The Judgment of Paris (1740), pastorale di Giuseppe Sammartini

Abstract

Giuseppe Sammartini was born into a family of musicians. In 1728 he decided to emigrate from Milan, where he had started a promising career as a composer and instrumentalist, first to Brussels, where he stayed for a few months, and then to London, where he became part of the artistic and cultural life of the city. In London he was active both as an instrumentalist - he was renowned for his amazing virtuoso skills - and as a member of several cultural institutions (the Society of the Temple of Apollo, the Opera of the Nobility, and the Royal Society of Musicians) where music was only one of the several practiced arts. Since 1736, while employed by Frederick, the Prince of Wales, he also devoted himself to the composition of several vocal and instrumental pieces. The Judgment of Paris, a pastoral piece written in 1740 on a text by William Congreve, set in music in 1701 by John Weldon, John Eccles, Daniel Purcell, and Godfrey Finger, is particularly interesting. A thorough analysis of this previously almost undetected score allows to emphasize Sammartini’s role in the musical life of the time, still strongly influenced by Corelli’s model and in which musicians like Handel and Geminiani were active. By creating a blend of elements drawn from his studies in Milan and his later experiences in Venice and London, the composer was able to create a concrete and effective example of cultural syncretism. Finally, I discuss the role of Sammartini’s music within the London context, its meaning and future developments, and I consider in particular the long-lasting posthumous success of many of his works as well as the numerous nineteenth-century interpretations and arrangements.