Andrea Grossi

Andrea Grossi (* around 1660; † after 1696) was an Italian violinist and composer .

biography

Little is known about the composer Grossi and only refers to the four surviving prints with violin music and the traditions of Fétis and Eitner . From these only surviving sources it appears that he was at least at the end of the 17th century. as a violinist in the service of the last Duke of Mantua , Carlo IV .

Since the surviving works were all created in Bologna between 1678 and 1696, or at least appeared in print, it can be assumed that Grossi went to Bologna in the 1670s and came into contact with the Bolognese school . It is quite obvious that this happened at the suggestion of the founder of that school; because Maurizio Cazzati resigned from his position as Kapellmeister at the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna in 1671 and two years later followed the call of Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1610–1665) as Kapellmeister at the court of the Duke of Mantua.

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According to tradition, his oeuvre consists of five opera:

• op. 1: Balletti, Correnti, Sarabande, e Ghighe a tre, due Violini, e Violone, overo Spinetta (Bologna, 1678)
• op. 2: Balletti, Correnti, Sarabande, e Ghighe a tre, due Violini, e Violone, overo Spinetta (Bologna, 1679)
• op. 3: Sonate a due, a trè, quattro, e cinque Instromenti (Bologna, 1682)
• op. 4: Sonate a trè, due Violini, e Violone, con il Basso Continuo per l'Organo (Bologna, 1685)
• op. 5: Suonate da camera a tre Instromenti (Bologna, 1696) (lost)

The collection of eight Suites, Op. 1, already contains half four-movement suites, the order of which (Balletto - Corrente - Sarabande - Ghighe) corresponds almost to the classic Baroque arrangement ( Allemande - Corrente - Sarabande - Ghighe ), namely with the gigue at the end (and not the Sarabande). The only exception is the opening balletto, which is stylistically related to the allemande. In piano music, the earliest source of a suite with this arrangement of movements is a print published after 1690 with suites by Froberger . It still remains to be clarified whether Grossi is the creator of this suite form. Without a doubt, the prints that have been preserved are important documents in the development of the suite and the Sonata da camera .

His best-known work is the Sonata decima in D per tromba, due violini, violone, e basso continuo from the Sonata Collection op. 3, which follows the style of the Bolognese trumpet school. The continuo accompaniment is reserved exclusively for the organ and follows the ideal of transferring the string parts to the organ. What is noticeable in it (also in Nos. 11 and 12) is the lack of a clear fugue technique, as can be found in the first nine sonatas, and the change for it between the organ-accompanied trumpet and the homophonically led string quartet before they all come together at the end of the movement connect to the tutti. Together with the last three sonatas from Op. 35 by Cazzati, these three sonatas by Grossi are a few early examples of the trumpet sonata.

The sonata collection op. 4 shows a clear tendency towards four movements (8 of 12) as well as an increase in the scope of the compositions. The latter is due not least to the fact that the joints do not have four, but now at least five, or even six openings. A source that has not survived is the sonata collection op. 5 mentioned by the Belgian music researcher François-Joseph Fétis , which is also said to have originated in Bologna in 1696.

Whilst Grossi's works are quite average and "insignificant" in terms of content, they all have one thing in common: a strictly symmetrical principle of order. Accordingly, his op.2 resembles the first collection op.1 not only in the title (and scoring) and in the number of suites (4 two-movement + 4 four-movement), but also in the structural form of the individual dance movements: the number of bars is in both parts symmetrical.

Grossi's extraordinary sense of order is also evident in the implementation of the sonata fugues of Op. 3, in which, in a strange way, the thematic entries always appear in the same order, starting with the top voice and do not vary in the parts as usual. According to Willi Apel , this urge for order and symmetry was close to a certain thematic relationship between several sonata movements, although it must not have seemed contemporary at the time it was composed.

In addition, all suite dances of the first two operas stand out from those of the contemporaries. In a comparison, Apel found out that, unlike the dance movements by Uccellini , Cazzati, GM Bononcini , Vitali or Bassani , the first parts of the sentence in Grossi mostly end on the dominant (33 out of a total of 48), as it did later in Johann Sebastian Bach was the norm. Only 9 dances end on the tonic and 6 on the tonic parallel. A tendency towards dominant closure can already be found in Vitali, but the role of the trailblazer for this harmonious turn is more to be attributed to Grossi.

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Andrea Grossi in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baumgärtner: The great music guide. (= Music history in work representations). Volume 2: Baroque Music. Kiesel, Salzburg 1981, ISBN 3702340025 , p. 284.
2. ^ ^{A b} Willi Apel : The Italian Violin Music in the 17th Century. P. 186.
3. ↑ Mühne: Ludwig Güttler: trumpet, Corno da caccia and organ. CD booklet
4. ^ Fétis : Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. Volume IV, p. 121.
5. ^ ^{A b} Willi Apel: The Italian Violin Music in the 17th Century. P. 187.
6. ^ Willi Apel: The Italian Violin Music in the 17th Century. P. 188.

literature

• Willi Apel: Italian violin music in the 17th century. Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-515-03786-1 .
• Robert Eitner: Biographical-bibliographical source lexicon of musicians and music scholars of the Christian era up to the middle of the 19th century. Volume 4, Leipzig 1901.
• François-Joseph Fétis: Biography universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. 2nd Edition. Paris 1860-1868. (Reprint: ISBN 2-84575-049-8 )
• Christian Mühne: CD booklet text, in Ludwig Güttler: trumpet, corno da caccia and organ. (Capriccio Digital, 1986).