
THE COMPETITION
2017
It is painful to announce the cancellation of this important event.
We started with the first edition in 2001 with great enthusiasm, thinking that this initiative could not only honour our fellow-citizen Daniele Maffeis, but could even contribute in its own small way to a relaunch of the Italian liturgical choral world.
Were we deluded and a little reckless? Perhaps so, but in our hearts there was a feeling of love and passion that we hoped would sustain us and go viral.
For a while we believed in it, and in fact, out of eight editions, one of which (the eighth in 2016) could not take place because the minimum number of choirs was not reached, seven showed good (in some cases, excellent) participation: I remember, for example, the 2005 edition, with 26 choirs registered.
The last edition in 2016 – the second national edition – showed a decidedly negative “climax”; despite a great deal of publicity at national level, the protagonists (master choirs and priests) did not show any signs of life.
As a result of this negative signal – as an association – we have made a great examination of conscience, but I must say that despite everything (what we do can always be improved) our formula in the past had shown signs of great vitality, and with some pride we can say that it had shown, also through the countless certificates of esteem and encouragement, extremely stimulating characteristics for the environment.
Unfortunately, the great clouds that have long been gathering over our world of liturgical music seem to have reached their peak in recent years with an increase in apathy and disinterest.
The discussion could be very long and I do not think this is the place or the time to develop further analysis.
We bid you farewell and thank all those who have given us concrete support in recent years.
We close with an article by Don Vincenzo De Gregorio: the hope is that it may become a moment of reflection for all, in the hope that through the Art of Music we may continue in the future to address to God that yearning for prayer, hope and faith that for centuries has been a distinctive sign and that has brought so much fruit to the history of humanity.
Fabio Facchinetti
WHAT MUSIC FOR THE LITURGY?
by Vincenzo De Gregorio [*], Dean of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome and national
consultant for music at the National Liturgical Office of the Italian Episcopal Conference.
The question I was given […] presupposes a doubt: what is the music for our liturgy?
This presupposes the existence of valid parameters for deciding the authenticity of music in the liturgy. I am
launching a definition that I make my own: an experience of faith illuminated by aesthetic joy that shakes
the deepest fibres of existence.
Aesthetic joy: this is what music is, but it is not the aesthetics of sentimentality or superficial emotions. The
music of the liturgy has a “praying” character. This prayerful character is first and foremost that of being a
community, the family of God, the Church. Being the Church when we pray, in turn, has a result: prayer
that becomes charity and becomes a living testimony of truth, freedom, justice and peace in the world.
The Music we are talking about and to which we refer here […] is not the art of sounds (as it is called)
generic and anonymous: it is this music (with the harmonies we know, with the codified rhythms for which
a waltz or a swing or a tango or a rock concert are what they are), that is “our” music, that for which our
whole acoustic world, from film and fictional soundtracks, to opera, to star concerts in stadiums, to jazz, to
the whole soundscape that surrounds us, even at night, exists. This music was born where you sing today:
in church.
Our music, the “OUR” music of the western world, which is the most complex music that the planet has
ever developed, with its orchestra of wind, string, and percussion instruments, with its immense repertoire
that ranges from the beginnings of the “modern” world, that of the early 17th century, of Monteverdi’s
Vespers of the Blessed Virgin and Orpheus, to Strawinsky and Berio and electronic music, has behind it the
cantor, the musicians of the abbeys and cathedral schools, the choirs that sing in church.
This music that has become that of Mozart and Brahms, Verdi and Puccini is an expression of a cultured
tradition, not just a popular one, even if the popular belongs to it. But bear in mind that until the
foundation of the first universities, the only place for the preservation of culture, for research, for the
production of culture were the monasteries and the libraries and archives of the cathedrals.
Let us therefore clear the field of a very dangerous idea: the music of the Church is spontaneous music,
inspired but not cultivated. If this had been the case, we in the Church would not have caused the greatest
epic of art, and not only of music, that humanity has ever had.
Let us try to understand the cause of this. […]
2016 – 22 e 23 ottobre
EIGHTH CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Cancelled
2014 – 26 ottobre
SEVENTH CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Brano d’obbligo a scelta tra “Agnus Dei” dalla Messa Mariae Nascenti e “O Salutaris Hostia” di D. Maffeis
Giuria: Fulvio Rampi, presidente – Don Gian Luigi Rusconi – Paola Versetti

