The Violoncello and Its HistoryWasielewski, Wilhelm Joseph von
History
The Violoncello and Its History
Wasielewski, Wilhelm Joseph von
Cellists; Cello -- History
The cello pieces of Cervetto formed after the manner of Tartini’s violin
sonatas are, as to their contents, quite antiquated, and are only
interesting in a purely technical point of view. Like the compositions
already considered, they occupy mostly the parts of tenor and bass.
Only twice in the first _Allegro_ of the tenth Sonata of his Op. 4 does
Cervetto venture to the twice-lined E, and at the conclusion of the same
piece to the twice-lined A. In both cases he has to use the treble clef,
which does not appear elsewhere.
Besides Cervetto the younger, amongst Italians who cultivated cello
playing must be mentioned Gasparini, Moria, Joannini di Violoncello,
Zappa, Cirri, Aliprandi, Graziani, Piarelli, Spotorni I. and II., Barni,
Bertoja I. and II., Lolli, Sandonati, and Shevioni. We give below the
meagre information which exists regarding them.
QUIRINO GASPARINI, a distinguished cellist, was in 1749 Kapellmeister at
the Court of Turin. He remained there until 1770. As a composer, he was
chiefly occupied with church music, no cello pieces are known by him.
Of MORIA, the fact only is known that, in 1755, he was heard at the
“Concert Spirtuel” in Paris.
JOANNINI DI VIOLONCELLO, from the year 1759 Kapellmeister at St.
Petersburg, had a great reputation in his own country as a player.
ZAPPA, called FRANCESCO, according to Gerber was making a concert
tour in 1781, and “enchanted his hearers in Dantsic by his soft and
delightful execution.”
GIAMBATTISTA CIRRI, born in the first half of the eighteenth century, at
Forli, lived and worked for a long time in England. On the title page
of his first work, published at Verona in 1763, he called himself a
“Professore di Violoncello.” Of his compositions there appeared in print
seventeen different works in London, Paris, and Florence.
As a clever violoncellist, BERNARDO ALIPRANDI, son of the opera
composer, Aliprandi, born in Tuscany, was distinguished. His father was
composer and Court band-conductor in Munich during the first half of the
previous century; but he himself became a member of the orchestra there,
where he still was in 1786. His cello pieces, of which several were
published, are as obsolete as those of Cirri.
Gerber, in his dictionary, says of GRAZIANI, that after the death of the
gamba player, Louis Christian Hesse,[70] he was summoned to Potsdam to
take his place as tutor to the Crown Prince of Prussia. When the French
violoncellist, Duport (the elder), came to Berlin, in 1773, Graziani
lost his post at Court. He died at Potsdam in 1787. The six violoncello
solos, Op. 1 (printed in Berlin about the year 1780), as well as the six
cello pieces brought out in Paris (Op. 2), mentioned by Gerber in his
old Musical Dictionary under the name of Graziani, must have appeared in
the latter years of the author’s life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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