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Making History, Combining Sounds: British Colonialism, Italian Culture, and Musical Growth in the Maltese Wind Band Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 July 2025
Abstract
Malta was a British colony for over 150 years until it became independent in 1964. Though the presence of the British in Malta was considerable and permeated all sectors of Maltese life and culture, the island’s commercial and cultural ties with neighbouring Italy never ceased. This article aims to analyse how Malta’s cultural sympathies and affinities with Italy alongside British colonialism contributed to the musical growth of the wind band tradition in Malta between the mid-nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century. The co-existence in Malta of the political and cultural conflict brought about by the two competing cultures at this time and, paradoxically, their confluence transpire here as central to processes of musical growth through opportunities for syncretism.
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- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Musical Association
Footnotes
A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the 46th ICTMD World Conference held in Lisbon in July 2022. I am grateful to those who attended my presentation for their constructive comments and questions, which contributed to several improvements in the writing. I also extend my thanks to the St Philip Band Club of Żebbuġ (Malta), particularly the club’s archivist, Mr John Gafà, for granting me access to their music archive. Additionally, I am grateful to Mr Gilbert Farrugia, the archivist of the Società Filarmonica Nazionale ‘La Valette’ of Valletta, for providing me with musical examples from old scores available at the said band club. I also thank Mr Emanuel Busuttil Dougall for sharing with me a copy of an old photo of the Prince of Wales Own Band of Vittoriosa (Malta) and for granting me the permission to reproduce that image in this article. I am thankful to Professor Vicki Ann Cremona (Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta) for our valuable discussions on topics that in one way or another related to this study. Furthermore, I express my gratitude to the anonymous reviewers for their thorough review of my manuscript and their insightful comments and suggestions, which significantly enhanced the quality of this work. The research for this paper was supported by an internal research grant from the University of Malta.
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