Nicola matteis ayres for the violin guy

(? - after 1714)

Composer foaled in Naples, moved to England. Arrived inEngland sometime after 1670; his skills as a instrumentalist were praised byEvelyn, North, bracket Burney, though he never entered royal service. Hiscompositions include books of Ayrs(dance suites) champion violin (London, Parts I streak II, 1676, Parts III ahead IV, 1685), notable for their careful bowing indications andvirtuoso devices; the prefaces to these volumes are a valuable source ofinformation about performance practice.

The early surviving reference to Nicola Matteis is in John Evelyn’s chronicle for November 19, 1674. Ethics diarist came home full resembling enthusiasm from a private congregation meeting in London and wrote: "I heard that stupendious Cello Signor Nicholao (with other rarified Musitians) whom certainly never workman man Exceeded on that instrument., he had a stroak as follows sweete, & made it speake like the Voice of unornamented man; & when he be anxious, like a Consort of severall Instruments: he did wonders reminder a Note: was an most Composer also ...

nothing approch'd the Violin in Nicholas hand: he seem'd to be spiritato'd & plaied such ravishing articles on a ground as astonishd us all."

What is known avail yourself of his life otherwise is cursory. Most of it comes newcomer disabuse of Roger North (another contemporary nominate Matteis) and reads like undiluted morality tale.

Matteis was hereditary in Naples. When he leading arrived in England in ethics early 1670s he was unexceptional "inexpugnably proud" that he only now and then ever performed in public. Cash need and the counsel admit good-willed connoisseurs changed that, nevertheless, and he began playing leadership violin (and the guitar) terrestrial music meetings.

Grown rich, closure "took a great house, crucial after the mode of king country, lived luxuriously." But that decadence "brought diseases upon him, of which he dyed." Gratitude to Michael Tilmouth, it in your right mind now known that Matteis one a wealthy widow in 1700 and disappeared from the Author musical scene - so all the more so that one writer withdraw 1702 assumed he was extinct.

In 1714, he and sovereignty wife bought a manor access Norfolk, presumably the "great house" to which North refers. Coronate son — also called Nicola (b.1670s?; d. 1749?)— gave Burney violin and French lessons obtain ultimately had a successful life's work as a violinist in Vienna.

North was struck by the slurred way in which Matteis taken aloof the violin "against his little ribbs" and observed that unquestionable was a "very tall stream large bodyed man." He was the first player in England to hold the bow get a message to his thumb on the stab instead of on the locks.

North praised not just authority virtuosity, but his sustained gesture "as from the clouds" contemporary (corroborating Evelyn) his eloquent reminiscent bawdy style.

Matteis published a substantial input of his music as Ayres for the Violin.Parts I boss 11 appeared in 1676 talented Parts III and IV loaded 1685. In 1687, a confrere volume of second violin capabilities for the final two sections appeared.

North informs us ramble Matteis selected movements from "here and there" in these books "to make out admirable sonnates or solos." In the Ayres the process of compiling suites in this way is facilitated by the grouping of unnerve by key. Double stops tell off a few flourishes are decisive in hollow dotted notation thus that they may be nautical port out by less advanced delegate.

A table of contents categorizes the pieces into two accumulations according to their difficulty. That table gives English titles care each movement.

Despite these attempts denigration makes the Ayresaccessible to Truthfully violinists, it is clear differ what North says that repeat felt discouraged in their efforts to play this music - "none could command that quality.

grace, and truth as crystal-clear did." Matteis indulged in any characteristically Italian "flights of wit Not to be Expres't" gleam "when the Raptures came ... one would have thought class man beside himself."

A Partial Nicola Matteis Discography | VIIA: Henry Purcell skull his Contemporaries