Jarnović, Ivan Mane (EN)

Jarnović, Giornovichi, Jarnovick, Ivan Mane, Giovanni, *26 October 1747 probably at sea near Ragusa (Sicily), baptized 29 October 1747, †23 November 1804 St. Petersburg, violinist and composer of Croatian-Dalmatian origin. The difficulties surrounding the determination of Jarnović’s nationality, the correct form of his surname (approximately thirty variants are known, including several Polish forms such as Jarnowicki), and even his place and date of birth were largely the result of the contradictory and often ambiguous information that he himself provided. Music dictionaries report that during the 1760s he studied with A. Lolli in Stuttgart or Ludwigsburg. M.K. Ogiński, however, who knew Jarnović well as his pupil, maintained that he had received no formal musical education. The first documented event in Jarnović’s life is his presence in Paris in October 1769 (where he presented himself as an Italian musician). In the following years he achieved considerable success there as a soloist in the Concerts Spirituels (1773, 1775–77), the Concerts des Amateurs (1777), and in private salons, (including that of the Countess de Genlis, where he reportedly performed with Ch.W. Gluck, P.A. Monsigny, and J.C. Mondonville). From about 1777 he directed the orchestra of Prince Jules-Hercule de Rohan-Guéméné. In the autumn of 1770, advertised as the “first violinist of France,” he gave concerts in Frankfurt am Main. The same year he was engaged in Berlin as a member of the orchestra of Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia. Between September and December 1782, he stayed in Warsaw, performing in royal residences (the Łazienki Palace and the Royal Castle) as well as in aristocratic households, (including that of M.J. Mniszech). The Warsaw public regarded him as the finest violinist ever heard in the city, surpassing such predecessors as A. Lolli, G. Pugnani, and G.B. Viotti. It is possible that during his Warsaw stay he composed two violin concertos: Concerto No. IX in G major, dedicated to the Russian ambassador O.M. von Stackelberg, and Concerto No. X in F major, dedicated to King Stanisław August Poniatowski (both published ca. 1782–83). At the beginning of 1783 Jarnović travelled from Poland to St. Petersburg (probably with Stackelberg’s recommendation) where he obtained a three-year appointment at the court of Catherine II. In May 1786, on his return journey from St. Petersburg, Jarnović again stopped in Warsaw and performed before the king at the Mniszech Palace. He then proceeded to Vienna. There, in 1786, at the residence of Baron F.B. von Keeß, he became acquainted with many of the city’s leading musicians, including J. Haydn, W.A. Mozart, C. Dittersdorf, V. Jírovec, J.A. Albrechtsberger, and F.A. Hoffmeister. Although he is said to have travelled on to Paris, the next documented information dates only from April 1789, when he was performing in Moscow. Later that year he appeared in London, where until 1796 he was active as a highly regarded violinist and conductor alongside such musicians as J. Haydn, J.P. Salomon, W. Cramer, and J.L. Dussek. He also performed in Dublin (concert series directed by J. Clarke and F. Janiewicz), and in Bath in 1792. At the end of 1796 Jarnović left London and settled in Hamburg, where he earned much of his living through playing billiard. In February 1799 he returned to London for a concert appearance, and in March 1802 he performed in Berlin. In the autumn of that year he settled permanently in St. Petersburg as a musician at the imperial court. He died there two years later from apoplexy and was buried at the expense of his friends in the Catholic church, to the sounds of Requiem by J. Kozłowski.

Jarnović was regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his age. Contemporary observers (C. Dittersdorf, V. Jírovec, L. Mozart, J.F. Reichardt, Ch. Burney, M. Kelly, and M.K. Ogiński) praised his technical perfection, beautiful and pure tone, masterful bowing, and ability to move audiences emotionally. His extraordinary talent, combined with an adventurous, eccentric, and quarrelsome temperament and a turbulent life, inspired several nineteenth-century literary works (by E.T.A. Hoffmann, G. Desnoiresterres, and E. Monnais). Jarnović’s achievements as a composer were less remarkable, particularly since, according to Ogiński, they were unsupported by “any knowledge of music theory.” Finding orchestration difficult, he often entrusted that task to other musicians, including V. Jírovec and D.P. Pieltain. The most important part of his output consists of violin concertos, written primarily for his own use as a performer. Through numerous publications they became known throughout Europe during his lifetime. In Warsaw, one of these concertos was performed in September 1792 by the twelve-year-old violinist Witkowski. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, they had largely disappeared from the repertory. Written in the galant style, Jarnović’s concertos exerted some influence on the contemporary French violin concerto through their consistent use of rondo form in the finales and the introduction of the romance into slow movements (Concertos Nos. V, VI, XIII, XV, and XVI). Ogiński wrote that Jarnović “was admired in every country through which he travelled, because he knew how skilfully to adopt popular national melodies and incorporate them into his compositions (…) In Poland he took polonaises as his themes and varied them beautifully and with great taste.” Indeed, Russian folk melodies appear in Concertos Nos. VII and XIV; the cycle Airs variés is based on popular arias from French operas; the second movement of the second duet from the collection 6 Duos concertants is a polonaise; and Scottish and English folk melodies are also known to have been employed in works that Jarnović performed in London. It appears, however, that most compositions of this type were improvised during concerts and were never preserved in written form.

Literature: K. Dittersdorf Lebensbeschreibung, seinem Sohne in die Feder diktiert, Leipzig 1801, English trans. A.D. Coleridge, London 1896, revised ed. 1970; A. Gyrowetz Biographie, Vienna 1848, 2nd ed. in: Lebensläufe deutscher Musiker, ed. A. Einstein, vols. 3–4, Leipzig 1915, Czech ed. Vlastní životopis V. Jíroveca, trans. F. Bartoš, Prague 1940; A. Simonówna Kilka notatek muzycznych z gazet pisanych, “Przegląd Muzyczny” II, 1911; A. Schneider Un virtuose croate en France au XVIIIe siècle. Ivan Mane Jarnović, “Annales de l’Institut Français de Zagreb” VI–VII, 1942/43; M.Kl. Ogiński Listy o muzyce, ed. T. Strumiłło, Krakow 1956; Ivan Mane Jarnović. A Croatian Composer, 2 vols., ed. S. Tuksar, Zagreb 1978, 1980 (vol. 1 contains reprints of articles published between 1943 and 1972 by German, French, and British musicologists; vol. 2 comprises studies by Yugoslav musicologists); I. Boškowić Gdje je i kada roden Ivan Mane Jarnović?, “Marulić” 1986 no. 2; V. Katalinić Zu einigen Popularthemen im Jarnović’s Violinkonzerten, “International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music” XVIII, 1987.