Research in Musicology
Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini
Ad Parnassum Journal
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Francesco Geminiani Opera Omnia
directed by Christopher Hogwood - (Ut Orpheus Edizioni)
www.francescogeminiani.com
orders@utorpheus.com
Advisory Committee: Clive Brown (University of Leeds), Enrico Careri (Università di Napoli), Kate Eckersley (University of Oxford), Peter Holman (University of Leeds), Sandra Mangsen (University of Western Ontario), Richard Maunder (University of Cambridge), Fulvia Morabito (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, Lucca), Rudolf Rasch (University of Utrecht), Robin Stowell (University of Cardiff), Michael Talbot (University of Liverpool), Peter Walls (Victoria University of Wellington), Christoph Wolff (Harvard University), Neal Zaslaw (Cornell University).
This edition is published by the Ut Orpheus Edizioni Edizioni (Bologna), with the collaboration of the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini in Lucca and of Ad Parnassum. The Centro Studi is an extremely dynamic musicological institution: the ‘Geminiani project’ is a further addition to the extensive collection of works conceived within the Institution, the foremost of which is the National Italian Edition of the works of Luigi Boccherini, another distinguished citizen of Lucca. Ad Parnassum will contribute, for its part, by ensuring wider international discussion about the violinist and his work.
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Published Volumes
Opera Omnia. Vol. 1: 6 Sonatas op. 5 for Violoncello and Basso Continuo (H. 103-108) - 6 Sonatas Op. 5 for Violin and Basso Continuo (H. 109-114)
edite by Christopher Hogwood, Ut Oprheus Edizioni, 2010 (GCE 1), pp. 152, ISMN: 979-0-2153-1839-7.
The six sonatas of Opus 5 are Geminiani’s only solo works for cello, and were rapidly followed by his own adaptation of all six for violin. Both versions appeared in 1746, first in Paris, later in the Hague and (after some apparent commercial chicanery) in London. From the small number of surviving copies (RISM lists only five copies of the cello version, and eleven of the violin), they do not appear to have achieved the high sales of his earlier sonatas and concertos, maybe because of their technical difficulty and “fantastical” style. However since the 20th century their status has risen perhaps more than any other opus of Geminiani, evidenced by more than one printed edition and several facsimile reissues of original prints.
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Of all the leading composers of the 18th century, only Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762) is lacking a complete critical edition of his music and writings. Although held to be the equal of Corelli in his own day - and indeed thought by some to be superior to his contemporary Handel in instrumental composition - a surprisingly large proportion of his compositions have never been reissued since his lifetime, and with the exception of a few solo sonatas and his treatises on “good taste“ and violin playing, Geminiani is largely ignored by the baroque taste of the present day.
The lack of availability of his music in scrupulous modern editions designed for practical performance has concealed the enormous originality he showed both in writing and re-writing his own music, and that of his teacher, Corelli. His adaptations and re-workings have never to date been presented fully and in a form that allows for pertinent comparison, and the majority of his music has not been revisited by musicologists for the last half century.
Francesco Geminiani Opera Omnia will present all his works, instrumental, vocal and didactic, in full critical editions, with the composer’s first versions, revisions and re-workings presented consecutively by opus number, including a full critical commentary and facsimiles, together with complete performance material for the orchestral and chamber works. The didactic treatises issued in English will be accompanied by Italian, French or German translations of the period, where these exist, together with full commentaries from modern authorities.
It is planned to have all volumes of the edition available in both library volumes and practical performing versions by 2012, the 250th anniversary of Geminiani’s death (and 325th of his birth).
Christopher Hogwood
Cambridge University, 2008
