The Italian musical emigration to other regions of Europe has very ancient traditions. Once Christianity became the state religion, and foreign contributions reduced to unity of style and doctrine, Ccclesiastical chant, codified in the Antiphonary of St. Gregory, began to be taught everywhere by instructors and singers of the Roman school. The legend of the two singers Petrus and Romanus requested by Charlemagne overshadows this ancient role of teacher of Europe exercised, also in the musical domain, by the Church of Rome. Of other movements of expansion of the Italian musical culture through its musicians, we do not have precise memories, at least for secular music, until the end of the fifteenth century. One of the first emigrated musicians is perhaps that Peter De Casa noua , mynstral (minstrel) which we find between 1483 and 1504 at the English court. And it was in England in the 1500s that the first families of Italian musicians took up residence: the Bassani, later Bassano, gave sixteen musicians to the English court, eight or nine the Lupo, six the Ferrabosco, two the Da Como. It is known that Alfonso II Ferrabosco, a great virtuoso of viola da gamba and bastard, taught the English the art of diminishing, which later became so important in England. At the English court also live the Venetian organist Fra Dionisio Memo (1516), who was also twice in Spain; and many other instrumentalists from Venice, Vicenza, Cremona, Milan, Como. And this also applies to the rest of Europe. And don’t forget the Neapolitan Giulio Cesare Brancaccio, the Turin lutenist and singer Davide Rizzio, who according to tradition is the author of songs on Scottish texts, killed in 1566, at the court of Maria Stuarda. In Poland, we have sure news of a Diomede Cato, raised there since childhood and become famous. And so we also know of a short residence made in Poland by Marenzio 1596-1598). In France, frottolists, cornetists and lutenists from Verona and Mantua influenced the art of songwriters and a great lutenist, Alberto da Ripa (1529-51), who became lord of Carrois there; Piero Mannucci is the organist of the “Florentine Nation” in Lyon (1568). We also find in France some madrigalists such as the Regulus, and the granting of a royal privilege for the Venetian press by Marcantonio Cavazzoni’s researchers (1523) suggests that our first organist of international fame was staying in Paris. Bavaria, Saxony and Austria do their utmost to have first-rate musicians from Italy. Andrea Gabrieli, together with Orlando di Lasso, visited Bavaria, Bohemia and the Rhineland in 1562 following Albert V, and G. Gabrieli stayed in Munich for four years. In Bavaria Girolamo della Casa, Antonio Morari from Bergamo, head of instrumental music, a Cesare Zacharia from Cremona, a Vincenzo Dal Pozzo, and Giulio Gigli (1581-1605), instrumentalist and composer, represent the various aspects of Italian musicality, together with Cosmo Bottegari, with the Guami brothers, from Lucca. The organists and composers Bernardo Mosto (1588) and Giovanni Francesco Maffon and the lutenist Josquino Salem worthily represent the already mature instrumental art, while Massimo Troiano, author of an account of the celebrations held in Munich in 1568 for the wedding of William V and Renata di Lorena, begins the series of adventurous musicians. In Saxony Antonio Scandello, GB Pinelli and Teodoro Riccio, who passed from Vienna to Dresden to Königsberg to perhaps finish his choir days in Ansbach, face a larger group of Italians serving the house of Austria, both in Graz, Vienna, Prague or Innsbruck, and which includes the madrigalist Giorgio Florio, the great organist Annibale Padovano, Gregorio and Francesco Turini, an organist at the age of 12, one of the precursors of the instrumental monody; Camillo Zanotti, Francesco Milleville, Francesco Rovigo. The chapel of Filippo de Monte, under Maximilian and Rudolph II, had many of its members from the Italian nation: Liberale Zanchi and Guglielmo De Formellis, organists. We add the names of San Casentini, Costantino and Mattia Ferrabosco, Galeno, GB della Gostena, Bendeneli and Bernardo Dusi, famous trombone and brother of Paris, cornetto no less famous at the court of Saxony. In Hungary we pass from a Pietro Bono to Giuseppe Biffi, GB Morto and Claudio Monteverdi (1595).
