El grupo musical universitario de Turín desde la fundación hasta el fascismo (1921-1928)

EL GRUPO MUSICAL UNIVERSITARIO DE TURÍN DESDE LA FUNDACIÓN HASTA EL FASCISMO (1921-1928) THE UNIVERSITY MUSIC GROUP OF TURIN. FROM THE FOUNDATION TO FASCISM (1921-1928) MARCO TESTA Archivio storico dell’Università di Torino, Turin, Italy [email protected] – [email protected] Resumen: El primer Grupo universitario musical (GUM) fue establecido en 1918 en la Universidad de Roma por el profesor V.N. Zabughin. La asociación, difundida en varias sedes universitarias italianas, fue fundada por un grupo de estudiantes en Turín en 1921. El estatuto indicaba como su objetivo principal la difusión de la cultura musical: con este fin, el GUM organizó conferencias y una temporada de conciertos cada año, así como estableció una biblioteca, una orquesta y un coro, compuestos por sus miembros. En 1927, el Grupo universitario fascista (GUF) convirtió el GUM en su sección musical, y es bajo esta nueva estructura organizativa como continuó funcionando hasta la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Este artículo se pone como objetivo el de reconstruir los primeros años de la organización, centrándose en el momento en el cual fue absorbida por el GUF. El análisis de las temporadas musicales, los documentos y las noticias de época sobre el grupo permitirá de verificar la importancia que este giro político tuvo en sus actividades culturales y en sus estrategias organizativas. Palabras clave: Grupo fascista universitario (GUF), Grupo musical universitario (GUM), Universidad y Politécnico de Turín, música en Italia durante el fascismo, V.N. Zabughin. Abstract: The first University Music Group (GUM) was established by professor V.N. Zabughin at the University of Rome in 1918. The association, widespread in several Universities, was founded by the students in Turin in 1921. The statute indicated the dissemination of musical culture as its main purpose: each year were organised conferences and a concert season; were soon founded also a library, an orchestra and a choir, composed by the same associates. The GUM was absorbed by the University Fascist Group (GUF) and transformed into its musical section in 1927. Under this new organisation it continued operating until World War II. This paper reconstructs the early years of the organisation, focusing on its annexation to the GUF. The analysis of the concert programs, the records and the chronicles of the time will permit to verify the impact this political turn had on its cultural activities and organisational strategies. Keywords: University Fascist Group (GUF), University Music Group (GUM), University and Polytechnic University of Turin, Music in Fascist Italy, V.N. Zabughin. 416 This essay is part of a larger study on the activities of the Turin University Music Group – in Italian “Gruppo Universitario Musicale”, usually identified with the acronym GUM – between the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s 1 . The reconstruction of the historical events of the association necessarily starts from the University of Rome. Here, the professor Vladimir Zabughin, born in Russia but Italian by adoption, founded the first University Music Group 2 . An obituary and the records in his personal file at the Sapienza University of Rome Archives place the start of the association in 1918 and confirm the subsequent establishment of seven sections in the Universities of Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Pavia, Padua and Turin 3 . Although critics have delved into Zabughin’s studies, the role he played in the foundation of the club, from the original group in the University of Rome to the construction of the system on a national level, still remains to be probed. The same goes for the concerts he promoted in the capital and the project of the book Berlioz e Vergilio , announced on the occasion of the application for the “libera docenza” in History of Music in 1922 and remained unfinished due to his sudden death 4 . The first evidence of the GUM of Turin into the local newspaper dates back to 15 December 1921. Founded by the students of the Polytechnic University probably at the beginning of the academic year 1921–22, in the first assembly of December the statute was 1 TESTA, Marco: “Il Gruppo universitario musicale di Torino. Dalla fondazione alla fascistizzazione (1921– 1928)”, in Subsidia musicologica 2 . Lucca, 2019, pp. 195-220. 