Vincenzo Manfredini

Vincenzo Manfredini ( Винченцо Манфредини , born October 22, 1737 in Pistoia , † August 16, 1799 in Saint Petersburg ) was an Italian harpsichordist, composer and music theorist.

Life

The son of the composer Francesco Manfredini studied first with his father, later he continued his studies in Bologna with Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661–1756) and in Milan with Giovanni Andrea Fiorini (1716–1778). At the end of 1757 or beginning of 1758 he came to Saint Petersburg accompanied by his older brother Giuseppe Manfredini , a castrato who worked in the opera company of Giovanni Battista Locatelli , and stayed at the Tsar's court until 1769, where he was the conductor. In 1762 he performed his opera L'olimpiade there. Shortly afterwards he was appointed director of the Italian Opera in Saint Petersburg, and he was also the harpsichord teacher of Tsarevich Paul . In 1769 he returned to Bologna with a pension and composed two operas: Armida based on the famous libretto by Duranti (o. Durandi), premiered in May 1770 at the Nuovo Pubblico Teatro di Bologna , and Artaserse , "dramma per musica", premiered in the Carnival season 1771/72 in Venice in the Teatro San Benedetto . Soon after, however, he said goodbye to the opera and devoted himself to music lessons and, above all, music theory. Manfredini's first book Regole armoniche (Rules of Harmony, Venice 1775) was later translated by the composer Stepan Degtyaryov (* 1766 - May 5, 1813). In addition, Manfredini published a collection of symphonies in 1776 and several string quartets in 1781.

After Paul I ascended the throne, he asked him to return to Russia. He arrived in Saint Petersburg in September 1798, but died a few months later.

Works

Manfredini composed operas , ballets , cantatas , church music ( musica sacra ), symphonies , concertos , string quartets and chamber music , including the following:

Operas for the Russian court

• Semiramide riconosciuta ( Узнанная Семирамида ), dramma per musica, libretto: Pietro Metastasio (1760, Oranienbaum )
• La musica trionfante , pastorale, libretto: L. Lazzaroni (1761, Saint Petersburg )
• L'olimpiade ( Олимпиада ), libretto: Pietro Metastasio (November 24, 1762, Moscow ); including 6 arias [RISM M 344], and 2 arias in Recueil lyrique d'airs choisis (Paris 1772)
• La pupilla (1763, Saint Petersburg)
• La finta ammalata , Intermezzi, libretto: Carlo Goldoni (1763, Saint Petersburg)
• Carlo Magno ( Карл Великий ), libretto: L. Lazzaroni (November 24, 1763, Saint Petersburg; revision: 1764, Saint Petersburg)

Other operas

• Armida , libretto: Jacopo Duranti (o. Giacomo; o. Durandi) based on the poem Gerusalemme liberata by Torquato Tasso (1762, Moscow; 1770, Bologna, Nuovo Pubblico Teatro )
• Artaserse , libretto: Pietro Metastasio (1772, Venice, Teatro San Benedetto )

Religious music

• Requiem , 1762, Saint Petersburg
• Esther , oratorio, 1792, Venice
• Messa funebre for 4 voices
• Laudate Dominum for soprano, choir, orchestra and basso continuo

Other works

• La pace degli eroi , cantata, libretto: Lazzaroni (June 1762, Saint Petersburg)
• Il consiglio delle muse , Serenata , libretto: Giovanni Battista Locatelli (1763, Moscow; uncertain)
• Le rivali , cantata, libretto: Lazzaroni (1765, Saint Petersburg)
• Duets
• Canons
• Arias

Ballets

• Amour et psyché ( Амур и Психея ) (October 1762, Moscow)
• Les amants réchappés du naufrage (1766, Saint Petersburg)
• Le sculpteur de Carthage (1766, Saint Petersburg)
• La constance récompensée (1767, Moscow)
• Pygmalion (1762, Saint Petersburg) (балеты "Пигмалион", 1762, Петербург); (uncertain)

Instrumental works

• Harpsichord concert (The Hague & Amsterdam [RISM M 350], London [RISM M 348, M 349]); modern edition: A. Toni, Milan 1957
• 6 Sonatas for Harpsichord, 1765 [RISM M 352]; modern edition: AM Pernafelli, 1975
• 6 symphonies, Venice 1776 [RISM M 345, M 346]
• 14 preludes for harpsichord, as part of: Regole armoniche , see below
• 6 quartetti for 2 violins, viola and violoncello [RISM M 351]
• Fugue for harpsichord

