Vatican News
This project is conceived as a way to celebrate this historic anniversary with a sign that combines tradition and modernity. The new system of jingles was entrusted to Maestro Marcello Filotei from the Music Programs editorial team, led by Maestro Pierluigi Morelli. It will accompany listeners throughout the day on February 12, and then permanently enter the regular schedule.
Vatican Radio will introduce a new system of sound jingles, which will coexist with the historical orchestration of “Christus Vincit,” created by Maestro Alberico Vitalini based on the theme by Czechoslovak composer Jan Kunec – always a distinctive and recognizable element of the station’s sound identity.
The original theme of “Christus Vincit” has been developed in a modern approach, maintaining a direct link with tradition, while at the same time in a new sound guise capable of dialoguing with contemporary sensibilities.
“Vatican Radio has always cultivated a special relationship with music, which defines its identity, even in its jingle,” emphasizes Paolo Ruffini, Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. “Music tells us about that dynamic harmony, never the same, that we all seek in our lives. It creates resonances that become dialogue, dialogue that becomes communion, and memory that becomes life. Celebrating the 95th anniversary of our station today by redeveloping the network’s jingles has precisely this meaning for us: to condense into a few seconds of sound icon a history in which identity and communion merge, grow together, and make us feel at home.”
The project foresees four main jingles, all based on the “Christus Vincit” theme, each conceived to accompany a different moment of the radio day: a version for waking up, a morning version, an afternoon version, and a night version.
These are joined by two short jingles: the first uses the incipit of the theme, the second refers to its ending, creating an immediate and recognizable connection with the original sound identity.
“It was an exercise in balance between tradition and novelty,” notes Maestro Marcello Filotei. “Like walking on a tightrope between two skyscrapers, trying not to fall into the obvious. To modernize does not mean to abandon the past, but to reinterpret it.”
Maestro Pierluigi Morelli also created a special jingle referring to Baroque-era orchestration, evoking a historical and musical dimension that harmoniously fits into the tradition of the Papal Radio.
All jingles will be broadcast simultaneously (according to Rome time) on both the Italian-language channel and the 30 web-radios of Vatican Radio, creating a common global listening experience.
As emphasized by Massimiliano Menichetti, Deputy Editorial Director responsible for Vatican Radio – Vatican News, “through this renewal proposed and realized by the Music Programs, the station recalls and re-embraces the mission of the papal station with a new sound, highlighting the bridge between past and present in the light of faith.”
The broadcast schedule will be as follows:
7:00 AM – 9:00 AM Wake-up Jingle
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Morning Jingle
12:00 PM Historical orchestration by Alberico Vitalini
2:00 PM – 6:00 PM Afternoon Jingle
12:00 AM Historical orchestration by Alberico Vitalini
12:00 AM – 6:00 AM Night Jingle