2 For Vladimir Nikolaevič Zabugin’s biography (Pargolovo [St. Petersburg], 21 June (4 July) 1880 – Solda [Bolzano], 14 September 1923), also reported as Wladimiro Zaboughine or Vladimiro Zabughin: TAMBORRA, Angelo: “Vladimir Zabughin e l’Italia religiosa del primo Novecento”, Europa Orientalis , 2, 1993, pp. 289-302; CAMPANA, Augusto: “Vladimiro Zabughin”, in Vergilio nel Rinascimento italiano da Dante a Torquato . Trento, 2000, t. I, pp. IX-XVI; TAMBORRA, Angelo: Esuli russi in Italia dal 1905 al 1917. Riviera ligure, Capri, Messina . Soveria Mannelli, 2002, pp. 253-64; GIOVANARDI, Alessandro: Vladimiro Zabughin pensatore di confine tra Oriente e Occidente. Un profilo intellettuale. University of Siena (doctoral dissertation), 2011–12; BASILE, Bruno: “Zabughin: una biografia”, in Storia del Rinascimento cristiano in Italia. Napoli, 2011, pp. 29-36; GIOVANARDI, Alessandro: “Vladimiro Zabughin, Aby Warburg e il Rinascimento: breve nota su due iconologie parallele”, Schifanoia , 42-43, 2012, pp. 241-6; CASTELLI, Gian Paolo: “Il Gigante folle di Vladimiro Zabughin: un Post Scriptum”, in Il gigante folle. Istantanee della Rivoluzione russa . Torino, 2019, pp. 13-54. 3 Zabughin was “libero docente” of Literature of Humanism at the University of Rome, from 1911 to his death. Sapienza University of Rome Archives, series 26 “fascicoli personale docente”, file AS 311 “Vladimiro Zabughin”, curriculum vitae with a list of publications, undated [post 1921]; KOROLEVSKIJ, Cirillo, “Vladimir Nicolaevitch Zabughin (1880-1923)”, Stoudion , 4, 1923-24, pp. 124-7. Both already mentioned in GIOVANARDI, Alessandro: Vladimiro Zabughin pensatore di confine , op. cit., pp. 203, 237. 4 Ibidem, pp. 161-83, 223-4, 236-45 CAMPANA, Augusto: Vladimiro Zabughin , op. cit., p. XV;; BASILE, Bruno: Zabughin: una biografia , op. cit., pp. 32-3. 417 approved and the Directory was named, composed of “ sigg. Bona, Bonicelli, Codrig, Gozzana, Patetta, Vinca ” 5 . The engineering student Carlo Felice Bona 6 was designed to preside over it: he held uninterruptedly the leadership until 1927 7 . Due to the reporting, limited exclusively to surnames, it was possible to identify with certainty only Giorgio Codrig, graduated at the Polytechnic University as Bona. However, it cannot be excluded the presence, both among the affiliates and the members of the board of directors, of students of the University and other University Schools. Lastly, the article indicates the promotion of musical culture among young people as the primary objective of the association, carried out through conferences, concerts and assemblies. The debut of the University Music Group took place on the following March 24th. It was a conference dedicated to the evolution of the lute between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries and to the Baroque and modern guitar, aimed at illustrating the history of these instruments through a didactic introduction followed by the execution of selected pieces 8 . Between the 21st and the 24th of April 1922 the Directory of the GUM of Turin attended the National Congress of University Music Groups, held in Rome. The delegates of the various universities, among them Turin, Milan, Pavia, Bologna, Florence and Genoa, joined the meeting. In this occasion they wrote the Statute and the Collaboration agreement between the association’s branches 9 . The primary purpose of the network of music groups was to establish a close collaboration between the young Italian music lovers and to promote the music studies in the universities 10 . 5 “Gruppo universitario musicale”, La Stampa , 15 December 1921, p. 3. 