1° SCHOLA CANTORUM A.M. ABBATINI DI CITTÀ DI CASTELLO (Perugia)
Direttore Alessandro Bianconi – Organo Paolo Sebastiani
2° CORO REGINA DEL ROSARIO DI ARCORE (MonzaBrianza)
Direttore Luca Scaccabarozzi – Organo Federico Porcelli
3° CORO NUOVE ARMONIE DI MARTINENGO (Bergamo)
Direttore Cristina Belotti – Organo Luca Legnani
2011 – 22 e 23 ottobre
SIXTH CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
CANCELLED DUE TO FORCE MAJEURE
2009 – 25 ottobre
FIFTH CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Brano d’obbligo, o “Venite Gentes” o “Haec est Mater” di Daniele Maffeis
Giuria: Paola Versetti, presidente – Don Gian Luigi Rusconi – Angelo Mazza

1° CORO “GLI HARMONICI” di Bergamo
Direttore Fabio Alberti – Organo Gabriele Tonesi
2° SCHOLA CANTORUM DI VOCI BIANCHE di Carnate
Direttore Luisa Bianchi – Organo Matteo Carzaniga
3° POLIFONICI GOGIS di Valnegra Alta Valle Brembana
Direttore Fabrizio Moretti – Organo Fabriz. Vanoncini
2007 – 28 e 27 ottobre
FOURTH CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Brano d’obbligo a scelta tra “Kyrie/Christe” della Missa Mariae Nascenti, “Tu es Petrus”, “Factus est repente de
coelo” e “Tantum ergo” di Daniele Maffeis
Giuria: Bruno Zanolini, presidente – Don Gian Luigi Rusconi – Paola Versetti

1° LI CANTORI HARMONICI di Nembro
Direttore Fabio Facchinetti – Organo Fabio Piazzalunga
2° SCHOLA CANTORUM di voci bianche di Carnate
Direttore Luisa Bianchi – Organo Matteo Carzaniga
3° ACCADEMIA CORALE di Baccanello
Direttore Claudio Magni – Organo Aurelio Gelfi
2005 – 22 e 23 ottobre
THIRD CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Brano facoltativo, “Tu es Petrus” di Daniele Maffeis
Giuria: Bruno Zanolini, presidente – Pierangelo Pelucchi – Don Tullio Stefani – Paola Versetti

1° CORO PREGARCANTANDO di Crema
Direttore Don Giacomo Carniti
2° CORO PARROCCHIALE SANTA MARIA di Darfo
Direttore Lino Chiminelli
3° SCHOLA CANTORUM di voci bianche di Carnate
Direttore Luisa Bianchi – Organo Matteo Carzaniga
2003 – 18 e 19 ottobre
SECOND CONCORSO NAZIONALE PER CORI PARROCCHIALI “DANIELE MAFFEIS”
Brano d’obbligo, “Vidi Sanctos Congregatos” di Daniele Maffeis
Giuria: Bruno Zanolini, presidente – Marco Rossi – Don Tullio Stefani – Paola Versetti – Gian Nicola Vessia

1° CORO POLIFONICO “CALYCANTHUS” di Malpaga/Pedrengo
Direttore Flavio Ranica – Organo F. Vanoncini
2° CORO POLIFONICO S. STEFANO di Vimercate
Direttore Armando Rossi – Organo Alberto Sala
3° CORO “ADRARA” di Adrara S.Martino
Direttore Sergio Capoferri – Organo Michele Maffeis