With the seventeenth century the wave grows and not only as a result of the all-Italian creation of the opera in music, which here and there acclimatizes late, as in England and northern Germany. Italian sacred music is still held in high regard and, for a long time, the masters of the chapels abroad were mainly Italians and entire choirs were often made up of Italian artists. Angelo Notari, madrigalist, has lived at the English court since 1612; Nicola Matteis senior introduced the art of the violin around 1672. During the reign of Charles II, Gian Battista Draghi, V. and B. Albricci, the Faith, master of the royal chapel (1678-88) and the guitarist, lived in England Francesco Corbetta. Ladislao IV of Poland has the liberation of Roger from the island of Alcina represented (1628)with music by Francesca Caccini (v.). Don Alessandro Cilli, Giovanni Francesco Anerio (1609), Don Fabrizio Tiranni who returned home in 1614, after thirteen years of residence at the court of Sigismondo III, had already come from Italy to Poland, the virtuous Baldassare Ferri who remained there for 30 years ( 1625-1655), the cav. Tarquinio Merula prince of the organists (1624), the chapel master Asprilio Pacelli (1603-1623), succeeded by the famous Roman Marco Scacchi (1633-48), author of the book Cribrum Musicum which marked the defeat of the German music party. Although the Thirty Years War soon became a serious obstacle to the development of a regular musical culture, Saxony and Austria also compete with each other to grab the best Italian composers. In Saxony we find GA Angelini-Bontempi, who conducted the orchestra for over 30 years and was also a historian of the House of Saxony, and Carlo Pallavicini; V. Albricci and C. Farina represent sacred art and violin art. Austria welcomes Albricci (1683-96), Orazio Benevoli, and then A. Bertali, PF Cavalli, MA Cesti, A. Draghi, Benedetto Ferrari della Tiorba, Giov. Bonaventura Viviani among the operas. And then, the fruitful GP Sances, the lutenist PP Megli, the organists GG Arrigoni, A. Poglietti, F. Stivorio, propagator in Austria of Venetian art together with G. Priuli, Giovanni Valentini and the instrumentalists and composers GB Bonamente, Francesco Turini and others. In the meantime, in Neuburg on the Danube, in Bavaria and in Austria, Biagio Marini had spread the new violin technique. Bavaria also opens up more confidently to Italian art and subsequently welcomes Giacomo Porro, Agostino Steffani, Pietro Torri and the two Bernabees, who served the court for almost 60 years (1674-1732). The small courts follow the example of the larger ones. And if it is not yet certain that A. Corelli was, in addition to Munich, Heidelberg and Hanover, the presence of the other great composer Giuseppe Torelli, in Ansbach, is certain. Under French influence, which ruled under Giovanni Federico (1771-1786), followed by the Italian favored by the Margrave Giorgio Federico. And after Torelli also the Palermo Pistocchi, composer and great singing teacher, lived for a long time at that court. In France the Italian opera takes hold a little late (1645), but to France Italy sends, ambassadors of its musical civilization and creators of an art that is compromised between the Italian style and the French taste, Baldassarino di Belgioioso , creator of the court ballet, GB Lulli creator of the tragédie en musique , that is of the French opera; the violinist Lazarino known as Lazarin (1636) the opera players Marco Marazzoli, Carlo Caproli, PF Cavalli and Luigi Rossi and the two great instrumentalists Carlo Rossi, double harp player, and Francesco Corbetta di Pavia (1656), head of a company of guitarists, who had already traveled all over Europe and was perhaps the most famous guitarist of his time. In Brussels we find Vincenzo Guami, until 1612, Pietro Torri (1697-1707) and (1608) G. Frescobaldi. And in Spain it seems to have been Andrea Falconieri in 1621.
