Vincenzo Petrali

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Vincenzo Antonio Petrali (born January 22, 1830 in Crema , Province of Cremona , † November 24, 1889 in Bergamo ) was an Italian composer , organist and conductor .

Live and act

Petrali came from a highly musical family. His mother belonged to the family of the composer and double bassist Giovanni Bottesini (1821–1889) from Cremona , while his father Giuliano Petrali was the cathedral chapel master in Crema as organist, pianist and composer. After his first years of domestic music lessons ( violin and organ ), the young Vincenzo was able to replace his father on the organ at the age of eleven and worked as an organist at the Chiesa dell'Ospedale and at the Church of San Benedetto in Crema. The cathedral music director of Cremona, Stefano Pavesi (1779–1850), at that time mainly known as an opera composer , gave him his first composition lessons. During this time (1845) Petrali's first mass and his first stage work Manfredo di Napoli (not preserved) were created. In 1846 his father sent him to the Milan Conservatory for a year, where he studied with Antonio Angelèri (1801–1880, piano) and Placido Mandanici (1799–1852, composition). In the following two years he already gave organ lessons in his hometown of Crema; one of his students was Pietro Bossi (1834-1896), the father of the well-known organist and composer Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925).

From 1849 he was organist at the cathedral of Cremona, there from 1852 also Kapellmeister. After a short interlude in his hometown (1853), he worked as organist at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo from the same year . Here he dedicated himself particularly to the theater, worked as a conductor and instrumentalist (all string instruments) and got to know Vienna and Berlin on tours in addition to Italian theaters. At the Teatro Sociale in Bergamo was his second opera for the carnival in February 1854 Giorgio di Barros successfully listed (repetitions in subsequent years in Crema and Brescia ). After three years of activity, he moved to Brescia for another three years (1856-1859), where he was the cathedral music director. From there he was also a conductor at the Teatro Carcano in Milan , for which he wrote his third opera (lost).

This was followed by a trip to Sicily from 1859 to 1860 to inspect various organs, but where he was held for longer due to political unrest. This is where the Debora oratory was created , dedicated to the community of Catania . After his return to Crema in 1860, he worked here for twelve years as cathedral music director and leader of the local banda Nazionale (municipal brass band), for which he wrote numerous compositions in the light, popular style and arranged many pieces from Italian, French and German operas. From this time Petralis also dated a special collaboration with the organ building company Serassi in Bergamo and its managing director Giambattista Castelli , for whose manual Norme generali sul modo di trattare l'organo moderno (General rules for playing on the modern organ) Petrali contributed practical music examples and smaller pieces of music . As a continuation of this, the three-volume textbook 71 Studi per l'organo moderno (71 exercises for the modern organ) was created. Petrali's fourth opera Maria de 'Griffi was successfully performed in Bergamo in 1864. In 1868 he married Maria Ottolini , the daughter of the mayor of Crema; of the four children three survived.

In 1872 he returned to Bergamo for health reasons and stayed there for ten years as organist at Santa Maria Maggiore and teacher for singing, piano, harmony and counterpoint at the local Liceo Musicale . Many sacred works were written here and he had important organs approved. In Bergamo in 1878 his pantomime piece L 'Alloggio Militare (The Military Accommodation) premiered. In 1880 he also took over the position of Kapellmeister at this church as organist after the death of his predecessor. This time was overshadowed by the death of his mother, one of his sisters and his wife Maria (1878) within a short time; the latter left him three minor children.

