Giuseppe Antonio Vincenzo Aldrovandini: Trio Sonatas op. V, Bologna 1706

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“… Mr. Aldobrandini’s opera […] was so well received that […] it was considered the best of all that had been heard…” (1)
Giuseppe Antonio Vincenzo Aldrovandini was born in Bologna in 1671.
He is a composer little known to the public due to his limited output: he lived for only 36 years, many of which in conditions of absolute poverty due to his dissolute lifestyle.
Preserved in the National Library of Paris are six letters written by Aldrovandini between 1697 and 1701 sent to his “compare”, probably Bernadino Fabri, Knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus of Savoy, in which his constant theme was to lament his precarious conditions. The letters were sent from Turin, Naples, Piacenza and Genoa, all cities where he went to present some of his operas(2). The most final evidence of his lifestyle were the circumstances of his untimely death in 1707 in Navile, at the time the canal port of the city of Bologna: while extremely drunk he exited a tavern on the canal, fell in and drowned.
Aldrovandini studied counterpoint and composition with Giacomo Antonio Perti, who was notably Maestro di Capella in Bologna for more than sixty years, first at San Pietro and then San Petronio. Perti was also teacher to other illustrious Bolognese musicians including Torelli and Padre Martini. An exemplary product of the highly refined musical life of Bologna of that period, Aldrovandini rose to levels of excellence in his opera compositions above all.
Of particular importance and interest are some operas with librettos in Bolognese dialect whose scores sadly are missing, four premieres of operas at the San Bartolomeo Theater in Naples and some other operas whose great success led to them being performed for several years after his death. Regarding the Neapolitan premiers, complete scores of two of the operas are preserved in the library of the Conservatory of Naples (Semiramide and, even more importantly, Cesare in Alessandria(3)), while the arias of the remaining two have survived without the recitatives. Of note is the fact that in the manuscript of Cesare in Alessandria in Naples (there is also a copy in the National Library of Paris), the scores of the two comic interludes of the opera are also preserved: Mirena and Lesbino and the larger work Mirena and Floro.
In a letter to his “compare” dated January 29, 1700, specifically regarding the prodution of Cesare in Alessandria represented in those days, Aldrovandini wrote in his somewhat verbose and confused italian: “Due to the fact that our opera will be extended, that is, the performances due to the great demand, that every evening it is necessary to send away more than one hundred and thirty … from the large crowd and tumult of people … in the theater for the seats that many people came to blows and Your Excellency, most illustrious, believe me that at 10 pm no one can enter the theater which is full as a jar…”. And a little further on “…he ordered that said work be followed to the 3rd of the present month, doubting that the second opera by Scarlatti from the rehearsal they have heard does not match the present one…”
The remainder of Aldrovandini’s oeuvre, all printed and mostly preserved in the Civico Bibliografico Museum of Bologna, includes Opus V, a collection of ten trio sonatas published in movable type by Silvani in Bologna in 1706. Opus V had the honor of a second printing in 1710 in Amsterdam by the famous publisher Mortier, this time using the intaglio technique.
Aldrovandini’s trio sonatas have a simplicity of form, strongly anchored to the formal structure of the church sonata, and a certain naivety to the solutions of the development of the chosen themes; whether they be slow movements always inspired by an excellent melodiousness, or in a more contrapuntal form, often with surprises and theatrical effects. The results, however, are certainly pleasing harmonies and a prelude to listening to his theatrical works.
In this collection there is no lack of inspiration by Corelli: the incipit of the second movement, Allegro, in the Sonata IX in F Major is identical to the incipit of the second movement of the Sonata XII in D Major of Op. 1 by A. Corelli. Corelli’s Op. 1 was reprinted five times between 1682 and 1714, notably in Bologna by Silvani in 1704, just two years before the publication of Aldrovandini’s Op. V. One aspect has always attracted the attention of performers regarding this particular movement, the designation as Largo e Puntato (dotted). The most interesting theories on this subject suggest that indication “dotted” refers to the rhythm, meaning that a sequence of equal value notes of the smallest values should be executed alternately long and short as if to suggest something similar to a French inégal rhythm. This theory led us to “interpret” the movement of the ninth sonata in this way. There are numerous testaments from authors and musicians throughout the 17th century such as, among others, Doni(4), Durante(5), Caccini(6), Brunelli(7) and Frescobaldi(8) which attest to the fact that forms of inégalité were part of the performance practice in Italy.
We have thus extended the choice to include forms of sprezzatura (a kind of studied nonchalance) in other moments of this recording; for example in the final movement of Sonata V a dotted/inégal ternary progression bestows a lulling affect on this finale. This last movement follows a tormented second movement in which we tried to give an even more dramatic character to the short staccato notes by alternating the use of a particular color in the sound of the bowed instruments in the repeated sections.
Aldrovandini was in Naples during the Spanish domination, a domination that was only interrupted in 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht, which inspired us to echo Iberian rhythms and sounds in the third movement of Sonata X.
Another interesting element was the presence in Naples of very fine cellists; most notably Francesco Paolo Supriani who would become the principal cellist of the San Bartolomeo Theater in subsequent years. This very likely served as a stimulus to Aldrovandini in the Sonata II to write a soloistic cello part in the quick movements. Already in the aria Vedrai che stella amica, from Cesare in Alessandria, composed a few years earlier for soprano, two cellos and double bass “senza cimbali” (without harpsichords), is the intent clear of using and showcasing the expressive qualities of the cello
Lorenzo Colitto © 2024
English translation by Lisa Kawata Ferguson
(1) Aurora Sanseverino, letter to G.A. Perti, Piedimonte 3-I-1700 on the occasion of the premiere of Cesare in Alessandria, performed at the San Bartolomeo Theater in Naples in December 1699.
(2) Six autograph letters preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France,  FRBNF39795741-6
(3) Library of the San Pietro a Maiella Conservatory of Music, Naples, IT\ICCU\MUS\0279622
(4) “the violin will then have to… make the consonants stand out as much as possible in those accentuated syllables with some slightly longer notes, because even in ordinary speech these syllables are sometimes usually lengthened more than the others”. G.B. Doni Annotazioni sopra il compendio de’ Generi, e de’Modi della Musica, Rome 1640.
(5) “be careful to observe the feet of the verses, that is, to stay on the long syllables, and avoid the short ones, because otherwise barbarisms will occur”, O. Durante Arie devote, Rome 1608.
(6) “The sprezzatura is that gracefulness which is given to the singing with the passing of several eighth notes and sixteenth notes on different strings, with which, done at the right time, removing a certain final narrowness and dryness from the singing, it makes pleasant, licentious, and airy, since in common speech eloquence and fecundity make the things spoken about easy and sweet”. G. Caccini Nuove musiche e nuova maniera di scriverle, Florence 1614.
(7) “Various examples of eighth notes and sixteenth notes in which it is seen that when ordinarily singing they do not tend to be vague, however, since these passages are found both in these exercises and in other compositions, they will have to be sung in the following ways, as can be seen here”. A. Brunelli Varii Esercitii, Florence 1614
(8) “If you find some passages of eighth notes and semiquavers together in both hands, you must play them not too fast: and the one (hand) who will do the semiquavers will have to do them somewhat dotted”. G. Frescobaldi Toccate d’intavolatura di Cimbalo et Organo. Roma 1637.