: they are cantors and soloists, teachers and students, archivists, liturgical singing animators, readers, coordinators on the solemn rites and on the concerts. The person reflects herself in the service which is appointed to her, and the service lights up insofar as the person gets possession of it.
A subtle attention supports us and is aimed at each of us, day by day; we are on the path of a genuine and personal relationship addressed to welcome, enhance, understand and sustain.
“Nec tam vocis quam virtutis concentus” (“Not simply a voice’s harmony as much as a concordant expression of values” Tac.).
A choir of Gregorian singing is funded in 1995, and starting with members of the Chapel, it enriches itself with new cantors, conquered by the sober purity of this kind of melody, inexpressibly akin to the Man, unbelievably out of the time.
And so on, step by step, the Musical Chapel of the Cathedral takes shape and substance, as probably was in the original plot, or – maybe – beyond all expectations.
We are trading our path through Faureé (Requiem), Haendel (Messia), Gorecki (Miserere), Vivaldi (Gloria).
However our learning is broader and multiform: Te Deum by Arvo Paert, Magnificat by Bach…and who knows what else in our future.

ON THE ROAD

On March, 4th 1998, the organization “CANTUS – Friends of the Musical Chapel of the Cathedral” rises up. Cantus is the result of the enthusiasm of some people somehow near to the Choir; this is the main reason to identify themselves with the mark “Friends”. The main goal of the Association is the support to the activity of the Musical Chapel, and the effort to enforce his cultural and musical role. Cantus cooperates with the Chapel, supports the learning effort of the Cantors, promotes and organizes the concerts and suggests new ideas and initiatives. The summer festival “Music in the courtyards of the city” will be a usual appointment for the Cantus’ members, who love the pleasure of the music in context of some of the best private courtyards of Lodi. In the summer of the same year (1998) rises up the “Capella Instrumentalis Laudensis”: it is the Musical Chapel own Orchestra. There is coming the year 1999: the whole diocese, including the Musical Chapel, is preparing herself for the Jubilee. It will be a synthesis of memories and experiences used to reappraise our roots and to renew the long path so far covered, revisiting the past steps. We moved our first steps under the S.Bassiano’s ossuary; the “Antifona a S. Bassiano” by master Suzzani gave us the start and still drives us, with his solemnity, intimately ours. It is like in the first years, first in the Dome’s vault and then in front of the great organ. The heritage of our Fathers and Masters guides us without interruption to our future.

THE JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2000

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore translate into meaningful terms, which is in itself ineffable. […]
The Church has need especially of those who can do this on the literary and figurative level, using the endless possibilities of images and their symbolic force.”
“The Church also needs musicians. How many sacred works have been composed through the centuries by people deeply imbued with the sense of the mystery! The faith of countless believers has been nourished by melodies flowing from the hearts of other believers, either introduced into the liturgy or used as an aid to dignified worship. In song, faith is experienced as vibrant joy, love, and confident expectation of the saving intervention of God.” (John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 1999, Easter of Resurrection).
BASSIANUS
Sunday November the 4th, 2000: the Musical Chapel and the “Capella Instrumentalis Laudensis” perform in the Cathedral the Oratorio “Bassianus – Confessor ac Episcopus Laudensis”, composed ad-hoc by Master Mariano Suzzani. It is a very important step, which lets mature us from the theological and musical angle.
“The music […] strives to rebuild the ancient medieval modes. The composer has naturally assigned an overriding importance at the Gregorian lesson, particularly in the close and reciprocal cooperation between the melodic line and the words; there are moreover clearly detectable references to the baroque peculiarity typical of the musical shape of the oratorio.”: this is the expression of the musical critic Quirino Principe on the occasion of the presentation of the Opera to the town, on January 11th, 2000.
The writing, edited by Ettore Garioni, retraces the whole life of the Saint, as it is told by eucological sources, revisits the miracles and enriches the whole story with a higher spiritual content; this last radiates from the biblical quotes and from the psalms accompanying the most important episodes and the miraculous interventions of the Bishop in our diocese.
We are reserving the highest obligation in learning and trying this opera which will remain in the time as an evidence of the eternal devotion of the whole city to his patron.
The oratorio Bassianus is also a significant contribution to the Lodi’s tradition and artistic heritage.
The holiness of Bassiano, the music by Mariano Suzzani: our tribute to our diocese extends itself from the second to the third millennium.