In 1882 he followed a call from the newly founded Liceo Musicale Rossini in Pesaro , where he taught organ, piano, harmony and figured bass until the summer of 1889 . In 1886 the subject of Banda instrumentation was added. It was during this time that his late, predominantly liturgical organ works were written. As a result of a liver disease, which became noticeable towards the end of 1888, he stopped teaching in Pesaro in 1889 and returned to Bergamo, where he died on November 24th at the age of 59.

meaning

During his lifetime and for a long time afterwards, Petrali was considered an outstanding virtuoso on the organ and an unrivaled improviser on this instrument. In addition, he was in great demand as a pianist and also as a player of string instruments; in addition, he worked as a conductor, choir director and banda leader. He was an honored member of a number of academies and holder of many prizes and honorary degrees. Nevertheless, he was personally considered to be modest, generous and very reserved, but also easily irritable. His musical style "at the interface between Baroque and Romanticism" was rooted in the typical Italian bel canto of the 19th century, which not only shaped contemporary light music, but also Petralis sacred music in the first half of his creative period. With the beginning of the Cecilian Movement , he also turned to a stricter, contrapuntal style. It is noticeable that this style is found more in the slower, meditative pieces, while faster movements are more in the earlier style of "solemn happiness". He moved further and further away from the pleasing style of many colleagues to use operatic or otherwise popular things for sacred music. His style was often bold and daring, and sometimes strange. After the first congress of the Cecilian movement in Italy in 1880, he became a staunch advocate of this direction, which was also reflected in the compositions of his last years. His music can be seen as an early link between the Italian musical styles.

In organ building, too, he recognized the need to reform the traditional construction of a romantic, orchestral sound-oriented organ, although he was aware that the time was not yet ripe for a return to the earlier classical building principles in Italy. In the lively conflict between traditionalists and reformers of organ building that sparked off in 1887 when the Linghiardi company built a new building in the cathedral of Pavia , Petrali played an important mediating role.

Works (selection)

  • Choir and vocal works
    • Oratorio Debora
    • Gloria Patri
    • Gloria
    • Laudate pueri
    • Domine ad adjuvandum
    • Offertory
    • Consumazione
    • La Partenza per le Vacanze for four-part choir, string quartet, two pianos and organ
    • Inno di Garibaldi (Hymn to Garibaldi )
    • a large number of other, also non-liturgical works for choir or solos and orchestra
  • Stage works
    • Opera Manfredo di Napoli 1852, libretto: Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi (1804–1873), no premiere, destroyed
    • Opera Giorgio di Bary 1854, first performance in Bergamo
    • Opera Anna di Valenza 1857/1858, no premiere, lost
    • Opera Maria de 'Griffi 1864, first performance in Bergamo
    • Pantomime L 'Alloggio Militare 1878, first performed in Bergamo
  • Orchestral works and chamber music
    • Minuetto per archi
    • Rimembranze Rossiniane (Memories of Rossini, Fantasy for Orchestra and Organ)
    • Quartetto per archi
    • Marcia
    • Sonata in re per violino e pianoforte
  • Banda music (music for city brass bands)
    • Centomila franchi di rendita (Valzer)
    • Chi mi vuole? (Mazurka)
    • Come mi chiami? (Polka per Banda)
    • Foglie disperse (Valzer)
    • Il Postiglione di Brunn
    • Mascherata (Marcia)
    • mazurka
    • Orobia (Marcia) (March The Bergamasque Alps )
    • Saffo (Capriccio)
    • Scacciapensieri (Galoppo)
    • Spensieratezza (Galoppo composto e ridotto per banda dall'autore)
    • Triad (polka)
    • Un Moto nel cuore (Mazurka)
    • numerous transcriptions of works by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi, Rossini, Petrella, Pedrotti, Gounod, Thomas, Meyerbeer, Weber, Flotow, Strauss and Beethoven
  • Piano works
    • Sonata a 4 mani
    • Elegia in memoria del compianto amico Amilcare Ponchielli per pianoforte
    • Improvviso on the pianoforte
    • Mazurka on the piano
    • Minuetto per pianoforte
    • Capriccio per pianoforte
    • Berceuse per pianoforte
    • Due romance senza parole
    • Gavotta per pianoforte
    • Bolero per pianoforte
    • Nebbie marine per pianoforte
    • Fantasia sopra motivi dell'opera Jone del Maestro Petrella per pianoforte
    • Fantasia per pianoforte sull'opera Ernani
    • Senza titolo (riduzione per pianoforte di Rezzonico)
  • Organ works
    • Messa Solenne (1888)
    • Messa Solenne Per Organo Solo, composta espressamente per la Solennità del Santo Natale
    • Tre Sonata
    • Tre Sonata per la Comunione
    • Tre Sonata per l'Offertorio
    • Quattro Sonata per il Vespero
    • Dieci Versetti sol minore
    • Dieci Versetti per Organo pieno di primi toni
    • Cinque Versetti ad Organo pieno per Magnificat
    • Cinque Preludi
    • Tre Ricercari servibili per l'Elevazione
    • Due toccate
    • Quattro Adagi per l'Elevazione
    • Andante per l'Elevazione
    • Offertory
    • Due Andante-Pastorale
    • Due piccoli ripieni per organo semplice
    • Adagio per Flauto
    • Adagio per Voce Umana
    • Allegretto per clarinetto
    • Due pastorali
    • Sinfonia per Organo
    • Alleluia (not published)
    • Souvenir per Organo su motivi bachiani (lost)
    • 71 Studi per l'Organo moderno sulle norm proposte da Giambattista Castelli (3 volumes)
    • Esempi di Applicazione pratica (on Giambattista Castelli: L'Organo Moderno)
  • Didactic works
    • Lezione prima della pulsazione del tasto (excerpt from the standards of Castelli)
    • 14 Bassi a tre parti
    • see also organ works ( 71 Studi ... and Esempi di Applicazione ... )

