The life of Benigno Zerafa ( 1726- 1804 )

A maltese composer of sacred music.

Among the hundreds of musical manuscipts discovered locked away in one of

the cupboards of the sacristy of the cathedral of Malta in 1969 was the entire
collection of sacred works by Benigno zerafa . Zerafa , who served as maestro
di cappella at the Cathedral of St. Paul at Mdina fom 1744 ti 1786 , was the
leading Maltese composer of sacred music of the mid-eighteenth century. His
compositional style reveals him to be a composer of the Neapolitan Galant
the period linking the outgoing late baroque with the oncoming classical age.
Along with other scores, the Zerafa collection was transferred from the sacristy
to the premises of the Archives of the Cathedral of Malta, then , the old
seminary- also at Mdina, where it was professionally catalogued and shelved.
This event proved to be a landmark in the late twentieth century Maltese
musical life: a find that has brought to light musical wonders left untouched for
many decades .

Benigno Zerafa was born in Rabat, Malta on 25th August 1726, and baptised on
the same day in the Cathedral Church at Mdina. His godparents, the nobles
Caietano Monpalao Apap and Baroness Antonia Castelletti, gave him Caietano
as his second name.
His father was surgeon as profession.
Early years-
He regularly attended church with his parents, and may have inherited the
fondness for religious discipline through
is older brother Giovanni Battista who had already taken holy orders.

Beningno firs encounter with sacred music and singing came when he was
eight. On 1st May 1735 along with his brother Giuseppe, was appointed to
serve in the Cathedral church of Mdina as a diaconus or clricus chori.
Bishop of Malta, appointed the 11 yr old Beningno di voce soprano) to the
cappella musicale, serving under Don Puetro Gristi matestro di cappella of the
Cathedral. ( and an increase in his salary)

Pietro Gristi
(1696-1738)
From Rabat
Served as soprano in the Cappella musicale until 1713
Whtn twith financial assistance of the Cathedral chapter, he was sent to
complete his musical studies in Naples at the conservatorio dei poveri di
Gesu Cristo, returning to Malta in 1717
On his return he was appointed Maestro di cappella of the Cathedral
Chuch and followed a career there util his untimely death in 1738.
He was Benigno Musical director at the Cathedral from 1737-1738
Beningo Zerafa was appointed maestro di cappella after him.. in 1744
A small number of his compositions are preserved in the archives of
Cospicua Parish.
Amongst them are: Messa Breve in D major (1729) ,Beatus Vir (1729) ,
and Nisi Dominus.
At the young age of 11, Zerafa went to Naples to received musical training
at the same conservatorio Gristi attended ( Poveri di Gesu Cristo). From
mid 11738..
Zerafa enrolled in the conservatory as a convittore ( boarding student).
By the time he was 17 , Zerafa managed to complete three compositions.
Two of them major, large scale works include : A due cori , that is for two
choirs , two orchestras and soloists: The first , a Dixit Dominus dated 1743)
and the second a Messa di Gloria (sept. 1743 )
The third composition a kyrie Gloria Mass , is more concise worke, October
1743. In the conservatoire. He has a Maltese teacher Girolamo Abos ,
Pg 24
Pg 32
Benigno was ordained priest at the Episcopal Palace at Valleta by Bishop
Alpheran de Bussan on 19th September 1750 at the age of twenty four.

Pg 32 :
Two of Zerafas majore compositions : A due cori ( both in Gamjore ) the
Dixit Domunus: were composed at a fast rate. The mass took him only 15
days to complete.

Zerafa did not restrict his posisition as maestro di Cappella of the cathedral
chuch , but also conducted the music for the feast of st.Publius at Rabat
from 1764 till 1784,and rendered other services to st.Peters monatery and
the Carmelite prioriy both at Mdina.
Zerafa served also as official maestro tdi cappella at St.publius too. Until
1784.

