Giuseppe Cambini

Giuseppe Maria Gioacchino Cambini (February 13, 1746, Livorno—1825, Le Kremlin-Bicêtre) was an Italian composer and violinist. He wrote over 80 symphony concertantes and 14 stage works, but only 2, Le tuteur avare and La statue have survived.

Life Unconfirmed information Information about his life is scarcely traceable. Louis-Gabriel Michaud,Louis-Gabriel Michaud, Biographie Universelle ancienne et moderne, second edition, vol. 6, Paris, Desplaces, 1854, pp. 457-458, digitalization available in Internet Archive. French scholar and François-Joseph Fétis,François-Joseph Fétis, Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique, second edition, vol. 2, Paris, Didot, 1861, pp. 162-164, digitalized on Google Books. Belgian musicologist, drafted his biography, and Cambini himself speaks about his past in an article published in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1804.Giuseppe Cambini [Cambiui in Paris], Ausführung der Instrumentalquartetten, in «Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung», VI/47 (22 august 1804), Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1804, columns 781-783 (dgitalization of this article are available on Internet Archive and Google Books). However, all of these documents are full of errorsThe article was also considered to be of dubious attribution, cfr. Marcello De Angelis, Introduction to Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, p. 10. and, therefore, need to be verified.Chappell White, Jean Gribenski, Amzie D. Parcell, Cambini, Giuseppe Maria (Gioacchino), in The New Grove of Music and Musicians. Second Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, executive editor John Tyrrell, vol. 4: Borowski to Canobbio, London, Macmillan, 2001-2002, pp. 858-861. It is not possible to confirm his personal data (only Fétis indicates his date of birth), nor his first studies. It is possible he is connected in some way to father Giovanni Battista Martini,Guido Salvetti, Cambini, Giuseppe Maria Gioacchino, in Dizionario enciclopedico della musica e dei musicisti, edited by Alberto Basso, serie II: Le biografie, vol. 2: BUS-FOX, Torino, UTET, 1985, pp. 80-81.Raoul Meloncelli, Cambini, Giuseppe Maria (Giovanni Giuseppe, Giangiuseppe), in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 17, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1974, available on-line in Italian on Treccani.it. and, more possibly to Filippo Manfredi, who was almost certainly his violin teacher.Jean Gribenski, Cambini, Giuseppe Maria (Gioacchino), in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik begründet von Friedrich Blume, edited by Ludwig Finscher, serie I: Personenteil, vol. 4: Cam-Cou, Kassel-Basel-London-New York-Praha, Bärenreiter/Stuttgart-Weimar, Metzler, 2000, columns 9-17. 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. The narration by the Belgian holds much resemblance to a story in the poetic periodical Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique,A magazine about poetry, published from 1747 to 1793, under the direction of Friedrich Melchior Grimm. a fact that reduces its reliability. In the article found in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung in 1804, Cambini claims to have played the viola in a string quartet with Luigi Boccherini, Pietro Nardini and his teacher Manfredi for six months in 1767.In the article, Cambini affirmed only to have played «for six fortunate month during my youth», without providing any other chronological references: 1767 is the date given as the likely date by some documentation. For example, the indication of the presence of Cambini in Lucca for the Festa di Santa Croce in the years just preceding, discussed in Gabriella Biagi-Ravenni, Manfredi, Filippo, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 68, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 2007, available in Italian on Treccani.it If what he says is true,As already mentioned in a note, all of the article is for many considered false content, cfr. Marcello De Angelis, Introduction to Claudio Paradiso (ed.), Il cavalier Ferdinando Giorgetti musicista romantico a Firenze, Roma, Società Editrice di Musicologia, 2015, p. 10; and, above all, the doubts expressed in Daniel Heartz, Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style (1720-1780), New York, Norton, 2003. this quartet would represent the first formation of this emerging genre in Italy, if not in all of Europe.Guido Salvetti, Nardini, Pietro, in Dizionario enciclopedico universale delle musica e dei musicisti, diretto da Alberto Basso, serie II: Le biografie, vol. 4: ME-PIA, Torino, UTET, 1988, p. 326.Gabriella Biagi-Ravenni, Manfredi, Filippo, in Dizionario enciclopedico universale delle musica e dei musicisti, diretto da Alberto Basso, serie II: Le biografie, vol. 5: JE-MA, Torino, UTET, 1986, p. 608. For many years, this information fostered a gigantic legend about the importance of the role of Cambini in defining the string quartet.Gino Roncaglia, Di Giovanni Giuseppe Cambini. Quartettista Padre, in «La rassegna musicale», VI/5 (september 1933), Torino, Fedetto, 1933, pp. 267-274.Gino Roncaglia, Giovanni Giuseppe Cambini quartettista, in Adelmo Damerini e Gino Roncaglia (ed.), Musiche italiane rare e vive da Giovanni Gabrieli a Giuseppe Verdi. Per la XIX settimana musicale, 22-30 luglio 1962, Siena, Ticci, 1962, pp. 183-194.Fausto Torrefranca, Avviamento allo studio del quartetto italiano, in «L'approdo musicale», 23 (1966), out of series number of the magazine, all about Torrefranca, edited by Alfredo Bonaccorsi, Roma, ERI, 1966, pp. 15-181.Cesare Fertonani, Gli ultimi quartetti di Giuseppe Maria Cambini, in Francesco Degrada e Ludwig Finscher (ed.), Luigi Boccherini e la musica strumentale dei maestri italiani in Europa tra Sette e Ottocento, Atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Siena, 29-31 luglio 1993, in «Chigiana», new series XLIII/23 (1993), Firenze, Olschki, 1993, pp. 247-279. 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.Dieter Lutz Trimpert, Die Quatuors concertants von Giuseppe Cambini, Tutzing (Baviera), Schneider, 1967.Daniel Heartz, Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style (1720-1780), New York, Norton, 2003.

