The eight chapters of Understanding Boccherini’s Manuscripts discuss various aspects of the study of the manuscript sources for the music of Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805), one of the foremost composers of the second half of the eighteenth century. This book begins by outlining the various types that can be distinguished among the manuscripts written by the composer himself or by his copyists, such as manuscripts for archival purposes, for publishers and for patrons. Germán Labrador continues with a discussion of the chronology of both Boccherini’s works and their manuscript sources, and Loukia Drosopoulou describes the musical handwriting that we find in the manuscripts under discussion. Boccherini produced several catalogues of his works of which some are lost, while others have been preserved. Marco Mangani and Federica Rovelli review these documents. The second half of this book addresses more specific topics. Giulio Battelli pays attention to a recent addition to Boccherini’s known oeuvre, the Laudate pueri, a very early work, preserved in the library of the Istituto Musical in Lucca. Rupert Ridgewell deals with the relations between Boccherini and the Viennese publishing house Artaria. Matanya Ophee considers the sources for Boccherini’s Guitar Quintets recently come available, and, finally, Jaime Tortella comments upon some letters to the nineteenth-century collector Julian Marshall – one of them by Alfredo Boccherini, a great-grandson of the composer – that shed light on the adventures of Boccherini’s manuscripts in the nineteenth century. Furthermore, a common bibliography following all the chapters is supplied, as are extensive indexes. In addition to regular indexes of subjects and names, indexes covering letters cited, catalogues, manuscript sources, early editions, and Boccherini’s works are also provided. As such, this book is an altogether indispensable tool for everybody with a scholarly interest in the life and work of Luigi Boccherini, and a splendid model for similar work on other composers.

Luigi Boccherini's chamber works form the largest part of his compositional output of nearly 500 works. In these works Boccherini included performance markings to a much greater extent that in his violoncello sonatas and concertos. His string quintets, in particular, present a large variety of dynamic, articulation and special-effect markings, constituting an important source for the study of eighteenth-century performance practice. Boccherini listed 125 string quintets in his thematic catalogue - composed between 1771 and 1802 - of which 113 were originally scored for two violoncellos and 12 for two violas. If we add to this number transcriptions he made for string quintet, his total output for this genre rises by at least another 24 works. The quintets were mostly composed during Boccherini's employment with the Spanish Infante Don Luis de Borbön between 1770 and 1785, and subsequently, during his employment with King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, between 1786 and 1797. This study discusses dynamic, articulation, and special-effect markings in Boccherini's string quintets in terms of their notation and use. Special attention has been given to the manuscript sources of these works and in particular to Boccherini's autographs - located at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv and the Bibliotheque nationale de France - in order to draw a clearer picture of the composer's notational habits, which are not always reflected in early and modern editions of these works. Since performance markings were not present to a great extent in eighteenth-century repertoire, particularly solo music, this study aims to add not only to the scholarship of Boccherini's individual notational and compositional practices, but also to the wider knowledge of eighteenth-century performance practice.

Recent scholarship has vanquished the traditional perception of nineteenth-century Britain as a musical wasteland. In addition to attempting more balanced assessments of the achievements of British composers of this period, scholars have begun to explore the web of reciprocal relationships between the societal, economic and cultural dynamics arising from the industrial revolution, the Napoleonic wars, and the ever-changing contours of British music publishing, music consumption, concert life, instrument design, performance practice, pedagogy and composition. Muzio Clementi (1752–1832) provides an ideal case-study for continued exploration of this web of relationships. Based in London for much of his life, whilst still maintaining contact with continental developments, Clementi achieved notable success in a diversity of activities that centred mainly on the piano. The present book explores Clementi’s multivalent contribution to piano performance, pedagogy, composition and manufacture in relation to British musical life and its international dimensions. An overriding purpose is to interrogate when, how and to what extent a distinctive British musical culture emerged in the early nineteenth century. Much recent work on Clementi has centred on the Italian National Edition of his complete works (MiBACT); several chapters report on this project, whilst continuing to pursue the book’s broader themes.

Includes nineteenth-century manuscripts of string quartets and quintets by Boccherini.

Annotation A study of how the physical processes of learning to play a piece of music can enrich and inform the mental process of studying and analyzing the music, using the cello music of Luigi Boccherini as a case study.