Giovanni Battista Vitali - As A Musician

As A Musician

Vitali played a bowed stringed bass instrument but, due to the shifting terminology in use at the time, this is referred to under various names. When he joined the orchestra of the San Petronio Basilica in 1658, his name was entered in the records of the orchestra under the heading ‘Violoni’, paid 10 lira. However, in the records for 1664 he is referred to as ‘Suonatore di Violonline ’. According to Bonta, ‘violonline’ refers to the same instrument as ‘violoncino’ – which is also mentioned in the 1658 list, but with no connection to Vitali. On the title pages of the first five of Vitali’s publications, he calls himself ‘Sonatore di Violone da Brazzo’ or ‘Musico di Violone da Brazzo’. From his Salmi concerti, Opus 6 (1677), onwards, and in later reprints of the Opp. 1–5, after his appointment to the Modenese court, he calls himself ‘Vice Maestro di Capella’, with no reference to the instrument he played. When a description of the instruments a publication is intended for is given on the title page and includes a melodic bass instrument, the generic term ‘violone’ is always used.

During the time Vitali was at the San Petronio Basilica, the size of the orchestra changed relatively little: typically the records state that the orchestra consisted of three violins, two or three violas, two violoni (Vitali himself and Domenico Vincenzo Colonna) and one to two theorbos Vitali does not appear in the records for 1674, having resigned that year and left for Modena. There seems not to have been an immediate replacement for him that year, but in 1675 Petronio Franceschini (1651–1680) was appointed and listed separately as ‘Violoncello’ – the first documented use of this term in Bologna. The bowed bass section of the San Petronio orchestra at this point therefore comprised Colonna on violone and Franceschini on violoncello. In 1676, presumably to better distinguish between the two instruments, the term ‘Violone’ is replaced by ‘Violone grosso’, and Colonna is listed as playing it. The fact that this distinction in terminology was not deemed necessary earlier implies that Vitali was playing the same instrument as Colonna (the ‘Violone grosso’, not the ‘Violoncello’). After Franceschini’s death his position was filled by Domenico Gabrielli (1659–1690) who was among the first virtuoso cellists – so this orchestra position is now clearly reserved for a ‘cellist.

New techniques in producing gut strings wound with metal wire took place in Bologna during the 1660s. It is probable that the wide variety of terminology in use was due in part to the experimentation with bowed bass instruments capable of producing good lower notes without the need for long string lengths due to these developments. Other terms in use at the time include the viola da spalla, a cello or smaller bowed bass instrument which was held at the shoulder and rested on the player’s lap, supported by a strap Giuseppe Torelli was appointed to the cappella musicale at the San Petronio Basilica in 1686 as a player of the ‘tenore viola’.

One of Vitali’s few surviving unpublished works is the Partite sopra diverse sonate, for ‘Violone’, ca. 1680. The style of the writing is much more clearly suited to the cello, which suggests that Vitali is still using ‘Violone’ as a general term for bowed bass.