Domenico Silvio Passionei and his cello sonatas Visualizza ingrandito

Domenico Silvio Passionei and his cello sonatas

Autore Michael Talbot
Collana Recercare - Rivista per lo studio e la pratica della musica antica - Journal for the study and practice of early music
Dimensioni 17×24, pp. 286
Anno 2012
ISBN 9788870966817

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Since the nineteenth century the twelve sonatas for cello and basso continuo published in Amsterdam by Jeanne Roger c. 1718 under the name of “Le C. Passionei” (the Italian of the title page reads “Del C. Passionei”) have been universally attributed to a certain Carlo Passionei, reportedly a musician in the service of a duke of Ferrara. This attribution is — and should have been recognized much earlier as — false: the initial letter “C.” stands for “Comte” (in Italian, “Conte”), and the composer is easily identifiable as Domenico Silvio Passionei (1682–1761), a prominent figure of the eighteenth century famous in the fields of church history, literary history, theology, diplomacy, librarianship, archaeology and the collection of antiquities, but not so far in the domain of music. The seeds of Passionei’s fondness for music as a recreation were probably sown when at the age of thirteen he left his native Fossombrone, near Urbino, for Rome, where, between 1695 and 1701, he studied at the Collegio Clementino, an academy designed exclusively for the Catholic nobility of Europe where, alongside the core academic curriculum, music was vigorously pursued as a desirable accomplishment for a nobleman. There he achieved distinction in singing and mastered several instruments, including the cello. Following a typical strategy pursued by the Italian nobility of the time, Domenico was earmarked for an ecclesiastical career, leaving his slightly younger brother Francesco to marry and continue the family line (a goal that unfortunately proved unsuccessful after only one further generation). Typical, too, was his delay in taking holy orders until, in 1721, he received his first major ecclesiastical appointment as Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland. His first taste of papal service arrived in 1706, when he was sent to Paris to serve as secretary to his relative, Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio. During his two years spent in Paris, Passionei became fluent in French, acquired a sympathy for Jansenism (and a corresponding emnity towards the Jesuits) that never left him during his life and met several prominent Enlightenment figures.