GAUDIUM

On February 12th, 2000, the presentation of our cd “Gaudium – Improvvisazioni organistiche su brani gregoriani” happens during the celebration of the Artists jubilee. In this album Mariano Suzzani performs improvisations inspired by "Misteri Gaudiosi” performed by the Gregorian choir of the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral. The recording, edited by Cantus, is carried out just in our cathedral.
The album proposes to the audience a peculiar venture which drives the listener – starting from a theme of religious devotion, precisely the Misteri Gaudiosi – to the highest musical shapes of the variation and improvisation.
“[…]It isn’t a weird operation, outside of any ecclesiastical context” - writes Giacomo Baroffio in the foreword of the album – “It rises from a need perceived by a community walking for some year toward God, being driven by the music too. A music that in the liturgy is personally experienced by virtue of the choir, which sings representing the assembly, and is capable of involving the people in the right moments: the whole thing by the point of view of the listening of the Word, which is always the primary goal[...]”.
Gaudium, by virtue of his originality and his quality, represents for sure an authoritative contribution to the artistic heritage of the city and the diocese of Lodi; we would however it could above all succeed in - as Baroffio says – “express the faith with such a tension that is typical of the Christian religious experience, always charged to the duty of finding the balance between the ineffable-divine and the explicable-human day by day, between past and present, between human – and first of all divine word, music and silence”.

THE JOURNEY
After such a dense experience like the one of the year of jubilee, based on two completely new operas, with a musical language “modern and at the same time endowed with an archaic flavor” (G.Baroffio), our sensation is like to be on a journey: we are leaving a goal to set another one.
Christmas Concert 2001: it is the time of the wonderful Weinachts Oratorium by J.S.Bach, and something more. “This year my journey has been the Dixit”: with this keen assertion don Piero paints the real significance of the Dixit Dominus by G.F. Handel for himself and for the whole Chapel. This work has been performed by the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral featuring the Capella Instrumentalis Laudensis on June 28th, 2002, at the Cathedral on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bishop Giacomo Capuzzi priesthood. The preparation of this sophisticated sacred composition requested a long year of dense and demanding learning.
Thinking about the music and the singing is not enough: at bottom it was actually a “journey”, a course sometime straight and sometime tortuous, made by steps always compulsory, and often not so easy to be achieved. Each step was a starting point for a new going ahead on an uphill road, toward a new goal, on a field of which the difficulty was decreasing as we were going into it.
Learning and performing the Dixit Dominus has been involving first to make ourselves familiar with the language of the magnificent psalm 110, interiorizing if not understanding the message in terms of faith and prayer, catching the spirit of the composer in his work and trying to express it in the best possible way.
The concert was the final goal, but the journey toward it was really unforgettable and pregnant. Notwithstanding the fact that the year 2002 has been marked by the preparation of the Dixit Dominus, the learning and the operation of the Musical Chapel continue toward further goals.
On Saturday, march the 16th, The Chapel performs at the Teatro alle Vigne the Via Crucis by Liszt; on May 11th, at the Cathedral, the applicant children perform for the first time a concert expressly written for them by don Piero Panzetti: “Il Tesoro di Dio”, a cantata for solo, choir and basso continuo. It is a special result of a whole year of hard job for the children, their teachers (words by Manuela Magli) and some young cantor, under the direction of the master.
Finally, on the occasion of the Christmas Concert, December 23rd , the Bach’s Magnificat will be performed, while the Gregorian Choir is diligently learning, concentrating on the ancient Codes that are treasuring the S.Bassiano liturgy.

PRAYER AND SINGING
Each singing lesson starts and closes with a prayer; especially at the end of the Saturday’s lesson, the whole Choir utters some invocation to the Lord (in modo retto), listening and meditating a Bible’s paragraph; then at the end of the meditation they say “Beatus vir cuius est auxilium abs te. Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit” (Ps.111/112).
For the learning year 2001/2002 the usual Latin phrase has been enriched by its own four voices melody, and the Choir sings it in the Chapel, before the Mass.
However the emotion of an actual praise to the Lord preparing for singing rises just from the heart’s prayer, as we are used to say in a grateful way in the short time preceding our silence and preparing the rite:
“How much I’ve cried, my Lord, while listening the hymns and the songs in thy honor, strongly moved by the voices of your Church so sweetly singing! That voices were vibrating in my ears, and the truth was going deep into my heart, and anything changed itself in love emotion and I was joyous so to dissolving myself in tears.” (S. Agostino – Confessions).

