PERGOLESI, Giovanni Battista 1710-1736

Twelve Sonatas For Two Violins and a Bass or an Orchestra Compos'd by Gio. Batta. Pergolese. Author of the Stabat Mater. The Manuscript of these Sonatas were procured by a Curious Gentleman of Fortune during his Travels through Italy. [Parts]

[London]: Printed for Mr. Webb Organist of Windsor And Sold by R. Bremner, facing Somerset-House in the Strand. N:B: Speedily will publish'd a Second Set of Six Sonatas, by the Same Author, ca. 1780.

Folio. Sewn. Engraved throughout. Uncut.

Violino primo: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-25 pp.
Violino secondo: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-25 pp.
Basso: 1f. (recto title, verso blank), [i] (blank), 2-25 pp.

Provenance
Anne Sophia Egerton (née de Grey, 1730-1780), prominent British noblewoman and daughter of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, and wife of John Egerton, Bishop of Durham, with her signature to upper outer corner of title of each part.

Slightly worn, with small tears to margins and creasing to corners; minor soiling, browning, and occasional foxing throughout; light stain to title of basso part.

First Edition. Paymer 12-23. BUC p. 771. RISM P1426 and PP1426 (three copies in the U.S., at the University of Virginia Charlottesville, Yale, and the Library of Congress).

"Although lacking indications for tutti and soli, these twelve trios were also considered suitable for orchestral performance, as Bremner's title-page shows: 'Twelve Sonatas for two violins and a bass, or an orchestra.' This edition was published 'for Mr. Webb, organist of Windsor,' and it has on its title-page the ominous words quoted above by Mr. Walker: 'The Manuscript[!] of these Sonatas were procured by a Curious Gentleman of Fortune, during his Travels through Italy.' Who was this mysterious Gentleman of Fortune? On a copy of the trios preserved in the Pendlebury Library at Cambridge someone has written just above 'Curious Gentleman,' the words 'A Mr. Bridges.' Who this Mr. Bridges was we do not know; he may or may not have been the mysterious intermediary concerned. If he was, he appears to have brought back at least eighteen such trios, for at the bottom of the title-page of Bremner's first set of twelve is the promise that 'Speedily will be publish'd a Second Set of Six Sonatas, by the Same Author.' This Second Set never appeared, but the two 'periodical Trios' are perhaps part of it. ...

Cudworth, based on stylistic analysis, notes that 'it is not impossible, but rather improbable, that they are Pergolesi's own composition, and that there is a strong probability that they are the work of a slightly later composer which were passed off, years afterwards, on the Curious Gentleman of Fortune, as works by the tragic, youthful genius.' " Notes on the Instrumental Works Attributed to Pergolesi, pp. 326-327, Music & Letters, Vol. 30, No. 4, Oct. 1949.

Gallo was Italian composer and violinist. According to Fétis he was born in Venice about 1730, wrote much music for the church and was known for his violin sonatas and symphonies. "Gallo is notable chiefly for his connection with one of the many Pergolesi ‘forgeries.’ In 1780 Robert Bremner published a set of 12 trio sonatas attributed to Pergolesi (Pergolesi: Opera omnia, v, Rome, 1940, pp.1–116); their title-page claims that the ‘manuscript[!] of these sonatas were procured by a curious Gentleman of Fortune during his travels through Italy.’ But even in the 18th century, doubt was cast on the Pergolesian authorship of these trio sonatas by such critics as Burney and Hawkins, and it has since been discovered that some of them are attributed to Gallo in several contemporary manuscript sources (at Burghley House, US-BEm and I-Pca), and the rest are probably his as well. Some of them were used, as Pergolesi's, by Stravinsky in Pulcinella. As Walker said (Grove5), ‘they are not markedly Pergolesian in style’ but are rather the work of a competent Italian composer writing in the galant idiom of the 1750s and 60s. Owing to the mistaken attribution to Pergolesi, they have been quoted in various modern works on form as early examples of sonata form, but this early dating depends on the date (1736) of their supposed composer's death." Charles Cudworth in Grove Music Online

An attractive uncut copy with early provenance.

Item #40647

Price: $1,250.00  other currencies