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SCHOOL OF FLORENCE.

ALTHOUGH the least important amongst the nurseries of music in Italy, it is impossible to imagine that Florence, which has produced or fostered almost all that is illustrious in the sister arts, should be without distinction in this. One of the first proofs of the musical taste of the country is to be observed in a collection of “Laudi spirituali,” a kind of sacred composition, produced and performed at Florence so early as the year 1310, by a Philharmonic Society, which still exists. In addition to this, the town of Arezzo, which gave birth to Guido, the founder of the present musical system, is situated in Tuscany. Music however appears, like the other arts, to have sprung up and flourished, principally under the fostering care of the family of Medici. Under Lorenzo, the magnificent, Antonio Squarcialuppi, the organist of the Duomo, at Florence, was so much esteemed as a musician, that a monument was erected to his memory, on which was the inscription given in the note.* At the same period, the Canti Carnascialeschi were sung in the streets of Florence, and the learned Politian, tutor to Leo the Tenth and the other sons of Lorenzo, who left amongst his works a discourse on music, is said to have died whilst playing on the lute. The earliest masters of the Florentine School form, however, like those of almost all others, a list of laborious more than talented composers, uninteresting to any but the scientific-but as we have endeavoured to render all our former histories as complete as possible, we shall not curtail this.

Francesco Corteccia was organist to the grand Duke Cosmo II. for thirty years, and was also a composer of madrigals, motets, and Responsiones et Lectiones, all published at Venice. His works were however dry and uninteresting; he died in 1581, and

* Multum profecto debet Musica Antonio Squarcialuppo organista. Is enim ita gratiam conjunxit ut quartam sibi viderentur Charites musicam adscivisse sororem. Florententia civitas, grati animi officium, rata ejus memoriam propagare cujus manus sæpe mortales in dulcem admirationem adduxerat, civi suo monumentum donavit.

VOL. VII. NO. XXVII.-SEPT. 1825.

X X

was succeeded in his office at the Tuscan Court by Alessandro Striggio, a lutenist and voluminous composer of some celebrity. He is mentioned frequently in Morley's Introduction, and by the historians of Italian poetry, Crescimbeni and Quadrio, in terms of praise, as one of the earliest dramatic writers in Italy, whose operas at that period were little more than madrigals in action. But in such an early stage of the art, great proofs of talent could not often be looked for, and consequently the compositions of Striggio, especially his madrigals, are deficient in clearness of harmony and beauty, as well as accent in melody. Vincentio Galileo, the father of the celebrated Galileo, was the scholar of Zarlino, and a musician of some note; he played on the lute, but he was most known as a theorist, and that in a controversy with his master, in which he defended the doctrines of Aristoxenus, which Zarlino, as a friend to the tempered scales, is much against. Galileo's first work was a tract, entitled Discorso intorno all'opere di Zarlino; this was noticed by Zarlino, and in 1581 Galileo published his Dialogo della Musica antica e moderna in sua difesa contra Giuseppe Zarlino, in which he declares himself his open antagonist. In this work are several curious observations and facts relative to music. It was the opinion of the author that Italy, which at that period contained more musical people than any country in Europe, could boast of only four great organists, viz. Padovano, Claudio da Coreggio, Guami, and Luzzaschi, and he complains bitterly of the "Musical Embroiderers' of his time, who, by their changes and divisions so disguised every melody, that it was no longer recognizable." He says that the harp, which was in use in Italy before the time of Dante, was transported thither from Ireland, and the guitar from England, formerly famous for their manufacture.

Antonio Festa, the exact time and place of whose birth are unknown, was nevertheless a composer of far superior merit to that which is usually displayed in the works of the masters who preceded Palestrina and Carissimi. His motets and madrigals are clearly and well phrased, and contain much rhythm and graceindeed Dr. Burney, who scored many of his compositions, considers him (Palestrina and Porta excepted) as the finest contrapuntist of Italy, before Carissimi.

Of Giovanni Animuccia, the predecessor of Palestrina, at St.

These masters

Peter's, we have already given an account.* comprise the history of what may be termed the first era of the Florentine School, which commenced a more brilliant career with the birth of Giacomo Peri, in 1600, at Florence. To this composer must be ceded the honour of having invented airs, and by this means diversified the character of the opera, which before his time consisted entirely of recitative. The credit of this step towards perfection in music has been usually assigned to Cavalli, but although this master, certainly highly improved and moulded into a more pleasing shape what Peri had begun, yet the latter composed the opera of Eurydice, for the marriage of Henry IV. of France, with Mary di Medicis, in which a species of air is decidedly introduced alternately with recitative, although it consisted of nothing more than one or two stanzas, preceded by a short symphony. No other works by this composer are known, except some which he wrote in conjunction with the Roman master, Cassina.

