Composer · late 17th c
Count Ludovico Roncalli
Biography
Count Ludovico Roncalli,
(fl late 17th century). Italian guitarist and composer. The often-encountered spellings ‘Roncelli’ and ‘Rancalli’ are erroneous.
Roncalli is known only through his Capricci armonici sopra la chitarra spagnola (Bergamo, 1692/R; facs. in BMB, iv, 1969). This collection contains nine ‘sonatas’ or suites for five-course Baroque guitar notated in Italian guitar tablature; each one comprises from five to seven movements. Each suite begins with a preludio and alemanda, which are followed by other typical late 17th-century Italian dance forms such as the corrente, giga, sarabanda and gavotta. Despite their Italian titles the movements show some French influence. Roncalli gave no indication of the tuning for his pieces, but their style and textures seem to indicate the ‘French’ tuning a/a–d'/d–g/g–b/b–e' used by his contemporaries Corbetta, Derosier and Visée.