VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: ITALIAN SUPREMACY OR

AUSTRO-GERMAN HEGEMONY?
Author(s): Peter Allsop
Source: Il Saggiatore musicale , 1996, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1996), pp. 233-258
Published by: Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43029389

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 Peter Állsop
Exeter

VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY:
ITALIAN SUPREMACY OR AUSTRO-GERMAN HEGEMONY?

In memoriam Claudio Sartori

The consensus of opinion reached over the past thirty year

concerning the development of Italian violin technique in t
seventeenth century presents a number of intriguing paradoxe
especially in its relationship to concurrent trends in Germany. «Th
German contributions to violin music», according to Boyden, «wer
less important than those of Italy in the early seventeenth centur
The Italians, Marini and Farina, constituted a bridge from the
relatively simple German style at this time to the advanced style o
J. J. Walther and Heinrich von Biber at its end».1 Yet the same writ
insists that «like Farina, who served as concert-master to Schütz in
Dresden, Marini learned from the German style, especially in t
matter of double stops».2 Chordal playing had of course long be
practised on other stringed instruments, but its application to the
violin was fundamental to the technical advancement of the violin at
this period - especially when used in conjunction with that other
purportedly Germanic preoccupation, 'scordatura', a main function of
which was to enlarge the range of chordal sonorities available. This
presupposes a distinct and relatively well-developed manner of
playing in Germany capable of informing the most highly acclaimed
Italian exponents of the art, yet Italian violinists were universally

1 D. Boyden, The History of Violin Playing from Its Origins to 1761 , London, Oxford
University Press, 1965, p. 136.
2 Ibid., p. 135.

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 234 PETER ALLSOP

admired for th
throughout Eu
spontaneously t
development init
to write double
though, no soone
they instantly
technique, so t
Neapolitan violin
several Instrum
immediately plac
with the Germa
devices, Matteis
tempting to ima
contact with the works of the German school of violinists. The
elaborate double-stopping of this fantasia for violin alone reminds one
of the works of Biber and Walther».5 From the 1670s the Germans
Biber, Walther and Westhoff had stolen the ascendancy in the
development of violin technique especially in the «mastery of the
fingerboard up to the seventh position, polyphonic playing, a
highly-developed bowing technique and, a speciality somewhat apart,
the device of scordatura».6 In these respects, throughout the third
quarter of the century the Italians scarcely expanded on the
achievements of Marini, Farina and Uccellini before the mid-century.
Such are the widely accepted perceptions of the relationship between
the Italian and German schools of violin playing.
Generalisations about the nature of an advanced Italian violin
technique in the early seventeenth century are mainly based on the
modicum of examples provided by Marini and Farina between 1626
and 1629 when they were both resident at German courts. It is a fair
assumption that the most demanding writing for the violin would
occur in solo music by virtuoso composer-performers written for their
own use, and even in ensemble sonatas of the period it is the lengthy

3 Ibid., p. 131.
4 J. Evelyn, Diary , ed. E. S. de Beer, IV, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1955, p. 177 ff.
(Nov. 17, 1674).
5 M. Tilmouth, Nicola Matteis , «Musical Quarterly», XLVI, 1960, pp. 22-40: 36; see
also his Example 8.
6 W. Reich, «Nachwort» to the facsimile edition of J. P. Westhoff's 6 Suiten für Violi-
no solo (Dresden, 1696), Leipzig, Peters, 1974, p. vni (transi. M. Talbot).

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Table I
Italian Solo Violin Sonatas until 1648

1620 g B. Marini, Arie, madrigali et cor enti, Op. 3

Romanesca per violino solo e basso se piace
1626/ C. Farina, Libro delle pavane ... sonate , canzone
2 sonate, 1 canzone
1626 m B. Marini, Sonate , symphonie ..., Op. 8
Sonata seconda ďinventione per il violino
Sonata terza variata per il violino solo
Sonata quarta per il violino per sonar due corde
Capriccio per sonar il violino con tre corde a modo di lira
1628<¿ (inc.) O. M. Grandi, Sonate, Op. 2
2 sonate per un violino
1628/ C. Farina, Fünffter Theil Newer Pavane
1 sonata
1628/ + / G. Frescobaldi, Il primo libro delle canzoni
1 canzone per violino solo
1629<¿ B. Montalbano, Sinfonie
4 sinfonie a violino solo
1635 c G. Casati, Armonicae cantiones, Op. 3
Sonata detta la Biraga a violino solo
1641¿ G. B. Fontana, Sonate
6 sonate a violino solo
1645/ M. Uccellini, Sonate , correnti et arie, Op. 4
6 sonate a violino solo