Writings on music

• Regole armoniche ( Гармонические правила ), also cited as Tractus Regole armoniche :
  • 1st edition: Regole armoniche o siene precetti ragionati per apprendere i principj della musica, il portamento della mano, e l'accompagnamento del basso sopra gli strumenti da tasto, come l'organo, il cembalo ec. ; Dedicate a Sua Altezza Imperiale Paul Petrovicz ..., Appresso G. Zerletti (Venice), 1775, 78 pp.
  • 2nd edition: Regole armoniche o sieno, Precetti ragionati per apprender la musica. 2nd ed., Corr. ed accresciuta , Adolfo Cesare (Venice), 1797, 207 pp.
  • Facsimile: Vincenzo Manfredini, Regole armoniche. A facsimile of the 1775 Venice Edition , Series Monuments of music and music literature in facsimile, Broude, New York 1966, 78 pp.
  • Russian translation: Stepan Degtyaryov (Степан Аникиевич Дегтярев), "Правила гармонические и мелодические для Аникиевич дегтярев".
• Giornale enciclopedico (Naples / Bologna), various contributions, 1785–1789.
• Difesa della musica moderna ( В защиту современной музыки ):
  • Vincenzo Manfredini [and Esteban de Arteaga], Difesa della musica moderna e de 'suoi celebri esecutori , Stamperia di Carlo Trenti, Bologna 1788, in-8. 207 pp.
  • Facsimile: Difesa della musica moderna e de 'suoi celebri esecutori , Series Bibliotheca musica Bononiensis, n.73, Bologna, Ed. Forni 1972, 207 pp.
  • English translation: A critical translation from the Italian of Vincenzo Manfredini's Difesa della musica moderna / In defense of modern music (1788) , translated by Patricia Howard, E. Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY 2002, 166 pp.

literature

• Jean Grundy Fanelli: The Manfredini Family of Musicians of Pistoia, 1684-1803 , in: Studi musicali , 26 (1997), pp. 187-232.
• David J. Book: Magic flutes and enchanted forests: The supernatural in eighteenth-century musical theater , The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008, 450 pp.
• A. Monici: “Delle regole più essenziali per imparare a cantare”, secondo un vecchio autore (Vincenzo Manfredini) , in: Rivista Musicale Italiana , XVIII (1911), pp. 85–94.
• A. Monici: Di un nuovo metodo per apprendere l'accompagnamento del basso secondo un vecchio autore , in: Rivista Musicale Italiana , XXIII (1916), pp. 453-490.
• Michela Garda, Alberto Jona, Maria Titli: La musica degli antichi e la musica dei moderni: Storia della musica e del gusto nei trattati di Martini, Eximeno, Brown, Manfredini . Franco Angeli Edizioni, Rome 1988, 672 p .; in this:
  • Sic ars nova nata est. La “Querelle des anciens et des modern” nella trattatistica musicale italiana del XVIII secolo , pp. 9–41.
  • Il microscopio della ragione: Arteaga e Manfredini nella "querelle" tra antichi e moderni, introduzione a Vincenzo Manfredini, Difesa della musica moderna e de 'suoi celebri esecutori (1787) , edizione critica curata e annotata da Michela Garda, pp. 591–615 .
• Raffaella Barbierato: Il ms 739 della Biblioteca nazionale Marciana di Venezia (1664): quali rapporti con le "Regole armoniche" di Vincenzo Manfredini (1775)? , Cremona 1988.
• Julianne Baird: An 18th-Century Controversy About the Trill: Mancini vs. Manfredini , in: Early Music , xxv (1987), pp. 36-45.
• D. Carboni: Alla corte imperiale di Pietroburgo: fortuna delle opere di Baldassarre Galuppi in Russia , Galuppiana: Venice 1985, pp. 113–126, esp. 124.
• Robert Aloys Mooser: Annales de la musique et des musiciens en Russie , 3 vols., Ed. Mont Blanc, Geneva 1948–51.
• Robert Aloys Mooser: Opéras, intermezzos, ballets, cantates, oratorios joués en Russie durant le XVIIIe siècle , Geneva 1945, ³1964.
• Marina Ritzarev (Rytsareva), Anna Porfireva: The Italian diaspora in eighteenth-century Russia . In: Reinhard Strohm (Ed.): The eighteenth-century diaspora of Italian music and musicians , Brepols Publishers, Turnhout (BE) 2001.
• Enrico Fubini (ed.): Musica e cultura nel settecento Europa , EDT / Musica ed., Turin 1986; English translation: Music and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe: a Source Book , University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1994.
• Oscar George Theodore Sonneck : Catalog of Opera Librettos printed before 1800 , 2 vols., United States Government Printing Office , Washington 1914.
• Jean Grundy Fanelli: Manfredini, Vincenzo , in: Music in Past and Present , Kassel 2004, pp. 966–967.
• Michael Talbot : Manfredini, Vincenzo , in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , vol. XI, Macmillan, London 1980, p. 615.

Web links

• List of the stage works by Vincenzo Manfredini based on the MGG at Operone
• Search for operas by Vincenzo Manfredini (search term in the Autore field : "Manfredini Vincenzo") in the Corago information system of the University of Bologna

Remarks

1. ↑ Sometimes the date of death is given as August 5th, which corresponds to the Julian calendar .
2. ↑ See DJ book.