Ferdinando Giorgetti - Misplaced Pages

Italian composer, violinist, publicist, educator and conductor (1796–1867)

Ferdinando Giorgetti (23 June 1796 in Florence, Italy – 23 March 1867 in Florence, Italy) was a composer, violinist, educator and Italian publicist.

Life

Child prodigy and royal teacher

Giorgetti, a child prodigy, started studying violin with Giovanni Francesco Giuliani at five years old and continued on this path for 9 years. However, nothing is known regarding his education of composition, so it is most probable that he was self-taught. The publications from that time mention him as the private violin instructor of Carlo II of Borbone-Parma, but no specific dates are given. Rumors originate from the fact that Giorgetti, in 1840, dedicated a complex sacred oratorio for choir and a large orchestra, Le turbe nel deserto, to Carlo II. The frontispiece of the autograph (today found in Parma, see Sources) affirm being given to the prince «i primi elementi di musica e restommi scolpito mai sempre nel cuore» («I gave the Prince his first education in music, and he remained struck in my heart»). Research into the lives of both of them indicates that it is probable that the dates of their lessons were 1808, so, if this is in fact true, twelve-year-old Giorgetti taught the 9-year-old prince.

First soloist experiences and paralysis

In 1811, Elisa Bonaparte hired him as her personal violinist («Chamber Violin of the Queen of Etruria»), and he traveled with her in Spain and France until 1814, the year in which two central occurrences took place in his life: the fall of Napoleon and the contraction of a mysterious disease affecting his nervous system which left him paralyzed from the hips down. Because of the loss of his job, and above all, his paralysis, he was forced to leave his career as a soloist and dedicate his efforts to composition, teaching, musical publicity, and the organization of events and performances.

First success as a composer

It was from that moment in his life that he perfected counterpoint with Disma Ugolini (1755-1828), learning the methods in practice, derived from the experienced didactics of Antonin Reicha, who was a classmate of Beethoven and teacher of not only Ugolini, but also Franck, Adam, Berlioz and Liszt. In 1817, despite his paralysis, he traveled to Germany to publish his compositions in Leipzig, at Breitkopf & Härtel publishers (their relation lasted until 1825). In 1818, he composed a concerto for flute, extraordinarily and curiously similar to the second concerto that Saverio Mercadante wrote for the same instrument in 1819. In 1825, he won (tied with Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata) a competition by the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze centered around the putting to music of the cantata Il Ciclope by Pietro Metastasio.

Publicist and Fame: the union between German tradition and Italian singability

In 1828, the fame of Giorgetti as a composer, teacher, and publicist was established in Florence because he most furiously participated in a written debate regarding German influence in the didactics of Italian music. In the periodicals, space was given to the prevalent idea that there was an excessive penetration of German taste inside the classrooms of the conservatories, while Giorgetti, on the contrary, affirmed that the study of Germans of the Classical period (Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven) was instead essential in acquiring the necessary knowledge that permitted Italian singability to be expressed well. Giorgetti proposed a sort of union between German and Italian style, which in this era were considered to be incompatible. He pointed to Gioachino Rossini as the ultimate example of that union. Rossini was taught through German examples during his education in Bologna; indeed, he was given the nickname “"il tedeschino" (the little German). Giorgetti was given the nickname “il tedescone" (the big German) for his fondness of Teutonic artistry. That fondness found fertile ground in the Germanophile Tuscany, ruled by Habsburg-Lorraine. In 1827, on the frontispiece of Tre trj di una difficoltà progressiva (dedicated to Paganini) he indicates «first violin of the court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany», and thanks to the support of the court (members to which Giorgetti dedicated numerous compositions), he began promoting instrumental music and cultured European musical language, an activity to which he dedicated all of his energy as a composer, teacher and orchestral conductor.

Preference for the quartet

The quartet was a privileged object of interest in his work, and was, at that time, used infrequently by Italian composers. He considered the quartet to be the maximum expression of the art of music (and believes to be heir of the great European approach to the quartet, which at the time a myth considered created in Italy). He promoted many performances of quartets (often for their first Italian performance ), as well as for private events organized by Giorgetti himself, which were often held at his house (in Via Ricasoli in Florence). In addition, he created incentives for popularized the genre with arrangements from the great German quartets, and he himself composed eight string quartets. However, Giorgetti didn’t disregard other genres of instrumental and symphonic music, and like many orchestral conductors (one of the last “director-violinists”, before becoming solely a conductor like Teodulo Mabellini, his compatriot and contemporary, and Angelo Mariani), performed sacred masterpieces by Haydn and Rossini in Florence in order to demonstrate that a same substance connected both German and Italian tradition. In addiction, Giorgetti rediscovered numerous composers of the past.

