Gabrielli, Domenico (EN)

Gabrielli, Gabrieli, Domenico, known as Menichino dal Violoncello (Minghen dal Viulunzel in the Bolognese dialect), *19 October 1659 Bologna, †10 July 1690 Bologna, Italian composer and cellist.

He studied cello with P. Franceschini in Bologna and composition with G. Legrenzi in Venice.  In 1676, he became a member of the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, and in 1683 he was its president. Following Franceschini’s death, Gabrielli took up the position of cellist in the S. Petronio chapel in Bologna in 1680, which he held until his death, with a break at the turn of 1687/88, when his contract was not renewed for disciplinary reasons. He then became more closely associated with the d’Este court in Modena, with which he had previously had frequent contact. In 1683, Gabrielli began his career as an opera composer with the music for Il Gige in Lidia, staged in Bologna at the Teatro Formagliari; Gabrielli’s subsequent operas were staged mainly in Venice, but also in Bologna, Modena and Turin.

Gabrielli’s operatic output, which fits within the contemporary Venetian model, is characterised by an unconventional, expressive treatment of recitative and a great variety in the shaping of arias (including arias with obbligato instruments), although the da capo aria clearly predominates. Gabrielli’s solo cantatas are constructed according to a recitative–aria pattern (most often with this sequence returning three times); they are characterised by a great variety in the treatment of both elements and a significant degree of virtuosity. Gabrielli’s polyphonic religious works have not been studied. Gabrielli’s instrumental works are of fundamental historical importance. An outstanding virtuoso cellist, he made optimal use of the sound and technical possibilities of the instrument, especially in his sonatas for solo cello and cello with basso continuo; these are also among the first compositions for this instrument. Gabrielli’s sonatas for one or two trumpets and string instruments (four to six movements, with contrasting tempos), in which the composer treats the solo parts with virtuosity, are also among the pioneering works for trumpet. In these sonatas, Gabrielli introduces a formal novelty: their tutti passages are the prototype of the ritornello in later concertos.

Literatura: J. W. Wasielewski Das Violoncell und seine Geschichte, Leipzig 1889, 4th edition 1970, English translation 1894, 2nd edition 1968; F. Vatielli Arte e vita musicale a Bologna, Bologna 1927, 2nd edition 1969; E. Albini Domenico Gabrielli, il Corelli del violoncello, “Rivista Musicale Italiana” XLI, 1937; W. S. Newman The Sonata in the Baroque Era, Chapel Hill 1959; K. Marx Die Entwicklung des Violoncells und seiner Spieltechnik bis J. L. Duport, Regensburg 1963; U. Zingler: Studien zur Entwicklung der Italienischen Violoncellosonate von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Frankfurt 1967; F. Tasini L’oratorio S. Sigismondo re di Borgogna (1687) di Domenico Gabrielli, “Rivista internazionale di musica sacra” V (1984); J.G. Suess The rise of the Emilian school of instrumental music in late 17th-century Italy in: La musique et le rite sacré et profane, ed. M. Honegger, Ch. Meyer, P. Prévost, Strasburg 1986; M. Chambers Introducing scordatura to the intermediate cellist: Gabrielli’s ricercares for solo cello revisited, “American string teacher” XLVII (1997); E.H. Tarr The trumpet sonatas of Domenico Gabrielli (1659–1690), “International Trumpet Guild journal” XXXV (2010); A.L.G. Micheletti, W.T.da Silva Cello development from Gabrielli to Vivaldi, “Música hodie”, XIV (2014); M. Baroni Le cantate di Domenico Gabrielli e i mutamenti di stile e pensiero fra Sei e Settecento in: Felsina cantatrice: La musica a Bologna e in Accademia fra il 1666 e il 1716, ed. P. Mioli, Bologna 2018.