From Pergolesi
to
Gallo by
the Numericode
system
By Cari Johansson
Musicologists and music librarians know the diffi- culties that they have to face in identifying com- positions from t h e 1 8 t h century. T h e works w e r e to a large e x t e n t distributed in manuscripts (MSS). No effective copyright laws existed. W o r k s both in print and MSS w e r e often attributed t o the wrong composers. I t was of course easier to sell a w o r k by a known composer than by an unknown one. One and the same work may b e attributed to two, three and e v e n more different authors in different MSS and editions from that time. Very often an analysis in detail would b e necessary t o establish, ifpossible, w h o is the author, a work too time-con- suming for t h e librarian. T h e only possibility for
him in these cases is to catalogue t h e different cop- ies under o n e and t h e same composer with refer- ences from the others.
in o r d e r to facilitate t h e identification of music a thematic catalogue based o n Ingmar Bengtsson’s Numericode system1 has been prepared at the Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music (Kungl Musikaliska akademiens bibliotek), Stock- holm. All MSS catalogued in Sweden for RISM and a great n u m b e r of published thematic catalogues have been coded f o r o u r catalogue, which now (1975) contains s o m e 57 000 incipits and has proved an invaluable tool f o r identification. I t has en- abled us to bring together identical works attrib- uted to different composers in different copies. A great many anonymous works have been identified,
and
misattributions have been corrected. Hypo-theses a b o u t false attributions have also been sup-
’
I Bengtsson gives an account of this system in STM49 (1967). PP 5-40.
2 E i Stover, The instrumental chamber music of Giovanni
Battista Pergolesi (Florida State University, 1964).
3 Dover ed (New York, 1957), vol 2 , p 924.
4 Music
&
Letters, XXX (1949), pp 321-328.5 The Galpin Society journal. XVIII (1965). p 141.
4 W S Newman, The sonata in the Baroque era, revised
ed (Chapel Hill, 1966), pp 196-199.
7 H Ulrich, Chamber music, second ed (New York &
London, 1966), p I
36.
ported by names found o n different copies. A case in point is t h e trio sonatas that were ascribed to Pergolesi b u t a r e now considered not to b e by him. T h e pre-Classical traits that are mixed with the lare-Baroque style in the trio sonatas attributed to Pergolesi made him appear an early forerunner of
the Vienna Classical school. As such h e was re- garded by H u g o Riemann and o t h e r scholars such as Radiciotti and Einstein, and as lare as in
1964
by E L Stover.‘ B u t already in the 18th century were doubts of the authenticity o f these sonatas ex-
pressed. Burney writes in his General history of
music: “if the sonatas ascribed t o Pergolesi, tor two violins and a base, a r e genuine, which is much t o
be doubted”.3 Charles L Cudworth too, at his exa- mination of t h e m in 1949, concluded that “ i t is not impossible but rather improbable, that they arc‘ Pergolesi’s own compositions”. According t o C u d - worth they would probably be the work of a slightly later composer than Pergolesi.’ In I 9 0 5 Cudworth also could s u p p o r t this hypothesis by MS copies of some of these sonatas in the library of the Marquess
of Exeter and in the University of California at Berkeley, where they are attributed to “Signor Gallo”.5 In his article in M G G H H u c k e also de- clares that these sonatas a r e not genuine, and W S N e w m a n is of the same opinion6 as is H Ulrich: “ B u t since n o more likely candidate for authorship has been p u t forward, we shall call the composer ‘pseudo Pergolesi’ h e r e , with the h o p e that the question of authorship will be solved eventually.”’ N o autograph manuscript of these sonatas has been f o u n d , but o n MS copies from the 18th cen- tury Pergolesi is indìcated as the composer, and in
1766
o n e of them was entered under Pergolesi’sname in t h e Breitkopf thematic catalogue. C 1770- 7 I , i e s o m e 35 years after Pergolesi’s death, R B r e m n e r in London published 1 2 trio sonatas un- d e r Pergolesi’s name ( n o s 1-12 in Pergolesi’s Opera
omnia: Sonate J t r e ) , later followed by two others
( n o s 13-14, ibid). According to an inscription o n the title page of Bremner’s edition of the 1 2 sona-
tas, the manuscript of t h e m had been procured by “a Curious G e n t l e m a n of Fortune during his Trav-/
els through Italy”. W h o this “Curious G e n t l e m a n of Fortune’’ was w e d o not know. W e only k n o w that in prints from t h e 1770s as well as in undated MSS the sonatas are attributed to Pergolesi, and that t h e r e a r e M S S at Berkeley and in t h e posses- sion o f the Marquess o f Exeter with s o m e of these sonatas attributed to Gallo.