UNIVERSALITY…
“Continuing as a matter of fact the ancient biblical tradition, to which the same Lord and the Apostles obeyed (cfr Mt 26,30; Ef 5,19; Col 3,16), The Church has always favored the singing during the liturgies, offering in the context of any culture many marvelous examples of melodic comment to the sacred books in both Eastern and Western rites” (John Paul II, Chirograph about the Sacred Music, 22 November 2003).
Year 2003. If the Holy Week has been presented by the sixteenth-century not of Roland de Lassus “Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem”, the Rachmaninov’s “All Vigil Vespers” (1915, op. 37) has been ranging the Cathedral for the Christmas concert. For such an occasion, with the Chapel were singing some Cantors from the Choir of the Milan Orthodox Church: a peculiar experience to which the Chapel has been preparing by means of learning and reflection, and with a tour to the Bose Community, where the Prior Enzo Bianchi gave a dense lesson about “Orthodoxy and Liturgy”.

…AND DEVOTION
“The last century […] knew an extraordinary development of the sacred folksong, about which the “Sacrosantum Concilium” says <<The sacred folksong must be strongly promoted, so that in the pious and sacred exercises and in the liturgical actions […] the voice of the believers could resonate>>. Such song is especially suitable for the involvement of the believers not only into the devotional practices […], but also into the liturgical action. Indeed the folksong can be <<a constraint of cohesion and a joyous expression of the praying community, and it promotes the proclamation of the one and only faith, and donates an unequaled and rapt gravity to the great liturgical assemblies>> (John Paul II, Chirograph about the Sacred Music)”.
The year 2003 is also the time of the recording and the publishing of two CD dedicated to Maria: “Ave Nobilis – Songs to God’s Mother from the folk tradition to the classic literature”, a collection of folksongs and classic songs (from Gregorian to contemporary compositions), and “Lodiamo Maria – Marian songs from folk tradition, performed by the Choir of the young Cantors.

The Young Cantors SCHOOL
“Therefore you have an important role in the life of the Church. You are the little messengers of the Beauty. The world needs your singing, because the language of the Beauty touches the heart and gives his own contribute to the meeting with God. […]
You are also messengers of the Faith. Guiding the listeners to the preying and to the contemplation with the quality of your singing is not enough; since the sacred music is an integral part of the Church’s liturgy, your singing helps the believers going through God, especially during the Eucharistical celebrations” (John Paul II, Congress of International Federation of Pueri Cantores, December, the 31th 1999).
Year 2004: The School for Young Cantors is actually dawning. The Goal of the School is the training of the “youngest” who, attending the primary school, aspire to become cantors in the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral. It is not only musical training but also education to the Beauty, to the servicing, to the praying and to the spirit of the liturgical celebration.
It is a highly involving experience, not only for the children but also for some young cantors delegated to be educators and trainers, asked for transmitting the same gifts they received and interiorized.
What beautiful voices have been grown in the young Cantors group.

VIVIFICE SPIRITUS VITAE VIS
“The invocation of the Holy Spirit resounds often in the Church: Veni Creator Spiritus… - <<Come, Creator Spirit, visit our minds, fill the hearts you created with your grace>>. The Holy Spirit, the Breath (ruah) is the one who is described in the Genesis Book: <<The Earth was formless and deserted and the darkness was covering the abyss and the Spirit of God hovered on the Waters>>(1,2). How much affinity between the terms “breath”, “exhalation” and “inspiration”! The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the Universe. In the perspective of the third millennium, I would wish to all artists to receive abundantly the gift of those creative inspirations being the starting point of any genuine Artwork.”(John Paul II, Letter to the Artists).
The Year 2004 is above all a studying and preparing time: the Handel Four Coronation Anthems notes (which will be performed in the Christmas Concert occasion) are not enough; another Musical piece starts to resound through the walls of the Choir’s room. It is a completely new work, expressly written on commission by and for the Lodi’s Cathedral. “Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis – Carme in Holy Spirit” for soloists, choir and Grand Organ has been written as a tribute to the Cathedral and its Bishop Jacob Capuzzi at the end of his service as Shepherd of the diocese.
Once again Ettore Garioni wisely selects and edits the texts, wholly derived from the Old Testament and entrusted to the peculiar competency of the author Guido Morini: it is a fellowship of intents and inspiration with the Chapel Master, Don Piero Panzetti.
“As in the previous occasion, at the beginning of the third millennium, was produced the Oratorium “Bassianus”, with this new work the intent is the prosecution of that track, because of the belief that the intertwining between Art and Faith and between the Ancient and the New are opening the mystery of the Sacred to the man capable to listen even considering the differences between the languages”(Ettore Garioni, Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis, edited for the first performance of the concert).
There is nothing more eloquent than the words used to tell the work by those who contributed to its birth.
The Carmen has been performed for the first time by the Musical Chapel in the Cathedral on june the 5th 2005.

