Michelangelo Vella

Vella, Michel’Angelo [Michaele Angelo]
(b Senglea, Malta, 7 Nov 1710; d Cospicua, Malta, 25 Dec 1792).

Maltese composer and teacher. From boyhood, he was intended for the Catholic priesthood. On 14 July 1730 he left Malta for Naples to study at the Conservatorio Pietà dei Turchini with the primo maestro Nicola Fago, the secondo maestro Andrea Basso, and after 1734 also with Leonardo Leo. He returned to Malta in early 1738, where he undertook the duties of a priest and established himself as a maestro di musica. The first truly influential Maltese teacher, he reformed music education, fighting indifference and technical incompetence, and bringing it into line with developments in Naples. His students included Salvatore Magrin, Giuseppe Burlon, Antonio Freri, Francesco Azopardi and Nicolò Isouard. As an organist and maestro di cappella he accepted numerous temporary commissions in the most important Maltese churches before obtaining permanent employment in 1762 at the parish church of Cospicua. His extant works reveal contrapuntal craftsmanship, and his concern with the place of plainchant in an era of rapid musical innovation is evident in his sacred works. In the introit Salve sancta parens, for example, the tight, fugally-treated three-subject antiphon is followed by the psalm verse and Gloria in the second tone. The antiphon is then repeated. Fétis erroneously gives Vella’s name as P. de Vella.