An Evening in the Salon by Ġukulari Ensemble

An Evening in the Salon – The Brocktorff Project 

Fashionable quadrilles, polkas, galops, mazurkas, waltzes, and songs by Maltese composers

Join the Ġukulari Ensemble for an evening of dance music composed specifically for Malta’s nineteenth-century society. Among the composers of this salon music were the well-known Dr Paolo Nani, Antonio Nani, Alessandro Curmi, and several others, who all chose to have their music printed by the Brocktorff artist lithographers in Malta.

Their music took the form of fashionable quadrilles, polkas, galops, mazurkas, waltzes, or songs. Ladies and gentlemen were proud to master the pianoforte, and other instruments such as the violin, flute or harp. They enjoyed performing to an audience in their drawing rooms, and sometimes even danced to the music. The same dance forms were then elegantly danced in the exquisite ballrooms of the day, in the Governor’s Palace, the Borsa, or the Union Club (Auberge de Provence). Nineteenth-century social life in Malta was second to none!

The Brocktorff Project has been unfolding over the past few years, delving into music printed in Malta during the 19th century. This research has brought to light works by both well-known composers and previously unknown ones. The Ġukulari are excited to present a selection of these pieces — music once heard in the elegant salons of British-era Malta.

Ġukulari: Anna Borg Cardona (Research, performance organiser); Anne Marie Camilleri Podesta (Harp); Ramona Zammit Formosa (Pianoforte, Flute); Silvio Zammit (Flute)

For more info on the Brocktorff project visit https://musicprintingmalta.blogspot.com/p/conservation.html

Ġukulari Ensemble – Biography

The Ġukulari Ensemble has become synonymous with historically-based performances of Malta’s music. The group adopts its name from the Maltese fifteenth-century musicians on the islands (juculari) who performed, sang and entertained at medieval weddings. Formed by Anna Borg Cardona in 2002, the Ġukulari have been giving performances and lecture recitals in Malta and Gozo as well as representing Malta in festivals abroad – Budapest, Vienna, Bologna, Portugal and Spain.

Committed to giving new life to Malta’s musical culture, their repertoire includes music of the upper strata of society as well as local folk music.

The Ġukulari have recorded two CDs: “Malta’s Musical Legacy” (2003) and “Doqqli Daqqa!” (2006).

The group is made up of: Anna Borg Cardona (Research and performance organisation), Anne Marie Camilleri Podestà (harp), Silvio Zammit (flute), Ramona Zammit Formosa (pianoforte and flute).

The Brocktorff Project – Info

The Brocktorff artists and lithographers are especially well known for their maps and detailed scenes of daily life in nineteenth-century Malta. Before the spread of photography, tourists must have loved returning home with a Brocktorff watercolour or lithograph, as a souvenir of their travels to Malta.

Less known is the fact that the Brocktorff family also printed music in their lithographic presses. Their story of music printing starts around 1832 and spans a good part of the nineteenth century, until the death of the last Brocktorff lithographer in 1893.

This Project involves the expertise of several people. Apart from years of research by Anna Borg Cardona, it involves paper conservation and storage by Dr Theresa Zammit Lupi, the professional photography of Peter Bartolo Parnis, a publication by MidSea Books, a performance by the Ġukulari Ensemble, and filming of the performance by Massimo Denaro.

We have dreams, but this all requires funding. We sincerely hope that enough funds will help us accomplish all this work which we know will add so much to our knowledge of MALTA’S MUSIC HISTORY and to our priceless CULTURAL HERITAGE.

Still way to go, but we have been able to commence the initial stages of the Brocktorff Project through the kind support of:

• APS BANK   www.apsbank.com.mt
• GANADO ADVOCATES
• MR ROBERT VON BROCKDORFF

For info about an ongoing project in Gozo visit https://musicprintingmalta.blogspot.com/2025/03/exhibition.html 

For info about the Brocktorff Project visit https://musicprintingmalta.blogspot.com/

Tuesday 13 May 2025

7pm

Concert Hall of the Malta Society of Arts,
Palazzo de La Salle,
219, Republic Street,
Valletta

Free

Donations at the door are appreciated