“SILETE VENTI!”
In the occasion of the Christmas concert of this same year – M.A. Charpentier, Te Deum and Messe de Minuit – a lively collaboration between the Musical Chapel and the orchestra “Silete Venti!” starts. This orchestra has been formed by the will of a group of young musicians coming from many countries, friends of the Chapel and having in common the desire of promoting the philological learning of the classic repertoire (especially of the baroque repertoire).

BELONGING
“At last I would still remember what disposed by Pious X at the operative level, in order to encourage the actual use of the suggestion indicated in the “Motu Proprio”. Speaking to the Bishops, he prescribed the establishment of “a special commission made up by people strongly skilled in Sacred Music” in their dioceses. In the cases in which such disposition was applied we can notice that the results weren’t missing. Currently there are many commissions[…] offering their precious contribute in the field of the preparation of local repertoires, and trying to apply a discernment that get advantage of the high quality of words and music. I hope that the Bishops will continue to give support to the effort of these commissions, promoting their efficacy in the pastoral area […](John Paul II, Chirograph about the Sacred Music)
“Impropriating of the instance of my predecessor, I wish encourage the worshippers of the Sacred Music to pursue this path. It is important to sharpen the reflection about music and liturgy, as in the intent of this Symposium […] (Benedict XVI, Message about the Day of the Study of the Sacred Music, December 1th 2005).
Meanwhile Benedict XVI, successor of the beloved John Paul II, pursues the same brave and enlightened journey starting on his own pontificate, the Lodi’s diocese prepare itself to welcome the new Bishop. On December 17th 2005 the Musical Chapel with the whole Lodi’s Church, greets the entrance of S.E. Mons. Giuseppe Merisi, brighten up the solemn rite with music and singing.
The following year – 2006 – will be one of the most exciting, in terms of music: the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth generates a lot of efforts at international level. The Musica Chapel will dedicate to the great composer, beloved by the Pope, the Christmas concert, performing the Vesperae Solennes de Confessore and the Kronungmesse KV 317. Moreover, with the participation of Silete Venti!, the Musical Chapel will offer his collaboration for the fulfillment of two days intensely organized – may 27th and 28th - promoted by the Lodi’s administration with the patronage of the Saltsburg’s Mozarteum.
On October, 7th 2006, the Musical Chapel performs in the Cathedral the Joshua: it is the first of the three most famous Handel’s oratories that will be performed during three years. Therefore Joshua opens a journey that will move close musicians and listeners to three biblical characters very significant and emblematic in the history of the Salvation.
Last but not least, the year 2006 marks another important step: in the new “Statute and regulations of the Cathedral church of Lodi” wanted and published by the Bishop Giuseppe Merisi, the Musical Chapel is effectively recognized as an integral and essential part of the Cathedral church.
“The Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral is an ecclesial institute constituted with the following goals:
a) provide musical service to the Cathedral’s liturgy, granting privilege to the celebrations presided by the Bishop;
b) divulgate the religious culture by means of the Sacred Music.
The Master is responsible of the Musical Chapel, fully in keeping with the Bishop, the Rector and the Master of ceremonies” (Statute and regulations of the Cathedral church of Lodi, Art. 6, December 3dh 2006).

CATHEDRALS
“The language of a Cathedral is made up
Of stones, colors, lights,
Scents, silences, Presence…
A musical chapel just wants
To become voice of a harmony like that.
By the way of the sounds
What is beyond becomes reachable:
The heart of God, the heart of the Man
(don Pietro Panzetti)