Literature (selection)

  • Alberto Basso: Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti (DEUMM), Turin 1989, article «Petrali»
  • Alberto Brunelli: Vincenzo Petrali (1830-1889) , in: Bollettino Ceciliano, Volume LXXXIV, N. 8-9, Rome 1989, pages 200 to 207
  • Valentino Donella: Musica d 'organo e organisti in Italia dalla decadenza alla riforma (secolo XIX e prima metà del secolo XX) , in: Rivista internazionale di Musica Sacra, Volume 3, Volume 1, Milano 1982, pages 27 to 88
  • Mauro Ferrante: Vincenzo Antonio Petrali (1830-1889). Primo insegnante d'organo del Liceo musicale Rossini di Pesaro , in: Conservatorio "Gioachino Rossini" Pesaro. Annuario, Pesaro 1988-89, pp. 83-100
  • Sergio Lini: Tre grandi musicisti cremaschi: Pavesi - Bottesini - Petrali , Crema 1998
  • Azio Samarani: Commemorazione di Vincenzo Petrali nel cinquantenario della morte , Crema 1940, Istituto Musicale "Folcioni"
  • Andrea Sessa: Il melodramma italiano (1861-1900). Dizionario bio-bibliografico dei compositori , Historiae Musicae Cultores Volume 97, Florence 2003, pages 371 to 372, article «Petrali»

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Enciclopedia della Musica, Volume III, Ricordi Verlag, Milano 1964
  2. ↑ Vincenzo Petrali in it.wikipedia.org, German translation by Maurizio Cecchin
  3. ^ The lexicon of the organ, edited by Hermann J. Busch and Matthias Geuting, Laaber-Verlag Laaber, 2nd edition 2008, ISBN 978-3-89007-508-2 , page 569
  4. ↑ Gabriel Isenberg: Vincenzo Petrali (1830-1889), organ virtuoso between opera and church , in: Ars Organi, volume 52, issue 4 (December 2004), pages 210 to 218
  5. ^ Otto Depenheuer , foreword to the edition by Vincenzo Antonio Petrali, Orgelwerke . Dr. J. Butz music publisher
personal data
SURNAME Petrali, Vincenzo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Petrali, Vincenzo Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian composer and organist
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Crema
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1889
Place of death Bergamo