Here and elsewhere in this article, sigla refer to C. Sartori, Bibliografia della musica
strumentale italiana stampata in Italia fino al 1700, 2 vols., Firenze, Olschki, 1952
and 1968.

solo sections which call for the most exacting technical feats,
especially in the two sets of Sonate concertate of Dario Castello who
specifically associates stil moderno with virtuosity.7 Yet Italian
violinists seemed remarkably reluctant to cultivate the very genre
which would most exploit their talents, and very few Italian sonatas
designated solely and specifically for solo violin survive before Marco

7 See the note to the reader in the 1629 reprint of his Sonate concertate , libro primo , Ve-
nezia, Gardano, 1621.

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 236 PETER ALLSOP

Uccellini's Sonate
Table I, p. 235.) T
writing of the ea
largely indisting
and it is signific
Apart from the o
differentiating
compass, since na
to two octaves ab
descend to G . It
focused on the
playing, since it
distinctively viol
Marini's most ou
technique are con
il violino solo var
repeated notes an
string, which un
and scordatura is
per il violino d'in
string a third low
thirds. The Sonat
most extensive
section (Ex. 1), an
modo di lira mak
this Marini sug
modified. The collection bears a dedication to the Archduchess
Isabella, Regent of the Netherlands, and may therefore have been
occasioned by the good reception Marini had received during his trip
to Brussels in 1624.9 It no doubt also reflected his activities at the
Court of Neuburg where he served as maestro de' concerti from 1623.
The Duke had very pronounced Italian sympathies, already employing
the Veronese Giacomo Negri as his maestro. Marini's terms of
employment clearly outline his duties as musico riservato, stressing

8 G. A. Leoni's Sonate di violino a voce sola , Roma, Mascardi, 1652, is frequently cited
as the first collection to consist entirely of solo violino sonatas. It is true that there is one so-
nata for two violins in Uccellini's 1649 set, but this is a stunt piece in which the second vio-
lin plays the first violin part backwards.
9 W. B. Clark, The Vocal Music of Biagio Marini , 2 vols. (Ph.D. Diss., Yale University,
1966), contains the fullest account of Marini's life.

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 237

Ex. 1 - B. Marini, Sonata quarta per il violino per sonar due corde, O

that he was to be set apart from the lesser players of

grande. 10 There is no evidence in all this that Marini w
to some flourishing local school of violin playing: rather
considered it something of a coup to attract so hig
virtuoso whom he took considerable pains to cultivate, t
in the acrimonious disputes with Negri, and ennobling
When Marini boasted of «curiose e moderne inventioni»
page of his Op. 8, this was no empty rhetoric.
Such extravagances as the col legno, double and tripl
and programmatic mimicking appearing in the Capricc
(Dresden, 1621a) of the Mantuan violinist Carlo F
deliberately calculated to make an impact on an impress
eager for novelties, but since all the latter's instrument
were the product of his years at Dresden under Heinrich
often suggested that they again reflect a distinctly Teut
there is no evidence that indigenous composers wer
advanced than the Italians at this early period,
considerable achievements of players such as Steph
Johann Schop (c. 1590-1667). 11 In the first half of the cent
free sonatas by German composers are even rarer th
Italians, and it was not until 1664 that the first so
appeared - Johann Schmelzer's Sonatae unarum fidiu
courts seemed only too eager to import Italian virtu
Buonamente, Valentini, Priuli, Ferro, Bertali, Marin

10 See W. B. Clark, A Contribution to Sources of ' Musica Reservata

Musicologie», XI, 1957, pp. 27-33: 28-30.
11 See examples No. 10 and No. 11 in G. Beckmann, Das Violinspiel in
1700 , Leipzig, Simrock, 1918.

