On December 25, just before Pope Francis' Urbi et Orbi address, two musical groups solemnly began the Marcia Pontificale (Pontifical March) -- exactly as it had been 75 years earlier, when Pope Pius XII decided to adopt it as the anthem of the Vatican, replacing the previous hymn, the Gran Marcia Trionfale (Great Triumphal March).
Pius IX commissioned this first official hymn in the history of the papacy in 1857, when he was head of the Papal States. This joyous work was composed in a Vienna-style ternary rhythm by a certain Viktorin Hallmayer. Music was the Austrian's hobby, for he was first and foremost the commander of the 47th regiment of line infantry that Emperor Franz Joseph had chosen to deploy to protect papal territory from the national ambitions of the Savoy family and its ally, Napoleon III's France.
The piece was played for the first time during a papal visit to Bologna (the second largest city in the Papal States at the time) on June 9, 1857, and again during other stops on his tour in Ferrara, Ravenna, Modena, and Florence. In Rome, locals greeted the new anthem with a certain irony, dubbing it “Saltarello”—a kind of Italian dance that includes leaps and skips.
Gran Marcia Trionfale vs. the Pontifical March
Two years later, the second War of Italian Independence broke out, during which Italian nationalists and France crushed the Austrians. This defeat led to the gradual disappearance of the Papal States, concluded in 1870 with the entry of Italian armies into the city of Rome. And along with the pope's territories, the need for a hymn also disappeared, until the signing of the Lateran Pacts in 1929, when the Gran Marcia Trionfale was restored by Pius XI.
According to several accounts, his successor, Pius XII, was not particularly fond of the Gran Marcia's dancing melody. He preferred another piece linked to the papacy, Charles Gounod's Marche pontificale, characterized by a more majestic and serene tone.
This composition had been offered to Pope Pius IX by the author of Faust as a gesture of filial devotion. It was first performed at a grand concert in St. Peter's Square to mark his priestly jubilee in 1869. The piece met with immediate success, to the point of being cited as a “pontifical hymn” by L'Osservatore Romano at the time.
A sung version
Never forgotten and more solemn, the Pontifical March was chosen by Pius XII to replace the previous hymn in an ordinance dated October 16, 1949, which came into force on January 1, 1950. The piece was nevertheless performed on December 24, 1949, the day of the opening of the Holy Door, just after a final rendition of the Marcia. For the occasion, the organist of St. Peter's Basilica, Antonio Allegra, added Italian lyrics to Gounod's instrumental composition.
Although the hymn is rarely sung, there is another version with Latin lyrics. It was composed by Canon Raffaello Lavagna to mark the 15th anniversary of John Paul II's pontificate in 1993, which was also the centenary of Charles Gounod's death.
