Giuseppe Maria Gioacchino Cambini (Montelupo Fiorentino, 8 april 1746Netherlands? 1810s? or Paris? 1825?) was an Italian composer and violinist.

Life

Unconfirmed information

Information about his life is scarcely traceable. Louis-Gabriel Michaud, French scholar and François-Joseph Fétis, Belgian musicologist, drafted his biography, and Cambini himself speaks about his past in an article published in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1804. However, all of these documents are full of errors and, therefore, need to be verified. It is not possible to confirm his personal data (only Fétis indicates his date of birth and, more possibly to Filippo Manfredi, who was almost certainly his violin teacher. Fétis wrote about his unfortunate operatic debut in Naples in 1766, after which, during his return to Livorno by the sea, Cambini was kidnapped by pirates, who treated him terribly until his liberation by a Venetian aristocrat. a fact that reduces its reliability. this quartet would represent the first formation of this emerging genre in Italy, if not in all of Europe. For many years, this information fostered a gigantic legend about the importance of the role of Cambini in defining the string quartet. Actually, he was one of the many (even if one of the most prolific) who, in the same period, contributed to the development of the genre.

First years in Paris

The first information that we have that is certain is his arrival in Paris at the beginning of the 1770s, where he remained for 20 years,), and he performed his violin concertos (during the Concert Spirituel and the Concerts des Amateurs, managed by François-Joseph Gossec). More than 600 compositions were published with his name in the French capital until 1800 (above all by the Venier, Berault and Sieber publishers, see also the section Sources),

Polemic with Mozart

His success in composing for the sinfonia concertante genre inspired the rivalry of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who in 1778 accused Cambini of having obstructed the performance of his Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds KV 297b at the Concert Spirituel, because Cambini was jealous of its perfection. The skepticism with regard to Cambini is not observed from any other composer who dealt with him. Conversely, Gluck, in the same years, often recommended him as an upstanding and honest man. During the time of the Terror, beginning in 1791, he directed the Théâtre Louvois, which due to the economic crisis caused by the war was forced to close in 1794. He taught violin, voice and composition privately. and Tablettes de Polymne, which published his articles until 1811. From that moment, Cambini disappears without leaving any trace in any documents. We have received only his instrumental music. In fact, only the music of Le Tuteur avare, written in collaboration with Pasquale Anfossi in 1787 (today preserved at the Bibliothèque Municipale de Lille) remains of his operas. For many years, there was a symphony that was considered to be his, but in reality it is by Joseph Martin Kraus for Boyer publishers. From 1784 to 1786, the publisher released the work of the then unknown Kraus under the name of the more famous Cambini in order to sell more copies, causing the misunderstanding of attribution, which was not resolved until 1989.

Autographs

All 100 known autographs are in the United States of America, at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.

Manuscripts

The largest collection of manuscripts of Cambini's compositions is found in Prague, in the music history department of the National Czech Museum of Music. and the Biblioteca di Archeologia e Storia dell'Arte di Palazzo Venezia in Rome (Vessella Collection). Smaller Italian collections are in the Pasini Collections at the Conservatorio Luca Marenzio in Brescia, at the Conservatorio Cherubini of Florence, at the Conservatorio Paganini di Genoa, at the Biblioteca Estense di Mantova, at the Conservatorio San Pietro a Majella in Naples, and at the Biblioteca Casanatese di Roma (Marefoschi Collection and more). The Musical Documentation Center of Tuscany preserve three manuscripts of single parts of other chamber music compositions in the Venturi Music Collection in Montecatini Terme. Cities around the world that preserve at least five manuscripts are: Basel (Universitätsbibliothek), Cheb (Státní okresní archiv), Keszthely (Helikon Kastélymúzeum Könyvtára), Leutkirch im Allgäu (Fürstlich Waldburg-Zeilsches Archiv), Lille (Bibliothèque Municipale), Lund (Universitetsbiblioteket), New Haven (Music Library at Yale University), Prague (Biblioteca Nazionale Ceca), Steinfurt (Fürst zu Bentheimsche Musikaliensammlung Burgsteinfurt Collection, managed by Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität within the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek di Münster), Stockholm (Musik- och teaterbiblioteket) and Västerås (Stadsbibliotek). the British Library of London, the Rossijskaja Gosudarstvennaja Biblioteka of Moscow, the Fürst zu Bentheimsche Musikaliensammlung Burgsteinfurt of Steinfurt, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde of Vienna, the Biblioteca Nacional of Spain, the Kongelige Bibliotek of Copenhagen, the Biblioteca Estense of Modena,