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238

When Gi
Neuburg
who wou
It is ne
actually
more rad
only th
posthum
violinist
Sonata 6
position,
shift to
exhibits a
florid pa
the mor
either M
from Ger
The outp
in the y
of Marco
to provid
of time.
with its
division
categoriz
ebrea ma
flurry o
the scali
much-qu
solo (164
due to it
position
Tarquini

12 See A. E
bände der I
13 Facsimil
14 A. Kirch
15 Facsimil
16 See Ex.

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VIOLINISnC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Table II
Marco Uccellini's Solo Violin Sonatas

1645/ Sonate, correnti et arie , Op. 4

4 sonate and 2 sonate o ver toccate a violino solo
1649 b Sonate over canzoni da farsi a violino solo, Op. 5
12 sonate
1660¿ L'ozio regio, Op. 7
4 sonate
c. 1661 Sinfonie boscarecie a violino solo e basso, con l'agiunta di due
[ = 1669 di altri violini ad libitum, Op. 8
1667g Sinfonici concerti brievi e facili, Op. 9
2 sinfonie

isolated existence at the Modenese Court, but it is not inconceivable

that he knew of the Mantuan development through Buonamente,
with whom he probably studied in Assisi.17 Correspondence dating
from the latter' s period of employment at the Imperial Court
confirms that he actively cultivated the solo sonata, although none
remain either in manuscript or in his four extant volumes of
instrumental music.18
Conspicuously absent from all these indigenous sonatas is the
slightest evidence of any interest in chordal playing. In fact, had it
not been for the few passages from Ottavio Maria Grandi' s Sonate
(1628 d), transcribed by Gustav Beckmann before the disappearance
of the first violin part-book during the Second World War, there
would be no reason to suppose that Italians cultivated double stops at
all during these years.19 Grandi described himself on his title page as
«Professore di violino», and one sonata is dedicated to his teacher
Alfonso Pagani dal Violino, «musico eccellentissimo dell'Illustrissima
Signoria di Bologna». The Concerto Palatino of the Bolognese civic
authorities, of which Pagani was a member, was particularly famous
for its violinists.20 A canzona from Giovanni Cavaccio's Sudori

17 The evidence for this is outlined in P. Allsop, The Italian "Trio" Sonata , Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1992, p. 117.
18 Quoted in P. Nettl, Giovanni Battista Buonamente, «Zeitschrift für Musikwissen-
schaft», IX, 1926/27, p. 528 f.
19 See the example from the first sonata given as Nr. 4 in Beckmann, Das Violinspiel cit.
20 See O. Gambassi's comprehensive documentation in II concerto palatino della Signoria
di Bologna , Firenze, Olschki, 1989.

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 240 PETER ALLSOP

musicali (Venezi
detto il Violino
Bologna». Cortel
1577 until his d
influence the yo
own reputation
Cazzati quotes an
oppositioni,21 an
demonstrates enh
less than 230 ba
conveys little of
extremely fragm
death the tradit
continued by Erc
on the succeedin
both the known teachers of Corelli - Giovanni Benvenuti and
Leonardo Brugnoli. For almost a hundred years prior to the advent of
the so-called Bologna School, a flourishing tradition of virtuoso violin
playing existed along the Via Emilia from Parma through Modena to
Bologna, of which hardly a single solo sonata survives except those
of Marco Uccellini, yet these were the most renowned violinists of
their day.
In the second half of the century isolated sonatas continued to
appear, but even after Uccellini's Sonate over canzoni in 1649 the
number of Italian publications devoted entirely to solo sonatas still
remains minimal. In fact over the next forty years Sartori's
Bibliografia lists only five complete sets by single composers. (See
Table III.) None of these can be said to contribute greatly to the
advancement of violin technique. Giovanni Antonio Leoni' s ample
volume of thirty-two sonatas would surely provide adequate
resources to assess the prowess of Roman violinists at this period,
yet their content is frankly disappointing. The melodic idiom has
more in common with the all-purpose figurations suitable for violin
and cornetto of the early decades of the century - especially as
they remain doggedly in first position, while the even progression
from reiterated rhythmic motive into semiquaver division before
important structural cadences is still closer to the earlier