6 Carlo Felice Bona (1898-1970) studied Mechanical engineering at Polytechnic University of Turin. He graduated with full marks in 1921 and then attended the advanced course of electrotechnics “Galileo Ferraris” (Polytechnic University Archives, series “Libri Matricola Studenti”, MA-I 1, 1916-17, 31). The following year, he was hired into the technical offices of FIAT, initiating a brilliant carrier that drove him to the direction of “Ufficio tecnico motori avio”. In occasion of the re-opening of the entries to National Fascist Party (1932) he enrolled the section of Turin, renewing the registration from 1933 to 1943 (Archivio di Stato in Turin, Sezioni Riunite, fonds Fascist National Party (ASTO, PNF), folder 1.305, file 24.515). “ Ing. Carlo Felice Bona”, Illustrato Fiat , 8-9, 1970, p. 23; CATELLA, Mario: “Ricordo di Carlo Felice Bona”, in Restauri di opere d’arte in Piemonte. Lascito di Carlo Felice Bona . Turin, 1981, pp. 5-9; BASSO, Alberto: “Per una valorizzazione del patrimonio musicale subalpino”, in Miscellanea di studi 1 . Turin, 1988, pp. 9-14; GIACOSA, Dante: I miei quarant’anni di progettazione alla Fiat . Turin, 2004, p. 77. 7 University of Turin Archives, fonds Giacomo Mottura, sub-fonds University Music Group - G.U.M. 1926- 1928 (ASUT, GUM), file 4, memoir of Guido Bachi, undated [1927?]. 8 “Vita musicale – Lettera da Torino”, Il Pianoforte , 4, 1922, p. 121. 9 “Primo Congresso Nazionale del Gruppo universitario musicale”, La Stampa , 18 April 1922, p. 6. 10 “ Stringere in un’organica collaborazione gli Universitari italiani amanti e cultori della musica allo scopo di acquistare e diffondere la cultura musicale; inquadrare lo studio e l’esercizio dell’arte musicale nei vasti orizzonti della cultura generale; sviluppare sempre più nelle Università la cultura musicale, parte essenziale dello spirito”. DODO: “Il Gruppo Universitario Musicale (1922-1934)”, La Stampa della Sera , 10 January 1934, p. 3. Here, the foundation of the Roman section is erroneously placed on 24th April 1922. This date would instead be connected to the first national conference. 418 In the 1930s the GUM of Turin launched numerous and excellent initiatives and grew rapidly and consistently. On the contrary, the sections of the other universities gradually disbanded 11 . The group organized accurately its structure during the Twenties, opening a library, founding an orchestra and a choir, animated by the members, and promoting a concert season every year, with artists on engagement 12 . The newspaper articles show that the University Music Group increased its prestige in Turin, attracting the attention of the critics of Gazzetta del Popolo , Il Momento and La Stampa , as well as carving out a place among the musical associations of the city 13 . Despite the interest of the press, especially in the early years of the period under examination, the activities of the GUM remained substantially limited. As regard music magazines, in fact, only the Turin’s Il Pianoforte , later converged in La Rassegna Musicale , and the Bolognese Il Pensiero musicale gave an account of its initiatives, with continuity but only into the local chronicles. An extract from the Statute of the GUM of Turin, published by the newspaper La Gazzetta del Popolo in 1923, shows that the general principles defined in the Rome conference were acknowledged: “Il G.U.M. vive di arte e per l’arte; esso è erede dell’Alleanza di David, auspicata da Roberto Schumann; dichiara perciò guerra ad ogni sorta di esibizionismo, di pedanteria, di virtuosismo e di faciloneria presuntuosa. Ogni gumista che ha un filo di voce deve iscriversi al Coro universitario; se ha abilità strumentistica all’Orchestra universitaria; chi non può cantare e suonare, cerchi almeno di educare il proprio gusto e di intendere il linguaggio musicale come altri impara una lingua viva o defunta” 14 . An educational mission moved the association, which devoted to the musical education of its members through meetings and concerts extended to population too. The reference to the Davidsbündler, the league funded by Robert Schumann to defend the cause of contemporary music, is to be limited because no particular polemic intent towards the Turin musical scene has emerged in the GUM activity and in the press releases. A similar educational commitment had already been expressed in the first article of the Statute of the music section of the Pro Coltura Femminile, the women cultural association founded in the city in 1919, a few years before 15 . 