CHAN 0704 Front.qxd 15/9/06 4:04 pm Page 1 CHAN 0704 CHACONNE CHANDOS early music CHAN 0704 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 4:19 pm Page 2 Bernardo Pasquini (1637–1710) Sonate per gravicembalo 1 Toccata [in sol minore] 4:24 [in G minor • in g-Moll • en sol mineur] 2 Partite diverse di follia 6:41 Lebrecht Collection Lebrecht 3 Toccata con lo scherzo del cucco 4:57 4 Alemanda d’Ongheria* 4:53 5 Partite del salterello 3:20 6 Toccata [in fa maggiore]* 3:27 [in F major • in F-Dur • en fa majeur] 7 Canzon franzèsa* 1:59 8 Passagagli [in do maggiore] 4:00 [in C major • in C-Dur • en ut majeur] 9 Toccata [in sol maggiore]* 2:36 [in G major • in G-Dur • en sol majeur] 10 Bergamasca* 1:16 Bernardo Pasquini 11 Ricercare con la fuga in più modi 13:36 12 Partite di bergamasca 4:03 3 CHAN 0704 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 4:19 pm Page 4 The Keyboard Music of Bernardo Pasquini: 13 Passagagli [in sol minore]* 3:07 Types of Composition, Analysis of Forms, Evolution of Style [in G minor • in g-Moll • en sol mineur] 14 Variationi capricciose 5:39 Born in Massa Valdinievole near Lucca in Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. He made a December 1637, Bernardo Pasquini received copy in his own hand of the whole of 15 Passagagli per lo scozzese 2:45 his earliest education either at the hands of Frescobaldi’s Primo libro delle fantasie, while Mariotto Bocciantini, the parish priest at throughout his life he never ceased to be 16 Tre arie* 1:27 Uzzano near Pescia, or – according to a absorbed by Palestrina’s style, studying it by manuscript notizia by Padre Martini1 – at writing his compositions out in score. In this Sonata XIV à basso continuo in la [minore]† 5:55 those of his paternal uncle Giovanni in connection the Abbot Giuseppe Baini, in his in A [minor] • in a[-Moll] • en la [mineur] Ferrara. The one does not necessarily exclude famous Memorie storico-critiche della vita e 17 [Adagio] – 1:22 the other. Bernardo may well have spent part delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, 18 [Allegro] – 1:21 of his youth in Ferrara, seat of the Este claimed to possess a whole volume of such 19 [Andante] – 1:22 family, before travelling to Rome in 1650. exercises, copied out in 1690, with an 20 [Presto] – 0:37 Here he became one of the pupils of Loreto inscription in Pasquini’s own hand on the 21 [Gavotta] 1:14 Vittori (a native of Spoleto, one of the most title page attesting his indebtedness to the TT 75:37 famous male sopranos of his time and much composer: sought after as a teacher; he was a former Whoever claims to be a master of music, even student of Giovanni Maria and Giovanni an organist, yet does not imbibe the milk and Roberto Loreggian harpsichord • spinet* Bernardino Nanino, Francesco Soriano and honey of these divine compositions of with Francisco Soto de Langa) and, subsequently, Palestrina, will of a certainty remain poor for † Francesco Ferrarini cello Antonio Cesti (who, in his turn, had ever. probably been a pupil of Antonio Maria In fact, from his choice of teachers, his cello Italian (School of Milan), late 18th century Abbatini and Giacomo Carissimi). predilection for the art of Palestrina, and harpsichord Riccardo Pergolis, copy of Giovanni Battista Giusti, Lucca late 17th century Pasquini’s earliest biographers emphasise finally a career spent almost wholly in his spinet Riccardo Pergolis, copy of Honofrio Guarracino, Naples 1663 that during this period of apprenticeship in adopted city with whose institutions he was Rome he had opportunity to familiarise closely connected throughout his life, a clear Tuning: quarter comma meantone himself with the works of Girolamo picture emerges of a musician who never lost Pitch: A = 415 Hz Frescobaldi and, in particular, those of the desire to assimilate – and so make 4 5 CHAN 0704 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 4:19 pm Page 6 himself a vehicle, so to speak, for carrying church of Santa Maria in Vallicella, after come down to us in manuscript form. least one of the compositions is intended forward – the tradition from which all that which he moved to that of San Luigi dei Among all these manuscripts, only two are expressly for organ. Only a dozen or so of derived which he had learned from his Francesi in Mutii. He held similar posts at autographs – and currently in the possession the pieces carry the indication of a date (the models, direct and indirect. the Chiesa Nuova [New Church] and, most of the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin–Stiftung earliest goes back to 13 July 1693, the latest Celebrated as an incomparable keyboard importantly, at Santa Maria in Aracoeli Preussischer Kulturbesitz and the British to April 1702), and as these are distributed virtuoso, Pasquini nevertheless did not spurn where he