Hay Morosen la costa!

One Saturday morning in June, this humble scribe was surprised tcfind himself half way up Charles Vth wall, engaged in an academic argument with Howard Fuller, of The Gibraltar Magazine and Freddie Gomez,of Flat Bastion Magazine. Surprised, because none of us might reasonably be called an academic and yet the subject quite definitely was.

Howard posed a question about possible connections between Charles Vth Wall, the now disap peared Devil's Tower and the fa mous Martello Towers,distributed around the Empire by the British Raj.The connection exists and is not so tenuous as might be supposed; this is what we discovered.

Charles Vth Wall was funded by the Holy Roman Emperor in re sponse to pleas from the populace of Gibraltar, to protect them from the predations of the Barbary Cor sairs. One attack in particular, dur ing September 1540, had scared the residents witless; and their de mands for protection were eventu ally met some 15 years later.

Charles Vth despatched the fa mous Italian military engineer Giovanni Battista Calvi, who planned, then commenced the building of the first section of wall from South Bastion (Nuestra Senora del Rosario) via Flat Bastion (Santiago)to the demi-bastion(San Felipe)against the Rock face above.

Having made a start, he then cleared off to Malaga, to start an other job for his sovereign. Unfor tunately,he was never to return but died shortly thereafter.

Around the same time Charles Vth abdicated and work at Gibral tar continued under Philip 11, el Rey prudente, who employed another famous Italian military engineer; Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino. El Fralino,as he is known colloquially, completed Calvi's wall and contin ued up to the top ridge of the Rock with what is now referred to as the Philip II Wall, whose terminus was a defensible gate, not far below the old signal platform.

Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino came from a family of military en gineers in the service of Spain, which included his brothers Bernadino and Giorgio and Giorgio's son and grandson; Francesco and Pietro. The Paleari Fratino family, from Morcote near Lugano, were extraordinarily ac tive in constructing defensive works for Spain in Cagliari, Milan, Malta, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Cadiz, Mers el Khebir, Melilla and dozens of other places across the Low Countries, Italy, North Africa and Portugal. Year by year Paleari Fratino engineers travelled throughoutSpanish dominionsfor tifying towns and cities, providing bastions and defensive works that would change those cities for ever.

In 1565, Giovanni completed an isolated defensive tower — the Torre della Mortella — in Corsica. It was well thought out and well ex ecuted and was to stand the test of time.

More than 200 years later,in 1794, the tower came under attack from two British frigates, the Fortitude (74) and the Juuo (32), who sub jected it to continual bombardment for two days. The tower, armed with just one6 pdr and two 12 pdr guns, served by a garrison of 38 men, withstood the assault and eventually the British were obliged to land a force of men with artillery and lay the tower under formal siege. At that point, the French commander hauled down his flag.

The British were so impressed by the structure that they made draw ingsof this Mariello Tmoer and even tually copied it throughout the Empire. Examples may be found in Cape Colony, Canada, the South Coast of England, Dublin, Mauri tius, Delhi and beyond.

In fact the design pawed so du rable that the Americans adopted it in 1820 and the last one was built at Key West, Florida, in 1873. Which takes us nicely round to the Devil's Tower. Giovan Giacomo's original brief — like Calvi's— was protection from the coreairs. The chain of watchtowers along Spain's Mediterranean coast was built specifically to give the earliest possible warning of these Sea Dei'ih.

Our Devil's Tower was built in sight of its nearest neighbours(the eastern one, Sta. Margarita is still there) so that, as in Roman times, the signal could be passed tower to tower along the coast. Could our Devil's Tower, perched on its soli tary rock amidst the sands of the isthmus, have been a prototype

Martello? It seems unlikely,since it was slender with parallel sides and nearly all extant Martello's have a tapered profile — known as a bat ter — but it is not impossible.

Since the Torre della Mortella was executed shortly after El Fratino's visit to the Rock we might expect similar work. So, could our tower have been standing before El Fratino's time or did it replace a rudimentary Martello?

That's where the investigation will go next. Watch this space!

William Serfaty,ofthe Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group, has kindly given The Gibraltar Magazine a copy of a composition Mozart wrote in 1782 to celebrate the strength and bravery of Gibraltarians during what has be come known as the Great Siege.

Mozart never visited Gibraltar and his homeland of Austria was not involved in the war between

France,Spain and Britain which in cluded the Great Siege. So what brought him to write a composition about Gibraltar. Well,as Mr.Serfaty points out in his accompanying let ter, Austria did have a connection to British Gibraltar. Mr. Serfaty writes:

"The historical context of the composition in December 1782 is the peak of the Great Siege (17791783). Bearing in mind that Mozart was Austrian, and that Gibraltar was origi nally taken in 1704 by the Grand Alliance of Powers on behalf of the Archduke of Aus tria, it is not suprising that when the Great Siege came about be tween the same op ponents as 80 years previously Austria was suportive of the defenders."

But there are addi tional reasons. In his book Mozart, His Char acter, His Work (Oxford University Press 1965) Alfred Einstein reveals that Mozart was not keen on the French but he did have a fond ness for the Brit ish and two of his English students were among his favourites.

Einstein wrote: "Mozart pre ferred some countries to others. He did not like French music, and his experiences in Paris set him against the French people, at least the Pa risians, who seemed to him much changed."

In a letter of 1st May 1778 Mozart penned: "...the French are not nearly as polite as they were fifteen years ago; their manners now bor der on rudeness and they are de testably self-conceited."

Stephen Storace and Thomas Attwood, were the English stu dents whom he loved and who were devoted to him. It was partly in their honour that he wrote the composition about the heroic ac tions — Elliot's defense ofthe Rock and Admiral Howe's relief by a sur prise attack, bringing in fresh sup plies that forced the enemy to raise the seige.

Although Mr. Serfaty and the Mozarteum describe the work as a 'fragment song', Einstein lists it as an 'unfinished ode'.

Einstein relates that it was an unnamed Hungarian woman living in Vienna who commissioned Michael Denis, an ex-Jesuit poet (aka as Sined the Bard),to write the ode and for Mozaet to compose the music. Mr. Serfaty shows Johan Nepomuk Cosmas and Michael Denis as co-authors of the lyrics.

Mozart started work on the ode, variously "OCa)f>e""Gibraltar",in late 1782 but,although he admired the lyrics, he couldn t bring himself to finish it.

In a letter of 28th December 1782

Mozart wrote: "...I am engaged in a very difficult task, the music for the bard's song by Denis about Gi braltar, But this is a secret, for it is a Hungarian lady who wishes to pay this compliment to Denis. The ode is sublime, beautiful,anything you like, but too exaggerated and pompous for my fastidious ears. But what is to be done?The golden mean of truth in all things is no longer either known or appreci ated. In order to win applause one must write stuff which is so inane that a fiacre could sing it, or so unintelligble that it pleases pre cisely because no sensible man can understand it..."

Finished or not the composition is a fitting tribute to the heroes of the Great Siege and an exciting piece of Gibraltar history to emerge in this year of celebration of Mozart's life and music.

The Gibraltar National Choir under Lili Olivero is considering whether the song can be performed in the original German. Here we print a direct translation by Karl Grambon.Robin Willow,a poet and singer from Exeter, is preparing new English lyrics following the spirit of the lyrics by Cosmas and Denis.

Mr. Serfaty supplies evidence of at least one previous performance: Hans-Peter Blochwitz, tenor, JorgPeter Weigle conducting the Munchner Rundfunorchester. Or chestration bv Erik Smith.