21 Bologna, Dozza, 1663, p. 15.

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VIOLINISnC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Table III
Sets of Solo Violin Sonatas Published in Italy 1649-1690

1649 b M. Uccellini, Sonate over canzoni, Op. 5

165 2b G. A. Leoni, Sonate di violino a voce sola, Op. 3
1670c A. Berardi, Sinfonie a violino solo, Op. 7
1676c P. Degu Antoni, Sonate a violino solo, Op. 4
1678c G. B. Viviani, Sonate a violino solo ( Capricci armonici ), Op. 4
1686¿> P. Degu Antoni, Suonate a violino solo, Op. 5

period.22 It cannot be said that these pieces are technically very

taxing, and since Leoni mentions in his preface that he used them as
teaching material, perhaps they should be regarded more in the nature
of didactic études. Pietro Degli Antoni's sonatas are remarkable for
the expressive power of their recitative-like slow sections which
considerably outnumber fast movements, and occasionally he extends
upwards to e an octave above the open string, but the technical
requirements are still very modest. Angelo Berardi's Sinfonie, which
combine free movements with dances, do require some finger
dexterity, but they too rarely venture out of first position. The same
is true of Giovanni Bonaventura Viviani's Capricci armonici - in any
case he was then serving as maestro di cappella at the court of
Innsbruck. Ironically, it was in Innsbruck where the two volumes of
Sonate a violino solo, Op. 3 & 4, of Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli
were published (1660¿-c), for these extrovert pieces yet again
outmatch any contemporary sonatas issuing from the Italian presses.
Nevertheless, their technical demands do not surpass those of
Uccellini, reaching only to /in fifth position on the e-string on a single
occasion, although they do contain some of the earliest known
examples of the use of staccato dots over separate notes. Once more
the chordal possibilities of the violin are never exploited.
It would certainly seem that the Italians had lost interest in
experimenting with the technical capacities of the instrument, and in
particular that they must have evinced a particular aversion to double
stops and scordatura, since these practices of the third decade of the
century could hardly have been erased entirely from their memories.
There may be little evidence that in the 1620s the Germans were

22 An entire sonata is included in E. McCrickard, The Roman Repertory for the Violin
before the Time of Corelli, «Early Music», XVIII, 1990, pp. 563-573.

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242 PETER ALLSOP

more advanced th
that nothing in
remotely compa
Westhoff from
is notably lackin
entirely absent,
1660, which cont
parti con un vio
correnti to be sim
the "second" vio
performable in f
style in two real
to chordal playin
so ill-disposed t
Uccellini alone in
Giovanni Maria B
sarabande, gighe
set out in two s
«intavolate per div
ď and c - e - a -
court, but scor
published outpu
ability, yet he w
forgotten in Italy
Over the first o
evidence about th
Non sono stampate
l'altra in una rigata
sito; ma volendole
modo di sopra acce

The requiremen
achievements of
of the Bolognes
chords are so s
publications, suc

23 The entire compos

and His Music (Ph.D. D

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Table IV
Solo Violin Sonatas in Germany, 1675-1696

c. 1675 H. Biber, Mystery sonatas Ms.

1676 J. J. Walther, Scherzi da violino solo Frankfurt & Leip
1681 H. Biber, Sonatae, violino solo Nürnberg
1682 J. P. Westhoff, Sonata violino solo Paris
1683 J. P. Westhoff, Suite pour le violon seul sans
basse Paris
1688 J. J. Walther, Hortulus chelicus Mainz
1694 J. P. Westhoff, Sonate a violino solo con
basso contìnuo Dresden
1696 J. P. Westhoff, 6 Suites for