11 DODO: Il Gruppo Universitario Musicale , op. cit., p. 3; ROGGERI, Edoardo: “Panorama musicale”, Torino rivista mensile municipale , 11, 1933, pp. 36-8. 12 DIONISOTTI, Carlo: Ricordi della scuola italiana . Rome, 1998, p. 593. 13 About the several musical associations in Turin: BALDI, Stefano: “Cronologia di eventi musicali torinesi (1911-1940)”, in Musica e musicisti a Torino 1911-1946 . Turin, 1998, pp. 33-49; BASSO, Alberto, “La musica (1916-1998)”, in Storia di Torino. Gli anni della Repubblica . Turin, 1999, t. IX, pp. 546-9). 14 “Nel Gruppo Universitario musicale”, Gazzetta del Popolo , 14 December 1923, p. 3. 15 “ È costituita una Sezione Musicale Autonoma della Società Pro Coltura Femminile di Torino. Essa ha lo scopo di diffondere la coltura musicale per mezzo di serie audizioni della migliore musica da camera antica 419 The National Conference was the first extra-Turin occurrence to which the GUM participated. For the occasion, the students performed with great success and their concert was then repeated in Turin at the beginning of May: the chronicles report sonatas of Scarlatti, Paradisi, Galuppi, Bach and Beethoven in the program 16 . The foundation of the first orchestra is placed shortly thereafter: it was mentioned in an article about a conferenceconcert on the Italian melodrama held by Luigi Torri, director of the National University Library of the city, in the second part of the month 17 . After these first sporadic events, a musical season dedicated to Romanticism was articulated for the 1922–23: Beethoven (I evening), Schubert (II – III), Weber, Field, Czerny, Cramer, Fanna, Hummel (IV), Mendelssohn (V – VI), Schumann (VII – VIII) and Chopin (IX) were the protagonists of the concerts. In addition, an appointment was dedicated to Russian music between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and two concerts to Chopin’s piano works 18 . The dynamism and good organizational capacity that animated the 1922–23 season continued the following year, when the library was opened and the orchestra was refounded. The 1923-24 program show a particular interest to the eighteenth century repertoire, but was open to other horizons too. The Baroque music (Bach, Frescobaldi and Veracini), the contemporary French piano compositions (Chevillard, Fauré, Wormser, Chabrier, Widor, Pierné, Saint-Saëns), works for piano by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mendelssohn, the violin school of Piedmont of eighteenth century, the compositions for piano by Beethoven, Schumann, Albéniz, Da Venezia, Debussy and Chopin and the popular songs of Piedmont were the protagonists of the appointment. Four other evenings were reserved for eighteenth century music, the first dedicated to Boccherini, Clementi and Leo, the second to Vivaldi, Sammartini, Galuppi, Veracini, Pugnani, Sandoni and Durante and the third to Pergolesi. In the last appointment, the orchestra of the association made its debut: probably composed of only strings, under the direction of Gaetano De Napoli it played works by Corelli, Händel, Vivaldi and Tartini 19 . e moderna ”. BASSI, Ennio: La Pro Cultura e la musica a Torino 1919-1974 . Turin, 1974, p. XI. BASSI, Ennio: “L’attività musicale della Pro Coltura Femminile”, in Ghedini e l’attività musicale a Torino fra le due guerre . Turin, 1986, pp. 241-66. 16 “Il Gruppo universitario musicale”, La Stampa , 6 May 1922, p. 5; “Notizie in breve”, Il Pianoforte , 5, 1922, p. 159. 17 “Una conferenza-concerto”, La Stampa , 19 May 1922, p. 5. 18 TESTA, Marco: Il Gruppo universitario musicale di Torino , op. cit., p. 202. 19 Ibidem, pp. 203-4. 