Carlo Giovanni Testori teorico e compositore: ricognizione delle fonti

Abstract

Carlo Giovanni Testori, theoretician and composer: identification of sources

The article outlines the personality and work of Carlo Giovanni Testori (Vercelli, 1714-1782) through the identification and analysis of the manuscript and printed sources that witness his activities. In particular, the preparatory manuscript for the publication of La musica ragionata (Vercelli, Giuseppe Panialis, 1767) preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, Turin is examined and notice given of the existence of two different editions of the treatise (the one lacking and the other completed by musical examples) and of two sets of illustrative plates, the work of different engravers.
Research carried out subsequently brought to light not only some examples of treatises of Testori unknown to the RISM, but also some instrumental compositions believed lost: the Dodici trio a due violini e basso (Biblioteca Civica, Casale Monferrato) and the Sonata cò dui mandolini e basso (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris).
The article concludes with the catalogue of the libretti printed by the Panialis printing house of Vercelli; some editions not included in the Sartori catalogue are also described, including those relative to Bianchi’s La villanella rapita, Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Anfossi’s Il geloso in cimento, performed at Novara respectively in 1785, 1786 and 1788.