GiUseppe and Domenico Balzano :

Both served as maestri di Cappella at Mdina Cathedral. Giuseppe Balzano
(1616-1700) was ordained priest in 1640 and served at St. Pauls Shipwreck
Church at Valletta. In 1661 he was appointed maestro di cappella of the
cathedral church , a post which was interrupted twice by absences and
which he retained until his retirement in 1699. Giuseppe was a prolific
composer: a repertory of musical scores completed in 1710 listst over 170
works including a large number of Masses, vesper, psalms, hymns,
sequences and Motetes , many of them as 8 voci . However , only a few of
these survived, among thema number of cantatas and motets, including the
earliest surviving work a Beatus Vir from 1652.

Domenico Balzano ( his brother .. 1632- 1707) , was ordained priest in 1657
at the age of twenty five and was employed as a musico salariato at the
church of the Order of st.John , Valletta, from 1657 onwards. Folliwng in his
brothers footsteps, he left the church of St.John and went on to erve at St.
Pauls Shipwrck chuch in Valletta until he succeeded Giuseppe as maestro di
cappella of the Cathedral at Mdina in 1699, a post he retained until his death
at the age of seventy five in 1707. The only surviving work by Domenico is a
Venite Omnes ( for Soprano, alto and continuo 1680) .
According to Irene Calagna, Both Giuseppe and Domenico Balzano directed
the music involving two choirs at the Jesuits Church in Valletta on the
occasion of the feast of San Francesco Saverio.

Zerafa stayed in Naples for 6 years , and returned to Malta in 1774.

Beningno began his career at Mdina as Maestro di Cappella, one that lasted
until 1786.

The effect of Naples on Malta can be witnessed in the purchase of

instruments, too.

Pg 76 and see chp 5 , and chp 9

Techiniques adopted by the composer in the composition of scared voal
music for the main sevices practiced in the cathedral : most imp. Being the
vespers mass and the mass) usually fell into 3 classes: 1) full voiced, syllabic,
choral declamation( occasionally doubling choir), with no special emphasis
being fiven to the verses. 2) an openly madrigalian style represented by few
voied pieces ith basso continuo and Stile Concertato ; which involves a choir
or choirs , soloists, and orchtestra/s in which each verse receives individual
treatment ( multi sectional with a number of arias) . Amont the three
concertato style was an especially important dimension of baroque
compositional practice, in which vocal and instrumental forces were
combined and contrasted. By the advent of the Late Baroque, the advance in
toal thinking had a direct bearing on the time scale of the orchestral and
concerted type of Mass ( and psalm) composition.

Pg 123
 Zerafa commonly opens his Masses with a composite movement divided into
3 sections : 1) kyrie eleison slow and homophonic..2) Christe eleison fast
fugal and 3) kyrie eleison slow and homophonicic.

The Gloria movement in zerafa is usually divided into 2 sections : Gloria in

excelsis Deo and Et in terra pax.
Zerafa also has a fondness for constructing multipartite movements, the
form of which follows a tripartite structure, with sections separated by a
double arline, a change of key and a change of metre, and containing a
distinct middle section. In his masses He employs a tripartite structure
involving three movements in succession, the outer two structurally linked
through a smiliarity in thematic substance, key, metre, tempo,
instrumentation , legngth and occasionally also text. The term tripartite by
succession, was coined by Frederic aquilina to mean 3 consecutive micro
movements which form on larger macro. In the messa a due cori this
appears as :

1 ) VI Qui tollis , 15 bars SATB x2 Gminor , 4/4 Largo Assai

2) VII Qui Tollis (2) , 107 bars , Bass solo, Eflat Major, 4/2 Allegro assai
3) VIII Qui Sedes , 15 bars, SATBx2 , Gminor, 4/4 , Largo assai ( same music as VI
but different text)

Pg 125
According to Heinrich Christoph Koch ( 1749-1816) this is what makes a galant
style : 1) the numerous elaborations of the melody and divisions of the principal
melodic notes, 1) the numerous breaks and pauses in the melody 3) the
frequent changes in the rhythmic elelments , 4) the lining up of melodic figures
that do not have a close relationship with each other 5) a less intricate harmony
and 6) the remaining voices generally serve to acoompany the main voice.
Richly intertwining vocal lines, with thin textures, featuring short snatches of
melody and repeated thematic motifs.
Zerafa wrote 8 a due cori works : four masses , and three psalms ( dixit dominus
. ) all scored for two SATB choirs , two orchestras and soloists, except for a
set of responsore per la settimana santa.. which are scored for twoSATB choirs
accompanied by two organs without supporting orhestras.