Antoni. Even if the "appropriate sym

would certainly have rendered the
situation which apparently had not c
century. Giuseppe Valentini states
camera a violino e violone o cembalo p
the Bohemian Giovanni Giacomo Komárek between 1706 and 1707
that he could not publish the second part, the «sonate a due e tre
corde», because of the great expense that would be incurred.24 It was
not, therefore, that the publishers were incapable of producing such
editions, but that the expense incurred was considered prohibitive.
If it were indeed the case that Bolognese publishers of the 1670s
experienced insurmountable technical problems when confronted by
the simplest of double stops, how could the more complicated
examples in the Capriccio stravagante have been accomplished fifty
years earlier? Farina's five Dresden publications were all produced
using a similar typography to that of the Italian presses, and despite
his established reputation for chordal treatment of the violin, not a
single double stop printed in moveable type ever appears in any of
these editions. Instead, the printers resort to rather crude expedients.
In the first collection (1626/) the following direction appears in the
part-book of the Sonata quarta detta Im Franzosina: «In questa
proportione si troverà sopra le note il segno della stella ★ si sonerà
con la corda doppia, cioè s'intende ch'il numero serve per la distantia
della nota che va sonata sotto». La Desperata from the fifth book

24 Listed anonimously and quoted under «s.a. 1695 circa» in Sartori, Bibliografia cit., I.

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 244 PETER ALLSOP

(1628 f) dispenses
Capriccio stravag
the complicated
chitarra Spagnio
drone are simpl
therefore that m
moveable type
considerable diff
the new violin i
remarkably com
much anguish. B
part-book are pre
the sections of d
incised in woodb
upper stave. (Ex
enigma, for Mar
originally printe
in ink to read M
problems of prod
It is professedl
double stops retu
century»,26 but t
nothing more th
by the Italian m
Corelli's Op. 5 be
in 1700. 27 Amon
an undated Bol
Buffagnotti afte
quite substantial
sonata for solo
commencing the

25 See E. Selfridge-F
ters», LIII, 1972, pp. 1
26 Boyden, The Histor
27 Listed under Pietra
ze, Olschki, 1958.
28 See ibid., p. 35. On
ti, who consistently fa
relli e il violinismo bolo
pp. 33-46: 37.

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Ex. 6 - T. Pegolotti, Trattenimento, Op. 1.

the ensuing Allegro dramatically breaking

chords. (Ex. 4.) Compared with Bononcini'
stopping of 1671, the corrente from Gius
requires considerable facility despite the f
first position. (Ex. 5.) Buffagnotti was
publication of Torelli's Concertino per c

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 246 PETER ALLSOP

Ex. 7 - H. Biber, Son

often mentioned for its imitative textures in the Introdutioni.29 This

presumption of a causal relationship between the replacement of
typesetting by engraving and the incidence of chordal writing is
graphically confirmed in the Trattenimenti armonici da camera of
Tomaso Pegolotti (1698/). The collection is set throughout in
moveable type, but on its last page the bass part-book adds «servirà il
Basso del sudetto Trattenimento Duodecimo per compagnamento del
Violino a corde doppie», and two additional pages in the violin part
resort to a crude engraving. (Ex. 6.) Similarly, when confronted by
Corelli's Op. 5 the Bolognese publisher Marino Silvani found it
necessary to insert engraved passages between his normal moveable
type in order to cope with the copious chordal writing.30 Without
exception, the adoption of a chordal idiom on the violin in Italian
printed collections of the 1680s coincides with and indeed is
incumbent upon the introduction of the system of copper plate
engraving.
In Germany, however, the situation was markedly different. In
the first place, some of the most oustandingly difficult violin music of
the period was never published but has survived in manuscript in such
huge collections as that of the Prince-Bishop Karl at Kroměříž - the
repository of the Mystery Sonatas and similar virtuoso pieces of
Biber. Schmelzer's sonatas published in the Sonatae unarum fidium of
1664 contain only the most rudimentary double stops in one 10-bar
Adagio in the Sonata tertia , whereas manuscript sources of
unpublished works reveal quite elaborate triple and quadruple
stopping.31 Moreover, the period associated with the flowering of the
German polyphonic violin idiom coincides exactly with the change to

29 See Boyden, The History cit., Ex. 62, p. 220.

30 See A. Cavicchi, Contributo alla bibliografia di Arcangelo Core Ili. L'edizione bolognese
del 1700 dell'opera " Quinta " e la ristampa del 1711 , «Ferrara. Rivista del Comune», II, 1961,
pp. 3-7.
31 Modem edition, ed. E. Schenk, «Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich», 93, Vien-
na, Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1958. Compare this passage with the chordal playing and
scordatura in the manuscript sonata transcribed on p. 91.