was appointed ‘Organist to the Library in London. Besides these there exist a throughout the volume in a chronological the challenge of the theatre, nor making an People and Senate of Rome’, and where he few copies3 which probably were produced at progression, it is likely that the entire essential contribution to the performances remained almost uninterruptedly from the the end of the seventeenth century and in manuscript was compiled following a more that took place at the Oratory of San winter of 1664 until his death, which the first years of the eighteenth on the basis or less corresponding criterion. Marcello, nor appearing in the dual role of occurred on 21 November 1710. of authentic manuscripts of corresponding The London source – or more precisely harpsichordist and composer at various A few years earlier he had, like Corelli and content which have since been lost. manuscript Add. 31501 in the British private gatherings and academies, enjoying Alessandro Scarlatti, been admitted to the The Berlin autograph – which bears the Library – differs from the Berlin autograph the sponsorship and esteem of illustrious Accademia Arcadia, taking the pseudonym title Sonate per Gravicembalo, composte dal in that it comprises three separate volumes. patrons such as the Cardinals Ottoboni and ‘Protico Azeriano’. And even earlier than this Sig[nor] Bernardo Pasquini e scritte di sua The first and third are wholly in autograph, Pamphili, Queen Christina of Sweden, the he had on various occasions been given the mano in questo libro – is by far the most while of the fifty-five leaves constituting the Colonna princes and, above all, Giambattista role of ‘guardian of the organists’ of the important source of Pasquini’s keyboard second volume only the first twenty-three are Borghese. Congregation of St Cecilia in virtue of the music. Consisting of a single volume, oblong in the composer’s own hand. The remaining On the other hand, his only two trips prestige and authority with which his in shape and containing more than 400 leaves contain a series of pieces whose entry beyond the borders of Italy of which records presence attracted some of the most talented pages, it formed part of the private library of can be ascribed to Bernardo Ricordati, the survive were both attributable to his exponents among the young generation of Count Ludwig Landsberg before being composer’s nephew and pupil, for whose widespread fame as a harpsichordist. The first Italian harpsichordists to the school. Among donated to the Staatsbibliothek. It must be instruction the entire collection was brought him to Vienna – to the court of these were Giovanni Maria Casini, Tommaso noted that neither the description of its conceived and produced. Leopold I, who tried in vain to procure his Bernardo Gaffi, Francesco Gasparini and contents in the title nor the instrumental Although some scholars have suggested services on a permanent basis –, the second Domenico Zipoli. Others came from beyond indication ‘gravicembalo’ is to be understood that the London manuscripts are a to Paris – in the entourage of the papal the Alps, such as Johann Philipp Krieger and in a literal sense, for at the time, the term continuation of the one in Berlin, the legate, Cardinal Flavio Chigi – where he was Georg Muffat. ‘sonata’ – which, incidentally, does not recur simplicity of the pieces transmitted within able to perform in the presence of Louis XIV. With the exception of a small group of in the title of any of the eighty-eight pieces the former would seem to contradict such a In Rome, however, his official works printed within three collective volumes copied into the manuscript – was used theory decisively, while confirming the appointments brought him first to succeed published between 1700 and 17202, generically, in opposition to that of ‘cantata’, inscriptions on the title pages of the first and Fabrizio Fontana as titular organist in the Pasquini’s entire output for keyboard has to indicate an instrumental work, while at third volumes which make the didactic 6 7 CHAN 0704 BOOK.qxd 15/9/06 4:19 pm Page 8 purpose of the London volumes clear: ‘Ad Cesare Arresti and the two sonatas, both Pasquini introduces a new theme, the entire such pieces, most of which consist of a single usum Bernardo Felice Ricordati, de preserved in the British Library, all the works work retains its primarily monothematic elaborate section that resists assimilation into Buggiano, in Etruria’ and ‘Del Sig. Bernardo in this formal category are found in the first character, for the extraneous melodic material any rigid, preconceived formal scheme. Their Pasquini, ad usum Bernardi Ricordati, part of the Berlin autograph and may is always used in rapid succession to, or in collocation in the manuscript testifies to Nepotis Bernardo Pasquini, Etruriensis’.