• From the British Library, London

• Published by Primary Source Microfilm

Richly diverse and extensive, this collection holds great interest for music scholars of the 17th-, 18th- and early 19th-century Italian music. The collection offers an abundance of sources for vocal and instrumental music, sacred and secular. Researchers will have the opportunity to trace the development of particular forms and styles of music, ranging from opera and oratorio to toccata. Organized in four chronological segments, Italian Music Manuscripts bears comparison with distinguished manuscript collections in Italy and is one of the world's most substantial collections of Italian music in the world.

Each segment of this collection is accompanied by a printed guide, compiled by Professor Roger Bray of the Department of Music at the University of Lancaster. The guides provide contents of reels, descriptive listings of all manuscripts and indexes of composers' names.

Extensive detail about the collection's manuscripts can be found in the following catalogs: Hughes-Hughes, A Catalogue of the Manuscript Music in the British Museum, London; W. Barclay Squire and H. Andrews, Catalogue of the King's Music Library, London; P. Willetts, Handlist of Music Manuscripts in the British Museum, London; Rough Register of Acquisitions of the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, London.

Section A: Music Manuscripts, c.1640-c.1720

The most substantial ingredient of the collection is secular music, especially the opera. Many of the copies must presumably have come from the Italian copying-houses, but they are nevertheless useful, especially in cases where there is no modern edition of an opera and indeed where there was no printed edition at the time.

The large number of operas, opera extracts and secular cantatas include notable examples by Melani (Armida and Girello); Cesti's Dori; and several by the Bononcini family, (it being sometimes doubtful which), including Giovanni's Sylla, Giovanni Baptista's Turno Aricino, Xerse, Tomiri and Erminia, some 14 operas by Steffani including the shared composition with Torri (Briseide), and La Lotta d'Alcide, La Superbia d'Allesandro, Arminto, Enea, Henrico Leone, Marco Aureleano, La Liberta Contenta and Orlando Generoso.

Church music and oratorio are also represented with composers including Benevoli, Carissimi, Colonna, Grandi, Steffani and Lotti. Evidence of the abiding English interest in this repertoire is shown by a substantial series of manuscripts copied by Henry Needler's work in the hand of John Stanley; William Gostling's copy of Carissimi's Jephtha; and Italian motets in the hand of Samuel Wesley.

Among examples of important instrumental music in Section A are anonymous 17th-century passacaglias, organ toccatas by M.A. Rossi, a keyboard collection of 1679 and autograph collection of keyboard music by Pasquini, string music by D'Eve and organ music by Frescobaldi.

This outstanding archive of Italian music, including a substantial number of autographs of composers who never visited England, now opens up new avenues of research into the development of music from the mid-17th to the early 18th century.

Part One: Manuscripts from the Egerton, Harleian and King's Collections and Sloane and Additional Mss 5044-16110

Part Two: Manuscripts from Additional Mss 16150-62716

Part Three: Manuscripts from the Royal Music Collection

Section A: 46 reels

Section B: Music Manuscripts, c.1720-c.1740

The publishing of the British Library's extensive collection of Italian music manuscripts continues with Section B, covering the years c.1720-c.1740.

The library's rich collection of music, in particular of Italian opera, is an essential source for all students of 18th-century music.

Choral music in Italy was at its height in the early 18th century, with the patronage system of appointing composers as maestri di capella to the Venetian ospedali. Such offices were held by G. Porta (1726-1737), Porpora, Hasse and Galuppi. Included is a mass setting by Porta (Add. 14400); arias and opera extracts by Galuppi and 30 manuscripts by Porpora, 20 of them in autograph. Among these are the autograph manuscripts of his operas Siface (1725), Didone (1725) Trionfo di Camilla (1740), and many cantatas and motets.

One of the most famous and influential composers represented here is the Neopolitan Alessandro Scarlatti, a prolific composer of operas and cantatas. Thirty Scarlatti manuscripts from this period ranging from an autograph Sinfonia Concertante to The Judgement of Paris are included.

Johann Adolfe Hasse was for several decades the most widely admired composer of opera seria in Germany and Italy, but his Venetian sacred works complement his secular popularity and his prolific output is witnessed here in 38 manuscripts of mass settings, arias, operas and oratorios, including two manuscripts of I Pelligrini (1742).

Part One: Manuscripts from the Egerton Collection and Additional MSS. 14101-14207

Part Two: Manuscripts from Additional Mss. 14210-31519

Part Three: Manuscripts from Additional Mss. 31526-54573

Part Four: Manuscripts from the Royal Music Collection

Section B: 79 reels

Section C: Music Manuscripts, c.1740-c.1770

In the central years of the 18th century, opera was a dominant form of composition, and many high-quality works were commissioned in Venice, Naples, Rome, Milan, Bologna and other cities. The period witnessed a considerable move away from the formal, elaborate baroque opera seria to a more modern style, in keeping with the aesthetics of the enlightenment.

Until the post-war revival of interest in baroque opera, Gluck's were the earliest works in the world operatic repertoire, and his Orefeo ed Euridice (1762, at Add.MS 31672-3) is a crucial musical milestone. Also included are his operas Ipermestre and Ezio. These Gluck manuscripts from the British Library give us a rare and invaluable insight into this innovative and influential writer.