420 The same artistic line was maintained for the following season, with recurrent forays in the eighteenth-century repertoire and an appointment dedicated to Bach's organ compositions. In the 1924–25 program there were names already present in the previous years (Pergolesi, Bach, Boccherini and Vivaldi) and new proposals (Locatelli, Alessandro Canavasso, Corelli, Scarlatti and Mozart). Other events dedicated to the piano pages by Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Ravel, Mozart and Martucci, to the sixteenth-century madrigals by Palestrina, Marenzio, Orlando di Lasso, Donati, Victoria and Gastoldi, and to chamber music and Russian opera arias completed the season 20 . With the aim of educating the members, as well as involving them in the organization of musical events, under the direction of Giorgio Federico Ghedini the GUM choir was founded in the second half of 1924. Similarly, the string ensemble was also enlarged to some wind instruments, with the participation of professional musicians alongside the students. Directed by Gaetano De Napoli, two orchestral concerts were held in February, in Turin and in reply in Cuneo; in June, at the end of the season, the choir debuted in an event dedicated to Italian popular songs 21 . The 1925-26 concert season shows no particular changes compared to previous years. For the opening night, the tenor Grigorij Raisov accompanied on piano by Ghedini interpreted vocal lyrics and opera arias by Mussorgsky, reiterating the attested interest in Russian music of the GUM. Then, a concert of the violinist Giuseppe Barison (Stradella, Borghi, Locatelli and Bach) and an appointment with the pianist Elena Marchisio and the string quartet Pagliassotti, Siriotto, Girard and Gedda (Brahms and Franck); an organ and violin concert held by Ulisse Matthey and Carlo Zino, an event with the Budapest quartet (Reger, Mozart and Borodin), a performance by pianist Alexander Borovsky (Bach, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Stravinsky) and a concert of Italian and Lower Brittany folk songs by the GUM choir, already active at the end of the previous season 22 . An intervention in a musical-political controversy, which broke out in the city in 1926, also demonstrated the dynamism of the group 23 . In February, the German govern- 20 Ibidem, p. 204. 21 D[ELLA] C[ORTE], A[ndrea]: “I concerti di musica da camera”, La Stampa , 9 February 1925, p. 3; “Un concerto del G.U.M. a Cuneo”, Gazzetta del Popolo 22 February 1925, p. 2; “Vita musicale – Lettera da Torino”, Il Pianoforte , 3, 1925, p. 55; D[ELLA] C[ORTE], A[ndrea]: “I concerti di musica da camera”, La Stampa , 22 June 1925, p. 4. 22 TESTA, Marco: Il Gruppo universitario musicale di Torino , op. cit., pp. 205-6. 23 “La prima del «Parsifal» al Regio fissata per domenica”, Gazzetta del Popolo , 5 March 1926, p. 5. 421 ment criticized the “Italianization” in forced stages of Alto Adige by the Italian Government, invoking the Wilson’s principle concerning the autonomy of population identity. Mussolini suppressed every foreign controversy on the borders but the chronicle presented the question as a regurgitation of anti-Italian sentiment 24 . Wagner's Parsifal was going to be staged at the Teatro Regio in Turin and it was announced that the performance would be booed as a sign of protest. Although praising Mussolini, the Music University Group reaffirmed its sharp opposition to any kind of nationalist criticism in the music field, declaring that art, as such, had to be judged only for its aesthetic values. In 1927 the GUM was absorbed by the University Fascist Group (GUF), which, thanks to greater stability, initiated the "conquest" of the youth associations of Turin. However, the 1926-27 season does not show any differences compared to the previous years nor signs of the passage, because it was organized before the political change of the Directory. A similar horizon can be seen by examining the demonstrations promoted by the GUF in the second half of 1926, which show no trace of this annexation. The GUM does not even figure among the student societies associated with the GUF in the first fascist university circle inaugurated in December 1926 25 . The 1926-27 season counted seven concerts. For the opening night, piano works by Bach and Beethoven performed by Nino Rossi; then an appointment dedicated to Beethoven's cello compositions, held by Rossi and Gilberto Crepax, and an evening with the Poltronieri Quartet, which brought on stage Boccherini, Mozart and Debussy. To follow, a concert by pianist Alexander Borovsky on pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Perrachio, Fauré and Liszt, an appointment dedicated to lyrics by Mussorgsky accompanied by compositions by Ghedini and Jewish songs, and an evening with Ulisse Matthey, already engaged in the previous years, dedicated to the organ works by Bach, Schumann, Franck and Liszt. To close the season the usual choral concert was held, which saw in association the vocal formations of the GUM and the Società Corale Valdese - directed by Ghedini - with a program of sacred music by Schütz, Händel and Carissimi 26 . 