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Ex. 8 - J. P. Westhoff, Suite (1696).

copper plate engraving. Before taking up

violinista di camera» at Dresden in 1674
years in Florence, and when he published h
1676 he seemed anxious to affect an Ita
Giacomo Valter in keeping with the conti
the Saxon court.32 These works are
representing a «peak in the history
quadruple-stops, for which the 17th-cen
such a liking»; 33 they are also among the
solo violin music in Germany - factors wh
superior quality of these German engravi
those of Buffagnotti is immediately app
Biber's Sonatae of 1681. (Ex. 7.) Besides
enormous advantage of engraving over
moveable type is the nicety with which
indicated, as in Walther's Scherzi and th
Another violinist in Dresden, Johann Pau
especially notable for his cultivation of una
a complexity rarely equalled before Bach.
factor is that these are engraved, alt
publication of his six suites for unaccomp

32 Modern edition, ed. G. Beckmann, «Das Erbe deuts

Hannover, Nagel, 1941.
33 W. S. Newman, The Sonata in the Baroque Era , 4t
p. 234.
34 These observations are based on the 1687 reprint (British Library, Hirsch 111. 572),
but as Gustav Beckmann explains in his notes on the sources in his edition, despite the
change of publisher, «für die Ausgabe der Scherzi von 1687 hat Bourgeat die gleichen Platten
von 1676 benutzt». This is easily verified since Beckmann includes a facsimile of the first
page of each edition. H. E. Poole's statement that engraved editions did not appear in Ger-
many until 1689 is clearly in error ( Music Printing and Publishing , ed. D. W. Krümmel and S.
Sadie, London, Macmillan, 1990, p. 43).

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248

idiosyncratic
eight-line staf
This particul
double stoppin
our knowledg
becomes fully
that in Italy, u
in manuscript
only were pr
quantity of m
to be overlook
a very differe
suggested by
represented,
twenty-two v
(1635-1694), co
bass, but with
substantial toc
for violin and
unaccompanied
suites was not
for that matt
Double stoppin
considerable a
idiom foresha
stopping is u
contexts as E
arpeggiated b
perhaps less f
explained by t
period. (Ex. 9
marking of b

35 See for instanc

bridge University P
36 For a survey of
Giuseppe Colombi o
Violone , in Seicento
za , a cura di A. C
37 This entire sona
38 Libro X (Mus.F

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 249

Ex. 9 - G. Colombi, (a) Allemanda ; (b) Ruggiero; (c) Sonata ; (d) Varie P

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250 PETER ALLSOP

Ex. 9 (continuation) -

numerous instan
often associated
1620 in Francesc
most difficult a
arpeggiated moto
of omitting str
training under M

39 Milan, Lomazzo, 1

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 251

positions, for one toccata-like fanfare extends into sev

exceeding the former's limit of sixth. (Ex. 9 h.)
None of these manuscripts is dated, but Colombi bec
the court band at Modena in 1673 and remained in t
twenty years. His published output consists of thr
collections and two rather slight volumes of abstract son
2-4 instruments, but given the reluctance of the Bologn
tackle chordal violin music it is to be expected that
prodigious output of solo music appeared in print. Furth
reveals in the dedication of his Sonate da camera a tre strumenti
(1689g), he also had the privilege of instructing Duke Francesco II on
the violin, and much of this material may therefore have served a
primarily didactic purpose. From this standpoint it is particularly
interesting that some sonatas exist in simplified versions omitting the
high positions and more difficult chords. Like Giovanni Maria
Bononcini, there is no reason to suppose that Colombi enjoyed much
of a reputation as a violinist beyond Modena. In 1674 he became
sottomaestro di capella, in a joint appointment with the far more
famous Bolognese cellist Giovanni Battista Vitali - a status reflected
in their respective salaries, for whereas Colombi received only L. 96
per month, Vitali's emolument of L. 128 was equal to that of the
maestro, Giuseppe Paini.40 Francesco II d'Este, himself a violinist
and the son of a violinist, must have been well able to judge the
merits of a performer, and this led him over a number of years to seek
the employment of Arcangelo Corelli, whom he had heard on a trip to
Rome in 1686.41 By every account Corelli was the most esteemed
violinist of his generation, yet «in the history of violin technique
Corelli's works cannot claim to be landmarks».42 It seems odd
therefore that the Duke of Modena should have been so intent on
obtaining his services, if he could not compete even with Colombi in
the use of high positions and was apparently unaware of such a
widespread device as scordatura, since he could hardly have failed to
encounter the works of both Bononcini and Colombi.43 Corelli's Op.

