Rome

Rome, the capital of Italy, with its long history, has a great cultural heritage. Ever since the Roman Empire through the Renaissance and Baroque to Modern age, Rome has been a fascinating city with great music and the most important Italian artists, mainly serving the Pope and Vatican.

The Vatican, which occupies only 108 acres in the heart of Rome, has been an independent state since 1929, when the Lateran Treaty was signed. The Pope exercises the legislative, judicial and executive powers of this theocracy. In the Sistine Chapel Mozart, the "wonder child", wrote out the whole score of a nine voice Allegri's "Miserere" after hearing it only once.

The musical life of Italy was concentrated in Rome in certain times and composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Girolamo Frescobaldi came here to work in the service of the Pope, writing religious music for the Christian church. Other Italian cities such as Milan and Venice became important much later in the history of music, in someway taking the lead from Rome.

It was in Rome that Domenico Scarlatti met Handel when they were both 23, and lost in an organ competition against him, while they were both equal on the harpsichord.

Since the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th Century, French winners of the prix de Rome, such as Berlioz, Gounod and Debussy, have been sent to the Villa Medici in Rome, as guests of the Academie of France. They earned their keep by sending at least one musical composition per year, back to Paris.