24 Compare the speech “Difesa dell’Alto Adige” of Mussolini, held to the Camera dei Deputati on 6 February 1926, following the declarations of the Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held. SUSMEL, Edoardo, SUSMEL, Duilio: Opera omnia di Benito Mussolini . Dall’attentato Zaniboni al discorso dell’ascensione (5 novembre 1925-26 maggio 1927) . Florence, 1957, t. XXII, pp. 68-73; SCARANO Federico: Tra Mussolini e Hitler. Le opzioni dei sudtirolesi nella politica estera fascista . Milan, 2012, pp. 41-9. 25 “L’inaugurazione del Circolo universitario fascista”, Gazzetta del Popolo , 27 December 1926, p. 5; TESTA, Marco: Il Gruppo universitario musicale di Torino , op. cit., pp. 206-7. 26 TESTA, Marco: Il Gruppo universitario musicale di Torino , op. cit., p. 208. 422 The chronicle diffused the news of the incorporation of the musical association by the University Fascist Group belatedly and in a summary way, only on the presentation of the 1927-28 season. The records of the GUM conserved in the fonds Giacomo Mottura 27 at the University of Turin Archives allow to anticipate the date of this passage and to specify the dynamics of the process 28 . Mottura, student of medicine and member of the GUF, was the secretary of the renewed Directory of the University Music Group, composed of the president Guido Bachi (Economics), who succeeded Carlo Felice Bona, the vice-president Aldo Mamini (Law), the cashier Santino De Ambrogio (Economics) and the councilors Menotti Tomaselli (Law) and Domenico Abrate (Engineering) 29 . Among his documents, there is the only preserved part of the archive of the federation, dated between the end of the 1926–27 season and the conclusion of the following year. The first records of April 1927, concerning the engagement of the musicians for the following autumn, allow anticipating the annexation to the GUF already in the first months of the year. A memoir of the new president Bachi shows that the hand-over probably occurred without clashes 30 . Carlo Dionisotti – humanities student at the University of Turin - confirmed the facts, indicating that there was no assembly of the associates on this occasion. 27 Giacomo Mottura (1906-1990) studied Medicine and surgery at University of Turin and he graduated with full marks and publication recommended in 1930. He enrolled the University Fascist Group and consequentially the Fascist National Party from 1927 to 1942, without holding specific political office into the section of Turin. ASTO, PNF, folder 946, file 6.307. CASSATA, Francesco: “Mottura, Giacomo”, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Rome, 2012, t. LXXVII, pp. 364-7 [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giacomomottura_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ - 30 September 2019]. 28 For several records of the University Music Group of Turin, part of the Mottura’s body of materials: University of Turin Archives, fonds Giacomo Mottura, sub-fonds University Music Group - G.U.M. 1926-1928 (ASUT, GUM) [http://atom.unito.it/index.php/gruppo-universitario-musicale – 30 September 2018]. 