Italian Violin School in Mid-Eighteenth-Century France: From the «Concert spirituel» to Literary Pamphlets, International Conference, Locatelli and Leclair Legacy in the XIX century, Bergamo, 17-19 October 2014 (original) (raw)

Abstract

This paper wants to focus on the dissemination of Italian instrumental music in France between the years 1740-1780, with particular emphasis on performances of Italian violinists at the Concert spirituel. Italian musicians were a constant presence at the Concert spirituel venues and this had consequences on the growing number of editions of Italian repertoire – especially violin sonatas and concertos – issued by French publishers. Indeed, we can hypothesize a direct link between the success of a violinist-composer or the performance of music by an Italian master at the Concert spirituel and the printing of this same music by publishers like Leclerc, Boivin, Maupetit, Hue. Moreover, the French virtuosos who had studied in Italy or with Italian masters contributed to the spread of Italian style. Some violinists, members of the Tartini school, were also involved in the controversy between supporters and detractors of Italian music, which resulted in the querelle des bouffons: the series of pamphlets issued in response to the Lettre sur Omphale de Grimm in 1752 gives us a sample of the tensions in act. In general Italian cantabile in sonatas and concertos was regarded by the philosophes as able to enhance the meaningfulness of instrumental music, otherwise unable to communicate in a way similar to vocal music for the absence of a link with language; in particular, Tartini style of playing the Adagios was seen as embodying the Enlightenment ideals of naturalness and communication of human feelings. With the help of contemporary journal articles, writings, catalogues of publishers and music editions, this paper wants to contribute to a better understanding of the web of interactions between Italian music and French cultural milieu in the mid-eighteenth century.

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