Format:
319 Seiten
,
Illustrationen, Notenbeispiele
Edition:
Édition bilingue/bilingual edition
ISBN:
9782919156047
Content:
Imagine finding a musical treasure in an old trunk in your family villa in Nice. “When I lifted the lid, a singular fragrance was released, the stale odour of old paper”; inside, “I discovered […] an album of autographs of musicians […], bound in green morocco” (11). Such was the experience of writer and critic Bruno de Cessole (1950–) as explained in his preface to Autographes musicaux du XIXe siècle: l’album niçois du comte de Cessole, edited and annotated by musicologist Robert Adelson. The titular Count of Autographes is Eugène Spitalieri de Cessole (1805–76; hereafter “de Cessole”), a jurist, senator, and composer from Nice, whose compositions also lay inside the family trunk. De Cessole was a gifted violinist, violin collector, and admirer of some of the greatest musicians of his day, many of whom often passed through Nice. Between 1835 and 1876, he collected autographs from these musicians. His son Joseph (1841–1904) then briefly kept up this practice. Yet, as Adelson signals, the album niçois “is not a simple ‘guest book’ of signatures” (36). Rather, it is a record of an international community of musicians who left not just a signatory memento, but also a musical souvenir in the Count’s precious book. All but three of the 108 signers included “a small musical work” (36) written in full musical notation alongside the signature, a rarity among such collections. These include samples of pieces for which a musician was known, musical jokes, and bits of music unique to the album. In his introduction, Adelson contextualizes de Cessole’s role in niçoise society and musical culture and elaborates on some of his most notable relations, including his “intense devotion” (47) to the violinist Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840). Adelson also explores the musical talents of de Cessole, who “took advantage of each visit of a violinist in his salon to improve his technique” (39). Lithographs of Nice from the era, imagery of the de Cessole family and their estates, and striking photographs of some of the Count’s prized violins, including a 1716 Stradivarius, accentuate the rich musical history that Adelson establishes and that de Cessole lived.
Note:
Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 305-308. Index
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Text französisch und englisch
Language:
French
Subjects:
Musicology