This is “Cathedrals – the Musical Chapels”, the yearly season strongly wanted by S.E. Giuseppe Merisi, Bishop of Lodi, and promoted by the Lodi’s Cathedral, his Musical Chapel and the National Service of CEI for the cultural project of the Church.
“I think that, starting by this year, it is fine for the Cathedral to invite the Musical Chapels of Italian and European Cathedrals with their history and their Life.
The Musical Chapel of a Cathedral is the place where the sounds are nourished and protected. Such a task, lovely pursued and with a careful learning of the relationships between the sounds, is the habitat where the people devoted to the music grows: the cantors, the organist, the chapel master. These persons attend thoroughly the Cathedral; […] they discover his harmoniousness and adapt to it, until they feel themselves part of it.
[…] Being grown myself in the bosom of such richness, I wanted the season “Cathedrals” because the spirit of a musical chapel could spread more to turn to beauty’s advantage.”(Pietro Panzetti, workshop for the first edition of the season “Cathedrals”, concerts libretto, October 2007).
Starting with 2007, every year in October the Lodi’s Cathedral will resound of the notes of his Musical Chapel but also of the melodies and the voices of some of the most important European and Italian musical chapels sharing the same love for the richness and the beauty that only the music can communicate.
Therefore, time by time, the guests with their music and their voices has been: the Lodi’s Cathedral, the Cremona’s Cathedral, the Milan Dome, the Regensburg’s Domspatzen in 2007, Fiesole’s Cathedral and the Montserrat’s Escolania in 2008, Bressanone’s Cathedral in 2009.
For this season the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral performs – after the Joshua – two more Handel’s oratories: Judas Maccabaeus (October 2007) and Esther (October 2008), concluding his journey in 2009 with the solemn Passio Domini nostri Jesu Chrsiti secundum Joannem by Arvo Part, performed by youngest cantors as choir and six skilled soloists.

LITURGY…
“Regarding the liturgical musical compositions, I get possession of the <<general law>> that Pious X formulated by this way: <<The more a church composition is sacred and liturgical, the more it moves near to the Gregorian melody by its pace, by its inspiration and by its flavor, the more it distinguish itself from that supreme model>>. We shouldn’t copy the Gregorian singing, we should instead make it happen that the new compositions are pervaded by the same spirit that roused and progressively modeled such a singing. Just an artist strongly engrossed by the “sensus Eccleasiae” can try to feel and translate in melodies the Truth of the Mystery celebrated in the liturgy” […](John Paul II, Chirograph about the Sacred Music).
In the whole range of time – 20 years from that distant 1999 that marked the beginning of the “history” of the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral – the main theme is always one; it marks the journey and is never lost, and it always allows to come back home: the singing into the liturgy and for the liturgy.
Starting in 1998, a repertoire of liturgical chants composed by the Master Don Pietro Panzetti for the Cathedral is slowly constituted. The repertoire deals mainly about songs (or parts of songs) in unison, designed for choir and assembly, and about polyphonic songs designed for the choir voices alone.
In any of these songs (starting with the first – “Credo, Signore, Amen” (1998) – and continuing with the following “Beate Bassiane” (2000), “Beatus vir” (2001), “Ne derelinquas me, Domine” (2002), “Veni Redemptor gentium” (2004), “Beata Mater” and “Dirigatur, Domine, oratio mea” (2006), until the latter “Confessor Domini, Bassiane” (2008) composed in the occasion of the XVI centennial of the Lodi’s diocese’s patron – naming just the most significant polyphonic works), we can see clearly the peculiar aptitude of Don Panzetti for the Gregorian singing.

…AND CONCERTS
“By the intrinsic need of the talking with God and of the singing to Him with the words He himself gave us, has been born the great Western Music. It wasn’t just a private “creativity” in which someone builds a monument to himself, having essentially as criterion a representation of him. It was instead a careful recognition made with the “ears of heart” of the intrinsic laws of the music of the creation: the essential shapes of the music God put into his world and into the man, and was too the way to find a music worthy of God, and really worthy of Man and resounding his dignity with clearness.( Benedict XVI, Speech to the world of Culture, France, Collège des Bernardins, September 12th, 2008).
In the meantime, together with the following one another of the Christmas Concerts offered to the city of Lodi – “Ave Maria”, the Psalms 42 and 115 and “Hör mein Bitten” by Mendelssohn in 2007, “Gloria” and “Beatus Vir” by Vivaldi in 2008 – the requests of performances of “Vivifice Spiritus Vitae Vis” are often renewed (firstly at the parish church of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa in Milan, then in Locarno, then once again at the Bose’s Community). Lastly, to celebrate the 1600 years since the death of our Patron, on April 18th 2009 in Lodi’s Cathedral and on April 19th 2009 in Casalpusterlengo’s parish church, the Musical Chapel performed the oratorio “Bassianus - Confessor ac Episcopus laudensis” 9 years after the first performance.

