Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli

Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli (born December 22, 1624 in Montepulciano (Tuscany) , † around 1687 possibly in Madrid ) was an Italian composer and violinist .

Life

The composer was born as Domenico Pandolfi, the second of four children of Giovanni Battista Pandolfi and Verginia Bartalini. The mother was widow of Mario Mealli, from whom she brought two sons into the marriage with Pandolfi. One of these two is named (between 8 and 9 years old) as a castrato singer at the court of Krakow . After the father's death in 1629, the mother and Pandolfi (five years old) moved to Venice to live with the other half-brother from the mother's first marriage, the castrato Giovan Battista Mealli , who worked at San Marco . At the same time, Claudio Monteverdi was active in Venice, along with many others .

The following years are in the dark, the violinist Andrew Manze suspects an education in Perugia , only 70 km away from Montepulciano , because Benedetto Stella lived there, the only namesake of the sonatas opp. 3 & 4 outside the personal circle of Pandolfi as well as the only one to which two sonatas are dedicated. Stella was a Cistercian prior, widely famous for his knowledge of the sciences, history, and music . The last sonata of op. 4 is also dedicated to a Teodora Vincioli, a noble lady from Perugia.

Pandolfi appeared in Innsbruck in 1660 under the name Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli . The website Musikland Tirol states (without receipt) that he had been a member of the Innsbruck Court Music since 1652. Why he added the name of his half-brother to the maiden name is unknown, it may have something to do with either inheritance issues or the fact that he received a clerical rank or office. In any case, he is mentioned in a chronicle from Messina sacerdote di Monte Pulciano , i.e. referred to as a priest.

At that time Innsbruck was a famous center of musical life throughout Europe. In the middle of the 17th century, a Diego Lequile designated Innsbruck in 1655 as the flagship of wonders , i.e. an outstanding miracle and the paradise of Italy, Europe and the world . The ruling Prince of Tyrol, Archduke Ferdinand Karl, was enthusiastic about music (theater), he soon appointed a highly respected band (almost exclusively Italian) and had a comedy house built in Innsbruck in 1654, the first free-standing opera house in the German-speaking area. It held 1000 people and was the first German stage to employ permanent staff. As a generous patron of music, he and his wife were dedicated recipients of many works, including a. by Stefano Bernardi , Francesco Cavalli , Maurizio Cazzati , Biagio Marini , Barbara Strozzi and Pietro Andrea Ziani . Accordingly, Innsbruck was described in an Italian report from 1854 as the outstanding German royal court at the time in terms of its musical entertainment .

Pandolfi was a musician at this court; he must have been an excellent violinist, if you judge from the technical difficulties of his sonatas. His colleague was the composer Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani , superior to Antonio Cesti , who was famous for his operas at the time . The well-known violin maker Jakob Stainer was appointed official violin maker in 1658 with the title of “arch-princely servant”. Pandolfi's opus 3 was published here in 1660, dedicated to Archduchess Anna de 'Medici , the wife of Ferdinand Karl and at the same time opus 4 (1660), dedicated to Archduke Sigismund Franz (the younger brother and successor of Ferdinand Karl).

Pandolfi left Innsbruck before 1665, perhaps in connection with the austerity measures that followed the death of Ferdinand Karl in 1662. From 1669 he can be traced back to Messina under the name Pandolfi as the first violinist in the chapel of the Senate of the cathedral. In the same year his sonata messinesi , dedicated to Prince Giovanni Antonio La Rocca of Alcontres, was published in Rome . In 1675 he had to flee Messina after killing the castrato Giovannino Marquett with his own sword in front of or in the cathedral after lengthy quarrels. The cause could have been political differences of opinion. After a stay in France, he has been employed as a violinist at the Cappella Reale della Corte in Madrid since April 1, 1678, where he probably died in 1687.

Explanations of the sources

Andrew Manze said in 1998 that there were reasons for suspicion that "a shrewd musicologist invented Pandolfi on a rainy Wednesday" because little was known about Pandolfi's life. The New Grove is satisfied with "active 1660 - 69", there is no entry for Pandolfi in the MGG . Therefore, unless otherwise stated, the representations of the Italian violinist and musicologist Fabrizio Longo were used as the basis, who dealt intensively with Pandolfi - especially by evaluating the sources; He wrote a detailed biography and the text of an insert for a CD.

Works

• Op. 1 and op. 2: lost.
• Op. 3 and 4: Sonata à Violino solo, per Chiesa e Camera (6 sonatas each), Innsbruck 1660, received at the Museo Civico in Bologna. Facsimile ed. by Enrico Gatti and Fabrizio Longo, Walhall, Magdeburg 2011. Both works collections form a unit. Each individual sonata bears the name of a certain person, mostly from the professional environment, i.e. from singers or instrumentalists. In addition to Benedetto Stella, Antonio Cesti ( La Cesta , 2nd Sonata in Op. 3) and Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani ( La Viviana , 2nd Sonata in Op. 4) should be mentioned.
• Without opus: suction. "Sonate messinesi" ( Sonate cioe balletti, sarabande, correnti, passacagli, capriccetti, e una trombetta a uno e dui violini con la terza parte della viola a beneplacito ) Rome 1669, facsimile ed. by Fabrizio Longo. Here, too, each sonata has a name, one that of Benedetto Stella, another that of the composer Bernardo Storace called Candeloro , and finally, notably, that of the singer Giovannino Marquett, who was later killed by Pandolfi.

reception

There are only recordings of op. 3 & 4, only they are the subject of the following remarks (The “Sonata messinese” are supposed to be clearly more “tamer” than opp. 3 & 4; it might as well be the work of another composer ”).