A t t h e cataloguing for R I S M of the MSS in t h e Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm, two MSS copies o f trio sonatas attrib- uted to D o m e n i c o Gallo have been found. With the aid of t h e above-mentioned catalogue o f incipits w e found that these sonatas a r e identical with sona- tas 1 - 1 2 in Pergolesi’s Opera omnia, that f o u r of
t h e m also are ascribed to G a l l o in Italian MSS in t h e University of California at Berkeley’ and that the sonata n o 6 has also been attributed to D o m e - nico Ferrari and was published as Sonata n o 2 in a
collection of 6 sonatas by Ferrari and Campioni,
first by Love c 1 7 5 8 , later by C & S T h o m p s o n in
1764.
T h e MSS in the Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm consist of a com- plete set of parts of t h e sonatas I and 3-12 entitled
Trio
1o (3o-12) / a Dueviolini
e Basso/
Del Sigre /Domeneco [sic] GaIIo. and of a bass part (violin 1 and
I1
are missing) of all twelve sonatas with the titleSonata
Prima ( - 1 2 )/
Basso/
Dil [sic] SigrDonrinico [sic] GaIIo. All these parts a r e f r o m the second half of the 18th century, and written o n north Italian paper. T h e complete set of parts
(So-
nata n o I and nos 3-12) are written o n so called
Venetian paper with a watermark consisting of t h r e e halfmoons, a c o m e t and F reversed F u n d e r a fleur-de-lys.9 T h e watermark of the bass part of t h e Sonata P r i m a (-12) is C [or G?] B at t h e lower right corner. This part is b o u n d and o n its first and last sheets are watermarks with the G e n o a coat-of- arms, three shields above each other, a cross in the upper shield, S P in the middle shield, a griffin at each side of t h e upper shield and above the shields a crown.10 According to V D Kock t h e sonata attrib- uted both to Ferrari and to Gallo, i e n o 6 in Pergolesi’s Opera omnia. differs from the o t h e r trio sonatas by Ferrari among o t h e r things in having a second movement in the subdominant key. In the o t h e r trio sonatas Ferrari retains the same key in all movements.” In Gallo’s trio sonatas o n the o t h e r hand all second movements except o n e change to a key that differs from the tonic in t h e first and t h e third movements. And in addition to the sonata ascribed both to Gallo and to Ferrari, 3 o u t of Gallo’s I I second movements change to the sub-
dominant. All twelve sonatas a r e also attributed to G a l l o in two M S S (sonata n o 2 that is lacking in
o n e of the MSS in Stockholm appears in an MS at Berkeley) and s o m e of t h e m e v e n in more. I t is true that o n e of t h e s e sonatas has also b e e n published u n d e r Ferrari’s name, but as it differs f r o m Ferrari’s o t h e r trio sonatas and as i t is ascribed to Gallo in at least t h r e e Italian MSS, two in Stockholm and one at Berkeley,12 o n e can suspect, that h e r e too we have to deal with a Ferrari forgery.
Very little is known about D o m e n i c o Gallo. The music dictionaries tell us only that h e was born
in
Venice a b o u t 1730, that h e was an e m i n e n t violinist and that h e w r o t e church music, trio sonatas, symphonies and according to G e r b e r also violin concertos. In R I S M , Einzeldrucke vor 1800 vol 3, the following works a r e listed u n d e r his name:
6
Sonatas for t w o flutes and bass published in London and 6 Sonatas for two violins and bass published in Venice.” 7 S o n a t e a tre a r e listed by Duckles and Elmer. 14 T h e Breitkopf thematic catalogue from 1762 and 1 7 6 7 lists ‘6 Parade Sinfonien’ and 3o t h e r symphonies u n d e r G a l l o without a Christian name. But o u t of these 9 works 6 are identical with movements attributed to A l b e r t o Gallo.15
D o m e n i c o G a l l o apparently belonged to the pre- Classical Italian composers. He was b o r n in Venice c 1730. If h e is the a u t h o r of t h e s e sonatas, which is most probable, they can hardly have been com- posed before t h e 1750s. T h a n k s to thematic cata- logues it has been proved that t h e trio sonatas
by
p s e u d o Pergolesi are ascribed to D o m e n i c o Gallo in several Italian MSS. D u r i n g the continued in-ventory for RISM of the MSS before 1800 it will
perhaps become clear, if the problem concerning the authenticity of these sonatas has been solved or i t still m o r e names have to be considered.
8 Gallo 1 and 3-5 in V Duckles and M Elmer, Thematic
catalog
of
a manuscript collection of eighteenth-century ltalian instrumental music . . . (Berkeley & Los Angeles, 1963),pp 102-103.
9 See WM 3 in V Duckles and M Elmer, o p cit, p 19.
10 See 14 c in the article ’Watermarks and musicology’
by J LaRue in AI-ra music-ologiru. XXXIII (1961), p 142.
11 V D Kock, The works of Domenico Ferrari (1722-
1780) (Tulane University, 1969).
12 Whether the MS belonging to the Marquess of Exeter
includes this sonata, I d o not know.
13 The RISM secretariat in Kassel cannot y e t give infor- mation about works in MSS.
14 Opcit, pp 102-104.
15 Cf R Haas, Die Estensischen Musikalien. Thematisches