INSTRUMENTS…
“Once again, at practical level, the Motu Proprio, for which is celebrated the first centennial, deals with the question of the musical instruments to be used in the Latin liturgy. The preponderance of the pipe organ is recognized without hesitation, and about its use there are specific rules. The Vatican II council fully acknowledged the direction of my holy predecessor asserting: <<In the Latin Church great honor should be acknowledged to the pipe organ, traditional instrument the sound of which is able to add marvelous brightness to the church’s ceremonies and to highly raise the spirits to God and to celestial things>>. […] We nevertheless need to watch in order that the instruments could be always adapted to the sacred use, suitable to the dignity of the temple and able to sustain the believers singing encouraging their edification.” (John Paul II, Chirograph about the Sacred Music).
The pipe organ of the Cathedral (Serassi, 1835) is the instrument that always accompanies the rites animated by the Musical Chapel and our singing during the liturgy.
There is also a little treasure that enriches the Musical Chapel, made of noble and precious instruments.
“Ex ligno voces” is the name of an ensemble of flautists recently established within the Cathedral. "Wood Voices”, “Voices from the wood”…the musicians seem to be forgotten: which is the source of the sound? Who is the singer? The wooden instruments are talking, singing, and maybe telling. They are the leading actors: a consort of seven renaissance flutes preciously made by Li Virghi upon request of the Musical Chapel. Around these seven flutes the quintet of flautists has been constituted (all of them are professionals and teachers in the fields of ancient Music and of musicological research), and every Sunday meet in the choir’s room to learn and test. We had listen to them in June, flutes and flautists without discrimination, clear and suggestive voices into the beautiful frame of the ex-monastery of Santa Chiara Nuova; we will listen to them again on a CD published by the Musical Chapel.
Other wooden instruments are present in the history of the Musical Chapel.
The portable pipe organ made in Holland (Gerrit en Henk Klop) is a valuable copy of an instrument of the XVI century: by many years it accompanies with his soft acoustics generated by the wooden pipes, our efforts, our emotions and our joy due to the concert preparations and performances.
The new baby grand piano (Schimmel), in the choir’s room, is a faithful companion and gives his support to our weekly learning. Oh, it hears the voices sketching out and warming up, it hears the singing rising shyly: in these situations it encourages and sustains the choir with its sound so sure and stout, until the singing is ready to fly.
Finally, there is also an Italian harpsichord, elective instrument for the Handel Oratorios.

…AND MUSICIANS
“Playing together as soloists requires by each person not only the engagement of all his technical and musical abilities performing his own part, but also – always – the skill of realizing to draw himself back for a careful listening of the other voices.
Only if this happens, that is if everyone doesn’t put himself at the center, rather he enter in the whole set with spirit of service and put himself on hand as “instrument” so that the thought of the composer can became sound and can reach the heart of the listeners, the performance will be actually great […]. This is a valuable imagine for us too, who in the Church’s scope commit ourselves to became “instruments” to communicate to the people the thought of the great “Composer”, the work of which is the harmony of the universe. (Benedict XVI, Speech in occasion of the Philharmonia Quartett Berlin concert, November 18th, 2006).
We couldn’t talk about instruments without remember the value and the service of whom are giving voice to the instruments themselves.
The Musician gives his service in the Musical Chapel and is actually who – with such a self-sacrifice – offers his own art in the name of the true Beauty.
This is particularly true for Elvira Soresini – already an excellent piano player – who with passion and competency dedicate herself to the duties of organist and teacher since the first steps of the Musical Chapel.
Her touch is always wise and elegant, both with the pipe organ and with the piano – her main instruments during the concerts and the rites – and in each moment of the history of the Musical Chapel we can read her discreet, careful, humble and high-skilled presence.

PAST PRESENT AND FUTURE
The history of the Musical Chapel of Lodi’s Cathedral is also written – and is presently writing – in many living evidences on its journey, and in the zealous service many people is giving in order that any Chapel’s achievement could be communication of the same beauty we can find in the music and the singing.
The organists and the cantors animating and leading the assembly during the Sunday’s rites, are telling the tale of the Chapel, and the young teachers are doing the same thing, and so are doing the archivist and the driver of the mini-bus transporting the children between home and the choir’s room. The people that take care of the logistics of the concerts are telling the same tale, and the subscribers of the Cantus association are doing the same. In short, any people that support in various ways the learning, the activities and the initiatives are telling the true tale of the Chapel.
Moreover, the history of the Chapel is written also in the librettos of the concert programs, in the banners hanging on the cathedral façade, painted on the inviting cards or printed in the press releases announcing each concert.
It is written also in a little rice paper strip, hand painted by an artist and treasuring three short prayers; the cantors use it each time a learning or a service session is starting.
To “make” music a single instrument suffices (and the human voice is an instrument), but many well accorded instruments can always renew the music…and so the history of the Musical Chapel of the Lodi’s Cathedral carries on.