Pg 135 In the galant style there were three type of cadential formulas : cadenza
semplice, cadenza composta and cadenza doppia ( the type Zerafa used to use
in his church music) .
In Zerafa mass in D (1743) from bar 60 onwards he introduces a scheme of the
Romanesca. The Romanesca is of Italian origin and can be traced back to the
sixteenth century, becoming one of the most popular grounbasses employed
extremely popular by the first half of the eighteenth century, especially in slow
movements.
Zerafa presfers the leaping variant.
( Abos in his messa a due cori places the Romanesca towards the beginning in
similar fashion.. )

Pg 227 Beatus Vir ( 1753)

Half way through this Beatus Vir , the composer embellished the words lumen
rectis ( alight dawn in darkness) with two , solid, block chordal flashes of tutti
interjections by the four-voice choir, separated on either side by rests,
symbolically likened to light penetrating through darkness. This is followed by
passage sun by the solo basses, who reciterate the words misericors (merciful)
and miserator ( kind) , supported by a deft harmonic progression. Deprating
from tonic harmony ( D major ) the progression passes through G major to
Amajor and then to F sharp major via A sharp in the bass) and on the B minor (
relative minor key of Dmajoir). The composer then transforms the B minor chord
into a Bmajor seventh in third inversion , enabling him to pivot the motion
directly in the direction of the chord of G# majore ( dominant of C#minor) . The
instrumetns , playing a semiquaver figure move in anticipation of the harmny,
dragging the bass behind them. After an emphasis on the C # minor chord, this
is transformed into one of A major ( IV of E ) via C# in the bass; the progression
then proceeds to Emajor , which tonality is finally established. This is an example
of Zerafas finely conceived harmonic plans typifying Late baroque practice by
employing a varied ragnge of secondary triads and modulation.

http://repository.divinity.edu.au/1363/1/Divall_thesis.pdf

Galant style: is strongly evident in the extensive use of triplet figurations

dominating movement II , III and Iv or confitebor In D.

In the conclusion section of zerafa book :

Zerafa took a primary role in the shaping of Maltese contemporary artistic
history- a logay that surviiva physically I his collection of manuscripts. His music
earned him society arisitng from a system of social privilege , which sonsisted in
hos much repscet people could earn from their fellowmen, ,te title signor
marked out the priviledged person from the commoner. ( il signor Rev.vDon
Benigno Zerafa, maestro di cappella ) .
Zerafa occupied the exalted position of maestro di cappella that the
ecclesiastical authorities had awarded him, and his imp. In Maltese culture as
virtually the sole exponent in his generation of contemporary church music in
Malts, coupled with the intrinsic c merid of this contributions, remains, so far
unchallenged.