In the eighteenth century the sea overflows. In England alone we can count about sixty composers during the century and the figure becomes more than double if we add the famous singers and instrumentalists, most of whom are among the best that Italy has produced. As many composers, singers and instrumentalists can be counted by putting together Bavaria, Austria and Saxony. A simple list of names is dispensed with. England, moreover, did not have its own school in the eighteenth century and Italian musicians can only succeed in highlighting an environment in which some mediators between the style of the generation born around 1690-700 and that born around 1730 lived and worked. -40: thus M. Vento, G. Cr. Bach, T. Giordani, F. Giardini and a few others. However, many artists and especially many music passed from England to France, and this is a fact that cannot be overlooked when one wants to write the history of French music, especially instrumental ones. As for Austria, the best composers of the Venetian and Bolognese school worked there and the greatest of them are: GB Bononcini, A. Caldara, LA Predieri, Traetta, MA Ziani and also the Neapolitan N. Porpora. Add A. Salieri, who remained court composer for about 50 years, and D. Cimarosa, who wrote in Vienna, while he was returning from Petersburg (1792), The secret marriage. As for Saxony, starting with A. Lotti, we reach the end of the century with F. Morlacchi, who is the last Italian to have directed a court theater in Germany. It can be said that the best Italian instrumentalists passed through Dresden and B. Campagnoli became concertmaster of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig and remained there until 1817. Musicians – typical the two Mingotti – brought Italian opera everywhere, sometimes for decades. Even in saera music the Italians validly resisted with A. Boroni and GA Ristori, and a Cristoforo Babbi remained concertmaster there for 34 years (1780-1814). Salzburg and Bonn also see Italian musicians at court (Giuseppe Lolli, Giuseppe Scarlatti, GM Lucchesi). In Stuttgart, the theater and orchestra draw European importance under the direction of N. Jommelli, who operates between GA Brescianello (1717-57) and Eligio Celestino (1776-81). At a given moment, Stuttgart brought together under the baton of Jommelli the best the art of the violin could then offer: A. Lolli, P. Bini, P. Nardini, D. Ferrari. In Denmark too, with some interruptions, three Italian conductors and composers follow one another: Bartolomeo Bernardi, P. Scalabrini and G. Sarti. Berlin with Sofia Carlotta of Hannover sees a period of musical splendor (1697-1702) with A. Ariosti GB and MA Bononcini, CF Cesarini, FB Conti, Giuseppe Torelli. But at the court of Frederick II only the singers are Italian. In Holland, Locatelli rises in such high esteem that the members of the Concert Society go into mourning upon his death.
Spain and Portugal now also have their Italian musicians. Spain hosts Domenico Scarlatti, Luigi Boccherini, Domenico Alberti, GA Paganelli and G. Brunetti, as well as the famous singer Farinelli. In Portugal D. Scarlatti lived for four years (1721-25) and Gaetano Maria Schiassi worked there for a long time. The instrumentalists and, in particular, the violinists in the first half of the century went especially towards France while, towards the end, the opera players prevailed. A. Besozzi, L. Boccherini, AB Bruni, GG Cambini, the brothers A. and G. Canavasso, Carminati, F. Chiabrano, D. Ferrari and Iacopo Gottifredo Ferrari, Federico Fiorillo, M. Lombardini-Sirmen, G. Madoni , the Maestrino, the Pellegrino, G. Pugnani, F. Ruggi, GB Somis, G. Traversa, GB Viotti, M. The Querelle des bouffons (1752) is the first explosion of an Italianism that was already widespread but held, until then, in check by the chauvinism of French writers. A. Bambini, the famous harpsichordist of the company, an astonishing ten-year-old chaperone, rouses cries of admiration from J.-J. Rousseau and strengthens the success of Manelli, Tonelli and the other singers. It is a great triumph but a passing one. The Italian comic opera will win the game only indirectly: because it will be an Italian, ER Duni, who emigrated to Paris in 1757 from the court of Parma, who will be able to give, for the first time, unity and style to the fragmentary opéra – comique and it will pave the way for a whole series of fruitful French composers and, later on, also Italians. In the second half of the century, Italian composers also made their way; alongside Gluck, A. Salieri, N. Piccinni, A. Sacchini, L. Cherubini, F. Blangini, G. Paisiello paved the way for the lightning-fast success, the first great success of the nineteenth century, by Gaspare Spontini. And his Vestal for him prepares, from afar, the long reign of G. Rossini. In Poland Gioacchino Albertini (1784) and Pietro Persichini.