In 1901 the Italian musicologist Luigi Torchi heard "extremely acrobatic" music, as far as he knew it was the most difficult violin sonatas, but ultimately a "testimony to a time of degeneration". Today the Austrian musicologist Herbert Seifert speaks of “mannerisms”, “excessive chromaticism” and “rich in dissonance”, but fails to give positive qualifications. On the other hand, there is Manzes judgment that the sonatas are "of musical historical importance", Pandolfi is, so to speak, "at the cradle of the German-Austrian violin school".

Manze states: “That these pieces have their musical historical significance should meanwhile be beyond doubt, but their value is to be assessed much higher. Measured against the compositions of any era, this is really remarkable music, not least because of the masterful art with which Pandolfi creates new and unmistakable moods from the simplest of ideas. In this he is like a world chess champion who chooses a conventional opening and then ingeniously varies it .... Unpredictability is one of Pandolfi's most effective tricks ”. It is about "masterful art ... novel ... moods ... resembles ... a world chess champion who chooses a conventional opening and then ingeniously varies it ... shamelessly disregarding the harmonic conventions".

In fact, the sonatas are extraordinarily colorful and expressive, rich in eruptive eruptions and sometimes almost bizarre in the sense of the stylus phantasticus, and offer performers the opportunity to express their own ideas to a high degree. The third sonata from op. 4 lasts 6'33 minutes for Andrew Manze, and more than twice as long for Gunar Letzbor, namely 13'48 minutes.

The influences that influenced Pandolfi Mealli and that may have emanated from him are a field that has so far not been explored, Longo states many stylistic similarities with the opp. 5 and 8 by Barbara Strozzi . Seifert and Manze see the clear influence of Pandolfi in Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani's violin sonatas Capricci armonici op. 4 (1678). Manze suspects that Pandolfi got to know the “magical sonatas in the stylus phantasticus (... 1641) of Giovanni Battista Fontana , one of the greatest violinists of the time” during his training. Uccellini also wrote some of his later (violin) sonatas under the influence of Pandolfi.

literature

• Andrew Manze: Text of the booklet to the CD "Violin Sonatas op. 3 & 4" (see below), quoted in the German translation by Ingeborg Neumann.
• Fabrizio Longo:  Pandolfi (Pandolfi Mealli), Domenico (in religione Giovanni Antonio). In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 80:  Ottone I-Pansa. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2014.
• The same text in the booklet to the CD Pandolfi Mealli, GA: Violin Sonatas, Op. 3 (Gunar Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria) 2013.
• Herbert Seifert : Text of the booklet to the CD Violin Sonatas, Op. 4 (Gunar Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria - see below). Seifert is emeritus professor of musicology at the University of Vienna and author of various works on the music of the Austrian Baroque. He explicitly refers to Longo's research.

Discography

• Complete Violin Sonatas (Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr); Label HMF 1998/99
• 12 sonatas for violin and basso continuo opus 3 and opus 4 "(Gunar Letzbor and Ars Antiqua Austria); label: Tiroler Landesmuseum 2003; contains audio sample: 5th sonata from op. 4 - duration 6'03 minutes.
• Violin sonatas (Richard Egarr, Fred Jacobs, Andrew Manze); Label: Channel 2006 (contains 7 sonatas from op. 3 & 4, plus 3 harpsichord suites by an anonymous author).
• Violin Sonatas op. 3 No. 1-6 (Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria); Label: Arcana / Outhere 2013; Audio samples on the ensemble's website.
• Violin Sonatas op. 4 No. 1-6 (Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria); Label: Arcana / Outhere 2013; Audio samples on the ensemble's website.
• 6 sonatas op. 3 for zinc & bc (Ensemble Le Concert Brisé) 2014; Label: CarpeDiem (also contains works by Froberger).
• The Violin Sonatas of 1660 (The Smithsonian Chamber Players - Fewer, Lutzke, Slowik); Label: FoM Recordings of the Smithsonian Chamber Music probably 2014; contains audio sample: 1st sonata from op. 3 - duration 3'44 minutes.

Web links

• Sheet music for the sonatas op. 3 and op. 4 on the website Musikland Tirol (requires Sibelius (software) ).
• Sheet music and audio files by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi Mealli in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

1. ^ Longo Treccani
2. ↑ Musikland Tirol
3. ^ Longo Treccani
4. ↑ quoted from Longo, supplement p. 4
5. ↑ Website Musikland Tirol
6. ↑ quoted from Longo, supplement p. 5
7. ↑ Manze p. 16
8. ↑ Supplement p. 15
9. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd edition OEP London 2001
10. ↑ Fabrizio Longo's website
11. ↑ 2005  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Manze p. 18
13. ↑ quoted from the Smithsonian Players supplement
14. ↑ Text of the booklet to the CD Violin Sonatas, Op. 4 (Gunar Letzbor, Ars Antiqua Austria)
15. ↑ Manze supplement p. 18
16. ↑ p. 18
17. ^ Longo: Supplement p. 8
18. ↑ p. 22
19. ↑ p. 17
20. ↑ p. 16
21. ^ Ars Antiqua Austria
22. ^ Ars Antiqua Austria