Resounding Heritage

Resounding Heritage investigates historical musical instruments as cultural artefacts, sonic archives, and active resources for research, teaching, conservation, and historically informed performance. Developed within the iARTnet framework at the Conservatorio “Luca Marenzio” of Brescia, the project focuses on the material, acoustic, historical, and performative recovery of selected instruments preserved within, or directly connected to, the Conservatory’s institutional heritage.

At its core lies the rediscovery and study of the historical organ preserved in the former church of the Monastero della Visitazione in Darfo Boario Terme, recently attributed, in substantial part, to the celebrated Brescian workshop of the Antegnatis. Recent investigations have shown that a significant portion of its pipework, together with the windchest and mechanical elements, can be related to Antegnati organ-building practice of the late sixteenth century. This discovery opens a broader line of research into the organ heritage of Valle Camonica, a territory exceptionally rich in historical instruments, many of which require renewed scholarly attention, conservation awareness, and public engagement.

The project considers the historical instrument not merely as an object to be preserved, but as a living cultural resource: a material witness capable of generating new knowledge through cataloguing, organological study, archival research, acoustic documentation, performance, and community-oriented dissemination. Within this perspective, the Conservatory acts as a “university of music”, connecting research, artistic practice, pedagogy, local institutions, and territorial heritage.

Alongside the Antegnati-related research strand, the project also opens to other historically significant keyboard instruments available to the Conservatory, including the organ “Tamburini” of Darfo and the fortepiano Paul McNulty 2025, after Anton Walter. These instruments support a wider reflection on sound recovery, historical performance practice, and the role of musical artefacts in contemporary higher arts education.

The project aims to broaden the scope of cataloguing and research to include the wider Antegnati organ heritage throughout the Brescia area.

Actions and Outputs

1. Cataloguing and Heritage Documentation

The project will catalogue selected historical instruments according to recognised standards for musical heritage documentation, integrating technical description, photographic records, sound documentation, and video-recorded performance materials. Particular attention will be given to the relationship between the physical characteristics of each instrument and its potential for research-led artistic practice.

2. Organological Study of the Darfo Antegnati Organ

A specific research strand is devoted to the historical organ of the former church of the Monastero della Visitazione in Darfo. This includes the study of its pipework, windchest, mechanical components, later transformations, restoration history, and possible provenance. The research builds on recent investigations and aims to consolidate the attribution of the surviving sixteenth-century material while documenting the instrument’s complex stratigraphy.

3. Sonic Restoration and Acoustic Documentation

The project understands conservation not only as material safeguarding, but also as the recovery of sound. For this reason, the documentation of the instruments will include audio sampling, performative recordings, and video materials designed to preserve and communicate their acoustic identity. The Darfo organ has already generated a first set of audiovisual outputs, including documentation of the concert by Luca Scandali, sound sampling, and an explanatory video on the instrument’s features.

4. Conservation Planning and Technical Assessment

The project will support future conservation and technical improvement plans for the instruments under study. In the case of the Darfo Antegnati organ, this includes the assessment of tuning, voicing, mechanical response, windchest condition, and the consequences of previous restoration work. The project also recognises the need to reassess the organ “Tamburini” of Darfo, a mechanical three-manual instrument from 1980, as part of a broader strategy for enhancing the Conservatory’s organ facilities.

5. Research on the Organ Heritage of Valle Camonica

The Darfo Antegnati organ is treated as the starting point for a wider investigation into the historical organ heritage of Valle Camonica. Through archival research, technical surveys, collaboration with local associations and institutions, and comparison with other regional and national case studies, the project aims to develop a territorial model for the study, safeguarding, and public valorisation of organ heritage.

6. Historically Informed Performance and Artistic Research

The project promotes historically informed performance as a form of research. Concerts, lecture-recitals, workshops, and documented performances will allow students, researchers, and professional musicians to test repertories, techniques, temperaments, registrations, and historical sound ideals directly on or in relation to the instruments under study. The inclusion of the fortepiano Paul McNulty 2025, after Anton Walter, extends this approach to late eighteenth-century keyboard culture and historically informed performance practice.

7. Teaching, Community Engagement, and Dissemination

The project strengthens the connection between higher music education and local cultural heritage. Guided visits, study days, exhibitions, concerts, public talks, and digital resources will make the instruments accessible not only to specialists, but also to students, local communities, institutions, and wider audiences. The project also foresees the dissemination of its results through both scholarly publications and more accessible materials aimed at raising public awareness of historical musical instruments as shared cultural heritage.

8. Scientific and Public Outputs

Expected outputs include catalogue records, photographic and audiovisual documentation, technical reports, research essays, conference proceedings, online dissemination materials, public-facing texts, and educational resources. A double publication strategy may be adopted: one scientific output addressed to scholars and specialists, and one rigorous but more accessible publication designed for local communities, schools, cultural institutions, and non-specialist audiences.

Extend the cataloguing perspective to the broader Antegnati organ heritage in the Brescia region, integrating archival sources, technical analyses, and territorial research.