40 See J. G. Suess, Giovanni Battista Vitali and the Sonata da Chiesa (Ph.D. Diss, Yale
University, 1963), I, p. 8.
41 An account of Corelli's dealings with the Modenese court is given in A. Cavicchi,
Notizie biografiche su Arcangelo Corelli , in Studi corelliani cit., pp. 131-138.
42 Boyden, The History cit., p. 223.
43 Bononcini was a member of the Bolognese Accademia Filarmonica concurrently with
Corelli.

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 252

Ex. 10 - C. Man

5 sonatas belo
keyboard con
seventeenth c
technical mas
what was con
confirms, eve
had cultivated
il violino», non
Rome, with
the Mecca of
with two of
Mannelli45 an
Studio del vio
advanced trea
century, and
has suffered
manuscript i
piece in the t
any of Leon
passage-work
employs imit
Lonati were p
Roman prove
from the city
until the alli
owned a man

44 See A. Cavicch
45 See R. Casimiri
Roma, nell'Anno
169: 167 f.
46 See O. Jander
«Journal of the A
47 Fondo Foà No.
lost Op. 1.

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

dated from Milan in 1701, a photocopy o

survived in Bernhard Paumgartner' s resear
the basis for a modern edition.48 These
tribution to the repertory of the unacco
far more than Corelli's Op. 5 for the sam
point of comparison with the German mast
century.
Each sonata is a loose arrangement of between four and six free
movements and/or dances - a format closer to the Germans than the
more consistent Corellian pattern, but already anticipated in Berardi' s
Sinfonie of 1670. The first movement is usually a composite of
contrasting tempi (nine in Sonata 4), often alternating affective slow
passages with toccata-like figurations in the manner of the first sonata
of Corelli's Op. 5; but like Colombi, Lonati encompasses a far wider
tange, and there is indeed much stylistic similarity between the two
composers. Sonata 4 surpasses even Biber and Walther by leaping
into eighth position, nor is the descent by any means straightforward.
(Ex. 11 a.) Moto perpetuo movements of this type are a common
constituent of these sonatas, and it is precisely the expansive contour
which sets them apart from similar movements of Corelli. His liking
for arpeggiated melody is particularly evident in consecutive
variations of the concluding ciaccona - based on the familiar
descending tetrachord used in Biber's passacaglia for unaccompanied
violin. (Ex. 11 b.) There seems little doubt that elaborate polyphony
was a normal feature of the Italian solo violin idiom, and Lonati' s
fugues are remarkably intricate. Sonata 5 contrasts a chromatic
descending point with a sequential rhythmic motive for eighteen bars,
then breaks into triple stops requiring arpeggiation followed by
semiquaver figurations. When the chromatic subject returns it is
combined with the semiquaver figurations. (Ex. 11c.) Chordal dances
are well represented and some allemandas achieve an almost Bachian
intensity. (Ex. 1 Id.) Six of the twelve compositions call for
scordatura. Lonati shares Colombi's reluctance to add comprehensive
bowings, but there is considerable variety of bariolage, arpeggiation
across three and four strings, repeated-note patterns, and varied
slurrings. (Ex. lie,/.)
As the renowned Gobbo of Queen Christina of Sweden, Lonati
enjoyed an international reputation as a player, and Francesco Maria

48 Ed. F. Giegling, Basel, Amadeus, 1980.

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Ex. 11 - C. A. Lonati, (a) Sonata 4; (b) Ciaccona ; (c) Sonata 5' (d) Sonata 8.

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Ex. 11 (continuation) - C. A. Lonati, (d) Sonata 8 (cont.); ( e ) Sonata 7; if) Sonata 7.