Towards the end of first half of the 18th century , when Zerafa was composing
his early works, baroque and galant styles overlapped as a consequence of
stylistic modernisation. IT is only natural that when a style senses tha ti tis being
replaced by a newer one, It attempts to borrow sources from the more modern
idiom In order to revitalise itself. Composers of the mid-18th century were still
deeply rooted in the baroque, making the galant more of an epilogue to the
baroque thana prelude to the classical period. In fact, numerous historian s have
still had its rotts in the vocal polyphony of the previous two centuries.
Galant style flourished in 1720 in Naples, spreading to all major cities in
mainlandEurope,,,
Vincipergolesi..leo etc became the crown of the neopolitan galant style.
Amongst the characteristcs of the new simplified galant style were: 1) the
increasing elimination of the more difficult melodic intervals 2) the increasingly
symmetrical and balanced melodic phrases 3) the increased use of triplets in
melodic themes 4) the repeated employment of dominated settigns, the sually
independent bass line taking on a more unassuming role by emphasising
repeated notes 6 ) the animation of rhythmic pattersn , often ulitately dericed
from dance types by syncopations and mistures harmonic progressions of late
baroque style by simpler harmonies and a unison writing fro strings.
These characteristics broadly inform Zerafas style.
The greater part of Zerafas major works come from the years 1743- 59 , when
his personal compositional style was determined : 107 out of 148 are pre-1759,
and these include seven a due cori works.
Zerafas compositional display a mixture of old and new styles that exemplify
the methods of composition commonly practised in the central decades of the
eighteenth century. His music in general harbours an important feature that
characterises the linear style of his melodies: the prolific use of the triplet figure
, and ingredient of the galant style. Further, the predominance of the major
mode in Zerafa is common feature of music composed during the mid-18th
century. The galant period greatly favoured the major over the minor mode.
The presence of figured bass in all Zerafas works is an indisputable indication of
his late-baroque heritage, it is equally true that it continued to be used up to the
early 19th century, esp. for church music.
Zerafas earliest influences came indirectly from Gristi and lasted from 1737 (
zerafa was serving as an altar boy at mdina cathedral from 1735 readilty
absorbing the first concepts of sontemporary Neapolitan sacre music) to March
1738. This was a period duringwhich Zerafa seved as a choirboy, performing
mainly sacred compositions written by Gristi. Zerafa absorbed between 1738
and 1744 while inNAples,. Studied at the Conservatorio sei Poveri di Gesu Cristo
under such distinguisehed teachers as Feo and Abos, and may have also been
taught by Durante, prota , Leo or Fago.
There was similarity with the works of Vinci and Pergolesi. As well as Vivaldi.

Not all Zerafas works can be classified as galant, in their entirety . movements
or sections within works ( asuch as choral fugures and the concertato
movements for two choirs) may still be classed as late baroque. Indded ungallant
.features cominant in zerafas music indlue: 1) dramatic wide elaps in the violing
and voice 2) fragmented rythms interspersed with rests 3) sharp dyamic
contrasts of forte and piano dolce 4) striking chromaticism 5) unison writing for
strings reminiscent of the ritornello of rage aria and 5 ) the use of antiphony in
choral writing with instrueents, which goes back to the early baroque. .

In addition Zerafas compositions are distinguished by a fully established tonliaty

and conventional formal devises: they employ copiously melodic and harmonic
sequnces, sequential chains of seventh chors, the rhetorical use of the
diminished sevenths chord, long series of descending 6/3 chords, the use of
thromatic harmony of repressive effect, the linearrl horizontal dimention of his
polyphonic textures, all these are unmistakable feature of the late baroque.

274 .. onwards (cont. from here)