Affinity to other composers

His commitment gained favor of many composers, from Louis Spohr to François-Joseph Fétis, from Antonio Bazzini to Giovanni Pacini, to Giuseppe Poniatowski, to whom Giorgetti dedicated works and offered hospitality in his villa in Via Ricasoli. He maintained sincere friendships with Niccolò Paganini, for whom he composed many pieces for violin, with Franz Liszt, who he met in Florence in 1838 and, above all, with Gioacchino Rossini. When he was a guest of Giorgetti’s in Florence, Rossini was at the mercy of his depression and nervous crises, which Giorgetti tried to help remedy by showing Rossini his own greater suffering caused by his paralysis.

Refusal of opera

The national tendency of the public, however, remained that of developing a passion for lyric opera instead of for instrumental music, which was a fact that threw Giorgetti into a rage. He stigmatized the exaggerated patronage of opera of his compatriots, and believed that the young Giuseppe Verdi was a corruptor of Italian musical traditions, and that Ricordi publishers was a guilty accomplice (in 1856 Giorgetti also interrupted his fine and at that point good relations with the Milanese publisher because of his operatic inclination).

Teaching

He continued to promote instrumental music throughout his life, both as a teacher and as a publicist. Some of his students were Luigi Bicchierai, Luigi Laschi, Carlo Verardi and Jefte Sbolci, to whom he dedicated many studies and for whom he wrote a few methods (the most famous is the method for viola written in 1854, and then printed again by Ricordi in 1902).

The Rivista Musicale of Florence: influence on Basevi

In 1840, he founded the «Rivista Musicale di Firenze» (Musical Magazine of Florence), which was the first Italian periodical completely dedicated to music. He didn’t write critiques, but rather philosophical reflections of music, very similar to those of Giuseppe Mazzini expressed in Filosofia della musica (Philosophy of music) in 1836. Giorgetti’s opinions very much inspired the ideas of Abramo Basevi, one of the protagonists in the Florentine musical scene. Together, Giorgetti and Basevi created large instrumental organizations, among which were Mattinate beethoveniane (concerts that brought the Tuscan reception of Beethoven to the forefront and which were first performed in front of his house in Via Ricasoli, in 1859, and then at the Lemonnier Institute in via S. Egidio), Concerti popolari (created by Basevi and Teodulo Mabellini in 1863), and Società del quartetto (with the publisher Giovanni Gualberto Guidi), which in 1861 finally made Giorgetti’s dream of having a Florentine “house” for the quartet come true. In fact, he dedicated his last Settimo quartetto to the Società.

Last years

Getting weaker and weaker from his paralysis, he became interested in the destiny of old musicians. He donated many of his earning to institutions that offer assistance. His involvement as a teacher and publicist continued almost until his death, but he almost completely ceased to compose after 1862. He died in his house in Via Ricasoli in 1867.

Works and sources

Giorgetti mostly composed for violin (2 concerti) and for strings (eight quartets and numerous pieces for two violins, and violin and viola), but he also dedicated his time to sacred music with messe and oratorios, and some symphonic experiments. He arranged many themes by Vincenzo Bellini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Louis Spohr for strings. He also composed songs for soprano, as well as compositions for harp, piano, clarinet and flute (the concerto from 1818).

Autographs

The institution that preserves the greatest number of his autographs is the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini in Florence followed by the Palatina Library in Parma, and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. In Brussels, at the Royal Library of Belgium, you can also find the autograph of the third quartet, which Giorgetti dedicated to Fétis. The autograph of the Ouverture I, dated 1840 and dedicated to Poniatowski, was found by the pianist Gregorio Nardi in Florence and today is looked after in his private Florentine archive. The Pacini Collection of the Carlo Magnani Library in Pescia, and the Conservatories of Brussels and Florence all look after an autographed copy of Dies Irae, the only piece that remains of the Messa da Requiem which Giorgetti dedicated to Giovanni Pacini in 1843: on the frontispiece of these documents, there is a note from the composer which indicated how counterfeit copies are made lacking his autograph. The Philharmonic Academy of Bologna preserves the autograph of the Gran quintetto, at one time dedicated by Giorgetti to the librarian Masseangelo Masseangeli, then published by Ricordi in 1847 and rededicated first to the students and then to Poniatowski. The Greggiati Collection in Ostiglia contains the autograph of the Ave Maria, op. 35 in a version arranged for orchestra (the autograph of the original version for piano, harp or quartet is at the Conservatory of Florence). The autograph of the seventh quartet for strings was only recently discovered at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Manuscripts

The majority of the contemporary manuscripts of his work are at the Conservatory of Florence and the Hofburgkapelle in Vienna. After which, manuscripts are found at the Noseda Collection of the Conservatory of Milan, the Capitolary Archive in Pistoia, the Sasso Collection at the Accademia Santa Cecilia of Rome, the Paganini Conservatory of Genoa, and Arezzo Historic Archive. A unique contemporary copy of Giorgetti’s works are preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, in the Greggiati Collection in Ostiglia, at the Biblioteca Statale in Cremona, at the Biblioteca Domenicini in Perugia, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, and, abroad, at the Abteilung Musik, Theater, Film della Universitätsbibliothek «Johann Christian Senckenberg» in Frankfurt, at the Sibley Music Library part of the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester (New York), and in the Galeazzi Collection at the Irving Gilmore Music Library at Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut).