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 256 PETER ALLSOP

Veracini eulogizes
pratica musicale .4
on the authority
famous singer, w
while there is no
are particularly
audiences had fal
Lonati must hav
court early in the
Ayrs may have se
suggests on the ti
double stops migh
Italian printed e
course simply re
December 11, 167
plates». Like Le
instructional mat
to play upon the v
indicating a tech
Tilmouth suggest
Colombi, while Lo
different level of
discerning patro
d'Este was undoub
She would have be
came to England v
her abdication.53
Baltzar's generatio
basic consistenci
consisting of a c
sections of the
themselves as a s

49 The entire passage i

Clarendon Press, 1993, p
50 J. Hawkins, A Gene
1776, p. 808.
51 Listed in Sartori under 1685#.
52 See footnote 5 above.
53 See P. Holman, Thomas Baltzar (? 1631-1663), the Incomparable "Lubicer" on the Vio-
lin , «Chelys», XIII, 1984, pp. 3-38.

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VIOLINISTIC VIRTUOSITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 257

clearly related to those of Lonati. (Cf. Ex. Iii/.)54 In over

and content, Lonati's sonatas suggest a far greater unifor
and comparability of technical accomplishment between
has hitherto been supposed, and given the constant
virtuosi such as Marini, Walther, Baltzar, Matteis, and
could hardly have been otherwise.
If ever the accusation of generalization on the basi
instances were justified, it would be of Italian violin pl
seventeenth century. In reality little information ab
extent of violinistic excellence has been preserved either
in the music itself. Solo violin music was rarely publish
the seventeenth century simply because it was not
capabilities of the Italian presses with their outdated te
produce it. We cannot take the half-dozen or so colle
sonatas issuing from the commercial presses as
representative of the advanced violin technique of the p
composer would automatically have been obliged to ada
the limits of a typography which virtually ruled out s
aspects of technique as chordal playing. Virtuoso violin
of the first rank such as Pagani, Gaibara, Benvenu
Lonati, and Corelli circulated their solo violin music in
which have since been lost. Conversely, a far m
impression may be gained of German violin music in th
of the seventeenth century not only because substantia
holdings have survived but also because the Germans m
copper plate music engraving much earlier than th
comparison of technical accomplishment based on print
therefore invalid since in effect it merely contr
technologies. Each age has its luminaries who might ha
or Walther, Lonati or Corelli in the seventeenth centur
the constant transmigration of violinists the average lev
playing would probably have been comparable. As a rou
on the basis of the limited surviving Italian mater
extension to the seventh position was probably normal
everywhere; scordatura was widely used in Italy as elsew
playing was always a fundamental feature of violin
comprising intricate polyphony to more homophonic d

54 See Ex. 4 in P. Walls, The Influence of the Italian Violin School in

gland , «Early Music», XVIII, 1990, pp. 575-587: 580.

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 258

repertory of
This is born o
and given th
contempora
inconceivabl
equivalent st
quite possibly

Riassunto - Pe
fossero al prim
no al 1670 di
Nella seconda m
reazione contr
stile più distes
ficata dal conf
pubblicate in I
ranea produzio
sembra ristret
vi si nota un q
elementi impor
In realtà, il div
vela tutťal più
ti tipografici o
della caratteris
di note risulta
triple corde, s
semplicemente
rame. I tedesch
notevole antici
violinistica di Biber e Walther.
L'ipotesi è confermata dall'esame delle fonti manoscritte. In Germania,
molte composizioni di proibitiva difficoltà sono conservate manoscritte in
importanti collezioni private; in Italia, invece, le fonti manoscritte sono
molto scarse, e il poco che ne rimane è stato indagato in misura minima.
Tuttavia, il cospicuo corpus di musica violinistica di Giuseppe Colombi e la
raccolta manoscritta di sonate di Carlo Ambrogio Lonati rivelano un grado
di perizia che supera di gran lunga quello documentato nelle fonti italiane a
stampa. Ciò sta ad indicare che l'uso delle posizioni alte, della scordatura e
della polifonia, abitualmente ascritto ai violinisti austro-tedeschi, era di casa
anche nello stile italiano: la seconda delle due collezioni, in particolare, toc-
ca livelli di virtuosismo almeno pari a quello dei tedeschi.

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