Passa Galli

Bergamasca

Giovanni Battista Vitali spent his entire life in the Northeastern area of what is now Italy.  Born in Bologna, his early career was taken up playing violone (a bowed string instrument, a precursor of the modern-day cello) in the orchestra of the San Pedrino Basilica in Bologna.  He spent fifteen years in that position and published his earliest compositions there, mostly liturgical music, understandably.  In 1674, Vitali became a musician at the Este court in Modena. Here, in this vibrant musical environment, he must have witnessed a greater diversity of musical styles and genres than he had been exposed to in Bologna and it is here that his compositional career flowered.  While he wrote sacred vocal music and a series of pedagogical pieces designed to teach counterpoint, the bulk of Vitali’s output, and the music for which he is now best known, is courtly dance music.

Ciaccona à Basso Solo (c. 1670)

Like Vitali and Gabrielli, Giuseppe Colombi was employed at the Este Court in the 1670s and 1680s. A violinist and composer, he was assistant maestro di capella at the time Vitali arrived in 1674. He was also concertmaster at the cathedral in Modena from 1678 until his death in 1694. He composed sonatas and dance music as well as liturgical music. His Ciaccona was the inspiration for “Mystery Variations”, a suite of short pieces for solo cello by thirty different composers created early in the 21st century. These variations explore the potential of the instrument, using Colombi’s theme, as it is one of the earliest pieces written for the cello as a solo instrument.

Sonate no. 5 en do mineur 

Dominico Galli was born in Padua and in addition to being a musician (yes, at the Este Court in Modena), he was a painter, sculptor, and instrument maker.  Like his contemporaries at the Este court, G.B. Vitali and Giuseppe Colombi, he was himself a cellist.  His only known music is Trattenimento musicale sopra il violoncello a’ solo, a set of 12 sonatas for solo cello.  Precedents for his sonatas can be found in various works for solo cello by Colombi, and the Ricercary of Bolognese composer Domenico Gabrielli probably influenced him still more.  Gabrielli had published his set of seven Ricercary in January 1689, shortly after spending a year at the Este court. The appearance of Galli’s sonatas in 1691 seems more than just coincidental: they could well have been inspired by his close contact with Gabrielli as the style of Galli’s Sonatas is remarkably close to that of Gabrielli. 

Toccata decima en mi mineur

Francesco Paolo Supriani was an Italian cellist and composer of the Neapolitan school.  He was born in the town of Conversano in southeastern Italy, near the Adriatic Coast.  From 1693 Supriani studied at the "Conservatorio della Piéta dei Turchini”. In 1708 he was appointed first cello of the Real Capilla de Barcelona. He thus gained recognition as one of the early virtuosos on the cello. After two years of service in the Real Capilla, Supriani returned to Naples in 1710. There he shared music with some of the great musicians of the time, such as kapellmeister Alessandro Scarlatti. Supriani died in Naples in 1753.

Among his works is a handwritten collection of twelve toccatas for solo cello which was rediscovered in the library of the "Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella" in Naples and published by the musicologist and cellist Luigi Silva (1903-1961).  Tocattas originated in Northern Italy in the late Renaissance. Mostly written for the keyboard, they featured brilliant cascading passages against a chordal background. Supriani’s works that have survived are interesting due to the light they shed on the technical possibilities of an instrument which was, until that time, often limited to the basso continuo. He is also known for an explanatory text on the principles of playing the cello, an important source for understanding the state of musical education in 18th Century Italy.