Printed editions

The greatest number of first editions printed with the works of Giorgetti are at the Conservatory in Florence. Given Giorgetti’s longlasting relationship with Ricordi, many first editions of his works are also in Milan, at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory.The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice preserves 12 first editions of his. Following, by number of examples, are: the Greggiati Collection in Ostiglia, the Institute of music Vecchi & Tonelli in Modena, the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Conservatory of Naples, the Conservatory of Brescia, the Conservatory of Pesaro, the National Library in Florence, the Conservatory of Bergamo, the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, the Conservatory of Bologna, the Conservatory of Perugia, the Conservatory of Rome, the Capitolary Archive in Pistoia, the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique in Bruxelles, the Conservatory of Liegi, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Monaco and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The following preserve only one copy of a first edition of an opera: the Conservatory in Verona, the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, the Biblioteca Aurelio Saffi in Forlì, the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, the Historic Archive of Arezzo, the Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte di Palazzo Venezia in Rome, the private archive of Claudio Paradiso in Latina, the Library of the University of Reading (England), the Liszt Ferenc Zenemüvészeti Föiskola Könivtára in Budapest, the Music Division of the Public Library in Lincoln Center in New York, and the Sibley Music Library in Rochester. The first edition from 1856 of his methods for viola is preserved at the Conservatories in Milan, Florence, Bergamo and Rome, at the Biblioteca Comunale in Finale Emilia and at the British Library in London.

Discography

In 1968, the group Sestetto Chigiano d'Archi (Riccardo Brengola, Giovanni Guglielmo, violins; Tito Riccardi, Mario Benvenuti, violas; Alain Meunier, Franco Petracchi, cellos) performed Sestetto n. 3, op. 25 by Georgetti (dedicated to Rossini and printed in Florence by Guidi in 1845; autograph conserved in Conservatoire de Musique de Bruxelles) in the concert hall of Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in Siena, during the local Musical Week. Performance was recorded and the original tape is conserved in the Italian National Discography Institute in Rome. The Institute published the recording in 1989, and now is available on-line on the official site.