Compositions

Operas

  • Les romans (ballet-héroïque, libretto by L.-C.-M. de Bonneval, 1776 at the Académie Royale de Musique of Paris)
  • Rose et Carloman (comédie-héroïque, libretto by A.D. Dubreuil, 1779)
  • La statue (comédie, libretto by M.-R. de Montalembert, 1784)
  • La bergère de qualité (comédie, libretto by M.-R. de Montalembert, 1786)
  • Le tuteur avare (opéra bouffon, libretto by J.-L. Gabiot de Salins, 1788)
  • La croisée (comédie, 1788, Beaujolais)
  • Colas et Colette (opéra bouffon, 1788, Beaujolais)
  • Le bon père (opéra bouffon, libretto by J.-F. Le Pitre, 1788, Beaujolais)
  • La prêtresse du soleil (drama, 1789, Beaujolais)
  • La revanche, ou Les deux frères (comédie, libretto by P.U. Dubuisson, 1790, Beaujolais)
  • Adèle et Edwin (opéra, 1790, Beaujolais)
  • Nantilde et Dagobert (opéra, libretto di P.-A.-A. de Piis, 1791, Louvois)
  • Les trois Gascons (opéra, libretto by Cambini, 1793, Louvois)
  • Encore un tuteur dupé (comédie, libretto by P.-J.-A. Roussel, 1798, Montansier)

Doubted attribution

  • Alcméon (tragédie lyrique, libretto by A.D. Dubreuil, 1782, never performed)
  • Alcide (opéra, libretto by A.D. Dubreuil, 1782, never performed)
  • L'Amour et la peur, ou L'amant forcé d'être fidèle (opéra-comique, libretto by Cambini, 1795)

Sacred music

  • Le sacrifice d'Isaac (French oratorio, 1774)
  • Joad (French oratorio, 1775)
  • Samson (oratorio, libretto by Voltaire, 1779; lost)
  • Le sacrifice d'Abraham (oratorio, 1780; lost)
  • 5 masses
  • Miserere, motet à grand choeur (1775, lost)
  • Some other motets

Anthems and revolutionary songs

  • Hymne à l'être suprème (1794)
  • Hymne à l'égalité (1794)
  • Hymne à la Vertu (1794)
  • Hymne à la Liberté (1794)
  • Hymne à la Victoire (1794)
  • Ode sur Bara et Viala (1794)
  • Ode sur nos victoires (1794)
  • Ronde Républicaine (1794)
  • Le pas de charge républicain – Air de combat (1794)

Instrumental music

  • Concerto for viola and orchestra
  • 3 symphonies for strings, 2 oboes and 2 horns, op.5 (1776)
  • 3 symphonies à grand orchestre for strings, flute, 2 oboes, bassoon and 2 horns (1787)
  • 3 symphonies for strings, 2 oboes and 2 horns (1788)
  • 82 concert symphonies (of which 76 are published and 52 currently available)
  • 110 quintets for 2 violins, viola, 2 violoncellos (maybe 114), of which 84 are complete (preserved at the Washington Library)
  • 149 quartets for strings (1773-1809)
  • At least 104 trios
  • At least 212 duets
  • 5 Quartets for harpsichord, violin, oboe and violoncello
  • 6 sonatas for violino and bass
  • Petits airs variés for violin
  • 12 sonatas for flute and bass
  • 6 sonatas for harpsichord/fortepiano and violin, op.21 (1781)
  • Air de Marlborough avec variations for fortepiano/harpsichord and violin obbliged
  • 6 sonate for harpsichord/fortepiano and flute
  • Marche des Marseillois et la Carmagnole variées for flute and bass (1794)
  • Variations sur le Hymne du siège de Lille (L'amour dans le coeur d'un Français) (1794) for two violins Variations sur le Hymne "Vos aimables fillettes" (1794) for two violins Variations sur Cadet Roussel (1794) for two violins
  • Petits airs connus variés for flute and bass
  • Air variés for flute, op.6
  • Différens solfèges d'une difficulté graduelle (1783)

Articles

  • Nouvelle méthode théorique et pratique pour le violon (c. 1795)
  • Méthode pour la flûte traversière suivie de vingt petits airs connus et six duo à l'usage des commençans (1799)
  • Ausführung der Instrumentalquartetten, «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» (1803-1804)
  • 2 articles in «Correspondance des professeurs et amateurs de musique» (1804)
  • Über den Charakter, den die italienischen und deutschen Musik haben, und die französische haben sollte, «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung» (1804-1805)
  • 6 articles in Les tablettes de Polymnie (1810-1811)

Recordings

Around 1936, the Quartet of Rome (Francesco Montelli and Oscar Zuccarini, violins; Aldo Perini, viola; Luigi Silva, violoncello), recorded Quartetto in Re maggiore by Cambini adapted by Fausto Torrefranca. The 78 rpm disc of the first publication are preserved at the Istituto centrale per i beni sonori e audiovisivi di Roma, and are digitalized on Internet Culturale.

References