Russia also opens up to Italian music in the 1700s: among the composers we remember Francesco Araia, Neapolitan (v.), Who introduced Italian opera to Russia and was a court composer and state councilor for 20 years; Baldassarre Galuppi, Giovanni Paisiello, who was Catherine II’s court composer from 1776 to 1784 and had great successes; D. Cimarosa, who had spent four years in Petersburg before his stay in Vienna; F. Antonolini, Gaetano Andreozzi, Vincenzo Manfredini, master of Tsar Paolo I, Domenico dall’Oglio, violinist and composer for 30 years; Giuseppe Sarti, who succeeded Paisiello as a court composer and founded an academy from which many distinguished Russian musicians emerged.
The sec. XIX saw the greatest Italian musicians triumph abroad: Gaspare Spontini was composer at the court of Napoleon and Louis XVIII, then moved to Berlin, general superintendent of the king’s music, and there he did a lot to improve the musical education of singers Germans; Gioacchino Rossini was the ruler of the Parisian intellectual world for about forty years; Vincenzo Bellini, called to Paris, composed I Puritani there ; Gaetano Donizetti aroused delirious enthusiasm with his numerous works by him in Vienna, where in 1842 he was court master, and in Paris between 1838 and 1843.
But it should be noted that almost all the Italian musicians of the last century and of their time made countless trips abroad, so it would take too long to just mention them. Among others who particularly dedicated their work to foreign countries we remember Muzio Clementi, founder of the modern piano school, who taught above all in London (1777-1832); Domenico Dragonetti who was in England for 52 years (1794-1846), as the first double bass of the Royal Theater and court concerts; Francesco Morlacchi from 1810 to ’41 first master of the royal chapel and director of the Italian opera in Dresden; sir Michele Costa, who was from 1830 to 1984 in England as director of the Royal Theater of Covent Garden, of the Philharmonic and Sacred Harmony Societies; Ferdinando Paer, Emilian, choirmaster in Dresden, then in Paris where he also directed the Opéra-comique, the Italian Theater (1812-1817) and was a member of the Institute of France; Nicolò Paganini, the most famous of violinists, who had resounding successes in the main cities of Europe. Giuseppe Verdi wrote I Vespri Siciliani for France (1855) and Aida (1871) for the khediwe of Egypt , on the occasion of the opening of the Suez canal; Michele Carafa, in Paris from 1827 to 1872, taught at the conservatory and composed numerous plays and two dances; Ferruccio Busoni, distinguished pianist, taught in the conservatories of Helsingfors, Moscow, Boston, Berlin, Vienna.
Among the singers it is worth mentioning at least Angelica Catalani, in Germany, England and France, who directed the Italian Theater in Paris for three years (1814-17); Adelina Patti, F. Tamagno, A. Cotogni, E. Caruso, M. Battistini and the most celebrated of the living, in the major theaters of Europe and America. Among the living composers we note: Franco Alfano in Cermania and in France; Alfredo Casella, Ildebrando Pizzetti and Ottorino Respighi: all of whom stayed abroad for a longer or shorter time, acquiring a high reputation; among the conductors Arturo Toscanini, who rose to very high fame in America, was the first foreigner called to the Wagner theater in Bayreuth (1931).