References

^ Giorgetti, Ferdinando, in Dizionario enciclopedico universale della musica e dei musicisti, edited Alberto Basso, serie II: Le biografie, vol. 3: FRA-JA, Torino, UTET, 1986, p. 210.
^ Claudio Paradiso, La vita e l'opera, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 17-79.
A condition of disability that some scholars observed to be perfectly contemporary to that of Giacomo Leopardi. See Marcello De Angelis, Introduzione to Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 9-17.
^ Ugo Piovano, Giorgetti nelle riviste musicali fiorentine, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 157-202.
Marcello De Angelis, Firenze - Vienna. Un magico incontro, in Antonio Carlini (ed.), Accademie e Società Filarmoniche. Organizzazione, cultura e attività dei filarmonici nell'Italia dell'Ottocento. Atti del convegno di studi nel Bicentenario di fondazione della Società Filarmonica di Trento (Trento 1-3 dicembre 1995), Trento, Provincia di Trento/Società Filarmonica di Trento, 1998, pp. 439-446.
^ Ennio Speranza, Una pianta fuori di clima. Il quartetto per archi in Italia da Verdi a Casella, Torino, EDT, 2013.
In the 1800s the nationalistic certainty that the quartet was invented by the following Italians, Giuseppe Cambini, Filippo Manfredi, Luigi Boccherini and Pietro Nardini circulated. A conviction fed by the fact that one of the first to ever speak about the quartet, in a written text, both regarding formation and genre, was Giuseppe Cambini in 1804. This belief was considered to be truth for a long time, but today, given the difficulty in proving so, was put into perspective by historians. On this topic see Dieter Lutz Trimpert, Die Quatuors concertants von Giuseppe Cambini, Tutzing (Baviera), Schneider, 1967; Chappell White, Jean Gribenski, Amzie D. Parcell, Cambini, Giuseppe Maria (Gioacchino), in The New Grove of Music and Musicians. Second Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, executive editor John Tyrrell, vol. 4: Borowski to Canobbio, London, Macmillan, 2001-2002, pp. 858-86; and the introduction of Marcello De Angelis to Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 9-15.
Paolo Paolini, Beethoven a Firenze nell'Ottocento, in «Nuova rivista musicale italiana», V/5 (1971) e V/6 (1971), Torino, ERI, 1971, pp. 753-787 e pp. 973-1002.
Ennio Speranza, Il cavaliere del quartetto, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 125-134.
^ Sergio Martinotti, Ottocento strumentale italiano, Bologna, Forni, 1972.
Antonio Rostagno, La sinfonia italiana nel periodo di Rossini. Comportamenti, teoria e pratica, in Antonio Carlini (ed.), Accademie e Società Filarmoniche in Italia. Studi e ricerche, Trento, Filarchiv/Società Filarmonica di Trento, 2003, pp. 203-275.
Some letters from Bazzini to Giorgetti are preserved in the Ricordi Archive in Milan, where they have been digitalized. They are available on Internet Culturale Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine. See also Claudio Sartori, L'avventura del violino. L'Italia musicale dell'Ottocento nella biografia e nei carteggi di Antonio Bazzini, Torino, ERI, 1978.
Gregorio Nardi, «Mon cher monsieur Giorgetti»: l'incontro con Franz Liszt a Firenze nel 1838, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 81-103
Mario Fabbri, Ignoti momenti rossiniani: le segrete confessioni a Ferdinando Giorgetti e le sconosciute variazioni per Alessandro Abate (1817), in «Chigiana», vol. XXV, serie 5 (1968), Firenze, Olschki, 1968, pp. 265-285. Sui rapporti tra i due vedi anche Franco Schlitzer, Contributi all'epistolario rossiniano: giudizio sopra un sestetto di Ferdinando Giorgetti, in «Bollettino del Centro rossiniano di studi», 2 (1956), Pesaro, Fondazione Rossini, 1956, pp. 29 ssgg.
Franco Sciannameo, Riflessioni sul «Metodo per esercitarsi a ben suonare l'alto-viola», in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, pp. 105-124.
Bianca Maria Antolini, La musica in Toscana nell'Ottocento, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Teodulo Mabellini. Il protagonista dell'Ottocento musicale toscano, Pistoia, Brigata del Leoncino, 2005, pp. 19-35.
Società del quartetto of Basevi and Guidi rendered Florence a sort of capital for Italian instrumental music, and we don’t know exactly how much Giorgetti appreciated it after his initial enthusiasm. A student of Giorgetti, Jefte Sbolci, founded a similar association, the Società fiorentina del quartetto (Florentine Quartet Society) in 1866, causing fierce competition, which greatly complicated the just barely reborn Florentine quartet. The two groups stole reporty and soloists from each other and confused the public and Florentine institutions, which were incapable of understanding two groups so similar. We don’t know how much Giorgetti, who was already quite old, participated in this diatribe. See Bianca Maria Antolini, La musica in Toscana nell'Ottocento, in Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Teodulo Mabellini, il protagonista dell'Ottocento musicale toscano, Pistoia, Brigata del Leoncino, 2005, pp. 19-35.
Copies lacking Giorgetti’s signature of the same Dies Irae are in the Capitolary Archive in Pistoia, in the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, in the Biblioteca Domenicini in Perugia and in the Sibley Music Library della Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, in New York.
^ "Giorgetti's work in manuscripts form". SBN.it. (Italian site)
^ "Search "Giorgetti, Ferdinando"". URFM. (Italian site)
^ In the archive of Società Filarmonica Aretina are manuscripted parts of 3 Giorgetti's works: Variazioni e Rondò on Bellini's themes for violin (full score printed by Stefani Litography in 1836 with attached handwritten parts), a symphony (only parts), another Variazioni e Rondò for violin, clarinet and cello (only parts). See Chiara Bardazzi and Alessandra Lombardi (ed.), Società Filarmonica Aretina (1832-1976). Inventario degli archivi della Società Filarmonica Aretina, Società Filodrammatica dei Risorti di Arezzo, Società Filarmonico Drammatica Aretina ovvero della Provincia di Arezzo poi Società Filodrammatica «T. Sgricci», Dopolavoro Filarmonico-Drammatico «T. Sgricci», Società Filarmonico Drammatica «T. Sgricci», Società Filarmonica Aretina, Orchestra Stabile Aretina, Arezzo, Comune di Arezzo/Archivio Storico, 2000, 2014 pdf version available on Official website of Arezzo Historic Archive. Documents 125, 191, 606.
RISM 455004403 Giorgetti's document in Frankfurt
"Original Tape page". SBN.
"Listen to the record". Italian National Discography. 1989.

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