The baroque style, however, was reaching a pinnacle in these years, and two of the best-represented composers in the British Library collection -- Galuppi and Jommelli, with 32 and 53 manuscripts respectively--epitomize the main styles of the baroque.

Baldassare Galuppi (1706-85) was the crucial figure in the development of opera buffa. Galuppi's career as a comic composer was distinguished by his collaboration with the playwright Carlo Goldoni, and among their works here are Filosofo Di Campagna (1754, at Add.Ms.16141) and Diavolessa (1755, at RM.22.c.14-19).

Serious baroque operas were dominated by a group of composers using the libretti of the Viennese court poet Metastasio. Nicolo Jommelli was among the most successful and prolific of these composers, and of the 17 complete Jommelli operas reproduced, 12 are opera seria. However, alongside Gluck, the best-remembered and most emulated composer of the period was Johann Christian Bach who went to Italy in 1754 and became organist at Milan cathedral. The British Library collection holds five liturgical manuscripts from his early career (three autograph Magnificat settings and two Te Deums) and his first opera Artaserse was commissioned in Turin in 1760 (the three-volume autograph manuscript of 1761 is at RM 22.a.18-20). From then on his operatic works, distinguished by graceful melody and a mature sense of form, were popular and became the most important single influence on Mozart.

Other composers whose work appear in this section are Cafaro, Bertoni, Fioroni, Perez, Leo, Traetta, Rust, Basilii, Vento, Barberella and Mazzoni.

Part One: Manuscripts from the Egerton Collection and Additional MSS. 11589-16141

Part Two: Manuscripts from Additional MSS. 16142-56253

Part Three: Manuscripts from the Royal Music Collection

Section C: 60 reels

Section D: Music Manuscripts, c.1770 c.1820

The end of the 18th century saw the flowering of the neo-classical style, the continuing supremacy of opera with both comic and serious opera retaining huge popularity in Italy and the rise of instrumental and orchestral works in the shadow of Mozart and Rossini.

The Neapolitan opera buffa retained its popularity and scope. This collection from the British Library includes many of these manuscripts among which are Piccinni's I Stravaganti (1761) and Donna Vana (1764).

One of the most prolific and successful composers was Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816). His early period is best represented by his opera buffa, especially in his collaborations with a Neapolitan librettist Giambattista Lorenzi. Paisiello spent some time composing at the Russian court of Catherine the Second, where language problems compelled him to refine the expressive qualities of his music, producing works reminiscent of Mozart in Il Re Todoro (1784, Add. MSS.16075/8) and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1783, Add. MSS. 16079).

Other masters of the comic opera form included here are Pasquale Anfossi (1727-97), Pietro Carlo Guglielmi (1763-1817) and Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801). Rossini came to the forefront as a composer in the years 1810-15, when Italian opera was in decline. Some critics see these early works as his best, and this collection offers a rare opportunity to study his early works including Tancredi (1812, Egerton MSS. 24999).

Antonio Salieri was a bridge figure in many ways between the Viennese tradition of Gluck and Grassmann, the Paris opera of the 1780s and his pupils, who included Beethoven, Schubert and Liszt. He is represented here in manuscript opera scores for his Axur, Re D'Ormus (a tragi-comedy, Vienna, 1788, Add. MS. 16118), La Secchia Rapita (opera buffa, Vienna, 1772, Add. MS. 16119); and Palmira, Regina di Persia (Vienna, 1795, Add. MS. 22270 and R.M.23.b.4-6).

Section D is also remarkable for the number and range of chamber and orchestral works produced at this time. With the increasing range and sophistication of instruments available to composers by the early 1800s and the classical style well established, there began to be an increasing demand for instrumental work. Chamber music -- and in particular the string quartet -- became popular, represented in this collection by manuscripts of Paisiello (Egerton 2966-8), Dragonetti (Add. MS. 17727-30), Giardini (Add. MS. 31695-6) and Lidarti.

There are also many examples here of solo instrumental sonatas and classical concerti and symphonies. The unrivalled breadth of the holdings of the British Library reproduced in this program offer innumerable research opportunities to scholars, students and performers.

Information about the manuscripts included in this collection can be found in the following catalogs:

1. For all material acquired before 1908, except category (b) below:

A. Hughes-Hughes, A Catalogue of the Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols, London, 1906-09, reprinted in 1964-66.

B. For all manuscripts with the classmark RM: W. Barclay Squire and H. Andrews, Catalogue of the King's Music Library, 3 vols., London, 1927-29

C. For manuscripts, etc., acquired or identified since 1908: P. Willetts, Handlist of Music Manuscripts in the British Museum, London, 11 vols., covering 1900-1955. Rough Registers of Acquisitions of the Department of Manuscripts, British Library, London, 4 vols. covering 1961-80.

These provide general information on the collections and full descriptions of all manuscripts within them.

Each section is accompanied by a guide compiled by Professor Roger Bray of the Department of Music, University of Lancaster, and provides contents of reels and descriptive listing of all manuscripts included in the sections.

Details have been taken from the printed catalogues listed above. As an aid to users, an index of composers' names for each section of this microfilm edition is available.

Section D: 100 reels

• Product number: V182
• Shipping Weight: 0.00 lbs (0.00 kgs)

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• Venetian Opera Libretti
• Printed Music Before 1800
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