Giacomo Corsi, a gentleman of fortune at Florence, of the same standing as Peri, distinguished himself as a follower of the muses, and particularly of Euterpe. Rinuccini, a poet of some eminence, furnished the Libretti of his operas, which were performed at his own palace, in the presence of the Grand Duke. These dramas were stamped with the same regularity and magnificence of effect, though in a less degree, that characterise the opera at the present time, but as he was assisted by Peri in two of them, Daphne and Gli amori d'Apollo e Circe, it is hardly to be known to which to ascribe their superiority. The truly celebrated Lully was a native of Florence, but his genius was as it were transplanted to another soil, and we shall refer our readers to a previous article for his memoir.t

The opera of Italy, which now began rapidly to rise in the scale of celebrity, and to add each year to its perfection, ceases however from this period to owe much to the productions of the Florentine school, though of later years it has had some masters to boast who are brilliant ornaments to the annals of art. Our notices will therefore be brief:-Acciajuoli, a composer who flourished towards the end of the 17th century, composed the seri

See Vol. 6, page 204.

+ See Vol. 7, page 43. .

ous operas of Damira placata and Ulisse, and some of the earliest comic operas ever produced. The Chevalier Giovanni Apolloni was at this period also a dramatic composer of eminence; his operas were Argia, Astiage, Il Schiavo regio, and Dori, a pastoral or comic opera. Though it is scarcely within our province to include instrumentalists, yet there were at this period two Florentines who highly adorned their art. Francesco Geminiani was born at Lucca, in 1680. His first instructions in music, and on the violin, were received from Aless. Scarlatti, and afterwards he became one of the most celebrated pupils of Corelli. The greater part of his life was passed in London, but he died at Dublin in 1762. Geminiani published in London a Treatise on Good Taste, The Art of Playing the Violin, The Art of Accompaniment, and a Dictionary of Harmony. His sonatas in Corelli's style are very superior compositions.

Maria Veracini, another violinist of the same school, born at Florence at the end of the 17th century, travelled a great deal, and obtained a large portion of success in Italy, Germany, and England. So great was his talent and so excellent his style that even Tartini himself journeyed with him to obtain his instruction. At this period the two serious operas of Il Pastor fido and Romulo e Tazio, composed by Luigi Pietragrua, had considerable success.

A marked difference to be observed between the Florentine and the other Italian schools is, that instead of numbering sacred with dramatic composers, it can boast only of those of the latter class after the time of Festa. The cause is undiscovered, nor is it of sufficient importance to require any research, we only mention it as a peculiarity.

Antonio Pistorini, born at Florence in the 17th century, from whose hand there is no composition extant, was yet known in his day as an eminent musician, His works were dramatic, and appear to have been principally comic operas and interludes.

Another and still greater violinist now claims our attentionthe celebrated Pietro Nardini, who was born at Leghorn in 1725, This able performer was the greatest of Tartini's scholars, and in the year 1769, proved at once his gratitude and respect for his master, by attending him in his last illness with almost filial piety. Nardini was first violin to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He travelled a good deal in Italy and Germany, and was for some

time in the service of the Duke of Wirtemburg. After thirty years absence he returned to his native city, and there composed his sonatas, which are so celebrated for beauty of expression.Nardini excelled chiefly in the execution of the adagio.

Giovanni Placidio Ruttini was born at Florence, in 1730. At the age of 24 he went into Germany and established himself at Prague, where he remained till the year 1766; he then returned to Italy, and produced at Modena and elsewhere several operas of his composition; three only are known-Gli Sposi in Mascheri, Amor industrioso, and Vologeso. Whilst in Germany Ruttini published at Nuremberg several sonatas for the harsichord; Pensa a serbarini, an aria for a soprano, and a cantata, Livinia e Turno, the poetry of which was written by Maria Antoinette, Electress of Saxony.-N. Soffia, chapel master at Lucca, his native city, composed at this period a grand mass, which was executed at Florence with success. We must also mention, as a native of Lucca, where he was born in 1740, one of the finest instrumentalists that ever lived, Luigi Boccherini. His memoir has already been given. Bernardo Mengozzi, born at Florence in 1758, laid claim to the gratitude of the art in a double capacity; he was celebrated both as a composer and a singer. France, at this period, the well-known asylum of Italian artists, became the adoptive country of Mengozzi, and at Paris his talents, both as a singer and dramatic composer, were highly applauded. After having first brought his music into notice by introducing it into the operas in which he performed, he produced with great success the following entire comic operas; Les deux Visirs, Isabelle de Salisbury, Pourceaugnac, Les Habitans de Vaucluse, Brunet et Caroline, La Dame voilée, and Une faute par amour. The style of Mengozzi was original, and cannot be better described than as exceedingly spirited, it was so close, yet so expressive. During the youth of the preceding composer, Gualberto Brunetti and Florido Tomeoni had distinguished themselves in Florence; the former, who was the organist of Pisa, by the opera of Bertholdo; the latter, by a learned work on his art, explaining the causes of the superiority of the Italians in music.

We have now reached the close of our short account of the

* See Vol. 6, page 361.

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