In his earliest works Zerafa mixed soo voice with choir..
A Zerafas typical feature : having A solo soprano who is supported by the
remainder of the choir, treated as ripieni , who sing the ritornellos
homophonically.
Cum-sancto Spiritu-Amen as a bisectional structure comprising a slow
introduction followed by a fugue .
Zerafas fugues start with a complete exposition, then embark on free
imitative writing
Zerafas concept of functional harmony encompassed, within the broad
spectrum of tonality, the wide use of secondary triads and modulation
based around a small set of keys whose tonic chords are diatonic triads
within the home key.
Regular use of sequence ( both modulating and non modulating,
employed to affirm or estrablish new tonal regions0 and wide variety of
cadences ( are feature of late baroque and glanat compositional practices)
Zerafab employs sequences in almost every movement.
Zerafas extensive use of triplet figure
In Messa de Morte ( 1792) triplet is minimal.
The use of Continuo homophony where the melodic voice and bass are
bound together
 Zerafas galant style, ie : in Nisi Dominus (for soprano and mandolin solo
of 1764) , he uses galant melodic structure anticipate the lighter, classical
style
The galant style involves strict or free doubling, whereast orchestration
in the modern sense starts to develop in the Classical period.
Zerafas choir of instruments is typical of the Neapolitan period : Oboes,
horns, strings usually excluding the viola and continuo. It is customary
for Zerafa to employ the brass instruments in conjunction with the
woodwings, writings and continuo in most of this compositions. The brass
fundamentally function as rinforzi : that is , they punctuate the basic
harmony in order to strengthen the harmony and , occasionally are
employed in dialogue fashion. Conversely, the violins take the lions share
of melodic and rhythmic motion.
For Benigno Zerafa, Vocal music is imbued with all the pre-existent stimuli
to creation that are offered naturally by textual sources, be these
figurative, pictorial, imitative or thematic. These textual inspiration find
their musical tranlstion in figurative patterns, stylistic configurations,
formal delineations and avobe all, thematic organisation, all of which in
comination formulate the work.
As a rule Zerafa structure the themes for his one-movemnt works in a
simpler way in compoarison with his largerscale works. This principle
enabled him to reserve his more complex and embellished thesme-
erefelectin more an elaborate late-baroqu, rather than a cimpler galant
apparoch for his multi movement structures.
Essentially his forms are all purely baroque onces, that is , they are
formed into multi-sectional structures. There are: grand Masses and
psalms a due cori and everyday hymns sung during prcessions; works for
solo voice for Basso continuo, and concertato works for mixed voiced and
instruments ; Masses for organ and choir alone, and solo and choral
motetes with instruments; alternatim works and cantus firmus
movements ( the melodies fo which are based on known chants or psalm
tones) ; short psalms; combined voices ( duets, terzetts, quartets etc..)
with or without instruments; and much more. Stylistic dichotomy, which
became almost normal in Italian church music of the late baroque, is
refected equally steongly in the musi co fZerafa.
This generally prescribed tha thte choral movemetns in a work were set
in the stile antico , while the solo movements reflected the operatic style.
 His music has a moderately relaxed attitude towards formal design : his
stile antico variously takes the form of single or double hoir, contrapuntal
( fugues, fugato) , pseudo-contrapuntal and cantus firmus ( imitatitve)
structures.
His grandest works are situated towards the beginning of his career.
Zerafa remained dominant in Maltese sacred music only until the
beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when new stylistic
currents made themselves evident.

Catalogues of Works :
1. Dixit Dominus 1743 , SATB x2 key G Hn/Ob/Vln/Basso
i/II
2. Mass ( Kyrie-gloria) 1743 D SATB x2 Tpt/ob/vln/Basso
3. Credo 1743 D SATB Hn/OB/Vln/Basso
4. Deus in adjutorium 1744 G SATB Hn/ob/vln/Basso
5. Deus in adjutorium 1744 G SATB Vln 1/2/Basso
6. Magnificat 1744 a SSATB hn/tpt/vln/Basso
7. Litany G SA Vln/Basso
8. Mass ( kyrie-gloria) C SATB hr/ob/vln/Basso
9. Mass for the dead f SATB Hn/vln/Basso
10.Dixit Dominus 1745 D SATB tpt/Ob/vln /Basso
11.Mass ( kryei-gloria) 1745 F SARB Hn/ob/vln/Basso
12.Beatus Vir 1 745 F B Hn/ob/vln/Basso
13.Responsories ( holy week) 1746 f SATB Organ
14.Mass (kyrie-Gloria PAstorale) 1746 A SATB Tpt/vln/Basso
15.Te Deum laudamus 1746 D SSATB tpt/ob/ vln
/Basso
16.Laeta , surge, dulcissima aurroa 1749 F SATB Hn/fl 1/2 / Vln
1/2/ Basso
17.Dixit Dominus 1751 F SATB Hn / Fl/Vln/Basso
And the list goes on..

Zerafa
22 masses
- 4 per due cori
- 3 per 5 Voci , orchestra
- 9 per 4 voci, orchestra
- 5 per 4 voci , organo
- 1 per 3 voci , orchestra
2 credo per 4 voci , orchestra ( 1753-58)
3 introits
1 introit graduale e offertorio dominica in Albis
16 offertori
2 hymns
2 sequences
3 versetti Domine ad adiuvandum
33 psalms
4 antiphones
1 ciclo verpertino
4 magnificat per 4 v. orchestestra
2 cicli responsoriali
1 improperia
37 motets
1 litanie mariane