Domenico Galli e gli 'eroici' esordi della musica per violoncello solo

Abstract

Bach's suites for solo violoncello have been and will ever remain one of the wonders of Western musical art. They stand out the more vividly in their solitude: Bach is usually portrayed as having had no predecessors in this enterprise. Christoph Wolff, for example, in his authoritative entry on the composer in The New Grove Dictionary, wrote that «there are no known works for solo cello before Bach».
The find of a set of twelve sonatas for solo cello by a relatively unknown Italian composer from the end of the seventeenth century and some thirty years before Bach's opus will not alter the magnitude of the later composer's achievement. Galli's works are too modest to offer musical competition. Yet they represent an extraordinary find in the sense that they force a reappraisal of the beginnings of solo music for unaccompanied cello and, as a result, place Bach's and other composers' works for the instrument in an entirely new perspective.
Domenico Galli turns out to be a fascinating figure not only because of his early sonatas (which are actually suites, for they were written as chamber sonatas), but also because of his many talents: in addition to composing and, presumably, performing music, he was an instrument builder, a wood sculptor, a draftsman, a scribe and a calligrapher. In the introduction to his music collection, prepared as an elegant manuscript for presentation to his patron, Galli ushers us into the court circle of Francesco II d'Este of Modena, among the outstanding benefactors of artists and musicians in the mid-Baroque. Francesco is related, in the same introduction, to major events and figures on the European scene, from the political misfortunes of James II in England to the glories of the Roi Soleil Louis XIV in France. Galli harps on the theme of Hercules as an 'invincible' hero in reference to the heroes of his own time, telling of his attempt to give expression to the theme in his works for unaccompanied cello and in the magnificent instrument he built for their performance. The cello, commissioned by Francesco II, was decorated with rich carvings depicting the persons and their exploits discussed in the introduction, with Hercules as the main hero.
The study divides into five parts: the first deals with Galli the man and his works (music, instruments, drawings, wood carvings); the second, with early composers of instrumental music in Bologna and Modena, with particular attention to music for violoncello; the third, with the historical events to which Galli alludes and their political and mythological ramifications; the fourth, with the formal and stylistic aspects of Galli's works for solo cello; and the last, with Galli's works in relation to those of other composers, including Corelli (his solo violin sonatas) and Bach (his cello suites).