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 composed oratorios, concert compositions, as well as chamber, symphonic, and theatrical compositions (there are almost 14 operas, of which at least 12 were performed in Paris. In addition, there are some ballets that aroused the admiration of Christoph Willibald GluckJacques-Gabriel Prod'homme (ed.), Lettres de Gluck et à propos de Gluck (1776-1787), in «Zeitschrift der Internationale Musikgesellschaft», 13 (1911-12), Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1912, p. 257.), and he performed his violin concertos (during the Concert Spirituel and the Concerts des Amateurs, managed by François-Joseph Gossec).Constant Pierre, Histoire du «Concert Spirituel» 1725-1790, Paris, Heugel, 1975. 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), of which more than 80 are symphonies concertante (he wrote more of these than any other French composer of the time, becoming a champion of the genre).Barry S. Brook, The «Symphonie Concertante»: An Interim Report, in «The Musical Quartertly», XLVII/4 (october 1961), New York, Oxford University Press, 1961, pp. 493-516.

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 297bThe autograph of the work of Mozart results as lost precisely as a consequence of this incident, see further notes. at the Concert Spirituel, because Cambini was jealous of its perfection.Martin Staehelin, Ist die sogenannte Mozartsche Bläserkonzertante KV 297b/Anh. I,9 echt?, Berlin-Boston, De Gruyter, 2013, pp. 3-6. See also Robert Levin, Mozarts Bläserkonzertante KV Ahn. 9/297B und ihre Rekonstruktionen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, in «Mozart-Jahrbuch des Zentralinstitutes für Mozartforschung der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg» (1984/1985), Kassel (ecc.), Bärenreiter, 1986, pp. 187-207; and ID., Who Wrote the Mozart Four-Wind Concertante?, Stuyvesant (NY), Pendragon, 1988. 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. Therefore, it is probable that the Salisburg expressed exaggerated feelings toward Cambini.

Alternating Parisian fame The accusation by Mozart is not especially valid partially because the power of Cambini in Paris did not reach the level that Mozart claimed. In fact, the musical press paid less than gratifying attention to Cambini's vast production. He was cited relatively few times in the contemporary critiques, and his career as a violinist is less appreciated than other contemporary soloists of the time. His greatest successes, as aforementioned, were the sinfonie concertanti and his quartets, which even Mozart praised. His easy style, attractive and brilliant, open only just enough to innovation, rendered him a sort of protector of the galant Parisian style, and many of his pieces were favorably accepted in London as well as in America (some actively participated in defining the so-called forma sonata), but his theatrical works, operas, were almost always torn to shreds. Moreover, from 1785 it was affirmed in France of the more complex Viennese style, to which he tried to awkwardly join, undermining his fame, and damaging his reputation in the press of the German area.

The Revolution In 1788, he became manager of the Théâtre Beaujolais, and he worked there during the revolutionary turmoil until 1791. His endurance permitted continuity of a high-quality operatic offering even in the years of the Republic.Michel Noiray, Les créations d’opéra à Paris de 1790 à 1794, in Jean-Rémy Julien e Jean-Claude Klein (ed.), Orphée phrygien. Les Musiques de la Révolution, Paris, Editions du May, 1989, pp. 193-203. 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. The crisis affected many, as well as the estate of Cambini, and it constrained him to find very different work opportunities. Beginning in 1794, he accepted a salary from the chemist and entrepreneur Armand Séguin, for whom he gave private concerts and composed more than 100 quartets. He composed revolutionary and patriotic anthems for the newborn Republic.Constant Pierre, Les hymnes et chansons de la Révolution. Aperçu général et catalogue, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1904, digitalized on Gallica. He taught violin, voice and composition privately. In addition, he transcribed opera arias of other authors for any buyer. He accepted editorial commissions (in 1795, the editor Gavreaux asked him to attend to the reprinting of methods for violin by Francesco Geminiani,Francesco Geminiani, The Art of Playing the Violin, London, a cura dell'autore, 1751. and in 1799 Nademann and Lobry hired him to edit one for flute).Gianni Lazzari, Il flauto traverso. Storia, tecnica, acustica, with Il flauto del Novecento by Emilio Galante, Torino, EDT, 2003, pp. 109, 125, 127-128, 131.

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