29 ASUT, GUM, file. 4, list of the members of the Directory of the GUM, undated [1927]. In addition to Mottura’s one, I found the Fascist National Party membership card of other two members of the Directory: Guido Bachi (ASTO, PNF, folder 1.082, file 507 – dated 1927) and Santino De Ambrogio (ASTO, PNF, folder 1146, file 3.068 – dated 1925). Probably, the other students signed up to the University Fascist Group too. About Bachi and particularly his activity during the Resistance: LUZZATTO, Sergio: Partigia. Una storia della Resistenza . Milan, 2013 (about GUM: p. 49). About the activity of Mottura during the Resistance, his participation in the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale and in the first Council of Turin after the Liberation refer to his profile in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani and to the records at ASUT. 30 “ Chiamato dal consiglio dimissionario del Gruppo Universitario Musicale, e dal Gruppo Universitario Fascista, assumo oggi la Presidenza del Gruppo Universitario Musicale, e, mentre ringrazio coloro che della loro fiducia mi han onorato, rivolgo il mio saluto e il pensiero riconoscente ai membri del consiglio dimissionario che così degnamente hanno fino ad oggi retto le sorti della fiorente associazione. E questo saluto e questo pensiero vanno in modo particolare all’amico Ing. Bona che dalla fondazione del GUM ad oggi ha, come Presidente, in sei anni di sapiente ed appassionata opera, contribuito potentemente a che il Gruppo sorto da un piccolo nucleo di giovani entusiasti, prosperasse e diventasse numerosa accolta, e si conquistasse con la simpatie e il favore del pubblico un posto di primissimo ordine tra le società musicali di Torino ”. ASUT, GUM, file 4, memoir of Guido Bachi, undated [1927?]. 423 The Directory carried out negotiations, without changes to the Statute 31 . The concerts program brochure of 1927–28 presents a summary of the previous year activity and the organization balance, in a deficit of little less than 500 lire 32 . According to Dionisotti, this financial deficit and the need for a new location caused a crisis and the resignation of the Directory. The new management therefore encouraged the passage of the GUM under the control of the University Fascist Group 33 . The following pages show the list of musical events, facilities for members and other federation data about the orchestra, the library, the composition of the Directory and the grant of the new head office by the Podestà. Sion Segre-Amar, science student, evoked that most of the members of the musical group were more interested in the great privileges offered, such as the free access to Riccardo Gualino's Teatro di Torino 34 , to the GUF membership card 35 . This brochure does not present any specific declaration regarding the fascism of the GUM. The only reference can be seen in the heading on the cover, which is also repeated on the first page (Fig. 1): GRUPPO UNIVERSITARIO FASCISTA Delegazione artistica GRUPPO UNIVERSITARIO MUSICALE The cover is completed by the logo of the musical federation, which represents an angel with a portable organ into a frame with the motto “Ubi melos nec ibi mali / G.U.M.” (Fig. 2). The contours are accentuated and the graphic sign is rigid and schematized, as a xylographic plate. The presence of the same logotype on the headed paper of the Milan- Pavia University Music Group shows that the GUMs shared the same emblem at least for a period 36 . Even if the inventor remains anonymous, the visual source allows advancing a hypothesis about the authorship of the work. This angel musician was extrapolated from a panel of the chapel of San Michele Arcangelo at Malatesta Temple in Rimini (Fig. 3-4). A photograph of the same work by Agostino di Duccio - a full-size photograph - is reproduced in the second half of the thirties on the programs of the Amici della Musica, section of the 31 DIONISOTTI, Carlo: Ricordi della scuola italiana , op. cit., pp. 593–5. 32 ASUT, GUM, file 6.2. 33 DIONISOTTI, Carlo: Ricordi della scuola italiana , op. cit., pp. 593–5. 34 BALDI, Stefano, BETTA, Nicoletta, TRINCHERO, Cristina: Teatro di Torino di Riccardo Gualino (1925-1930). Studi e documenti . Torino, 2013. 35 SEGRE-AMAR, Sion: Sette storie del «numero 1» . Turin, 1979, pp. 90–1. 36 A memoir of the new president Guido Bachi, written on the letterhead paper of the GUM, shows the new header “Gruppo universitario fascista” added by typewriter. It is possible to assume that the updated version of the letterhead paper was not ready yet when it was written. ASUT, GUM, file. 4, memoir of Guido Bachi, undated [1927?]; for the letterhead with the logo of the GUM of Milan-Pavia please refer to ASUT, GUM, file 6.6, letter from Alberto Orefice to Giacomo Mottura, 17 July 1927. 424