Suonate per cembalo con violino obbligato op. 3 - Ugolini, Disma 1755-1828 (s.l. s.n.)
According to the 19th-century biography by Luigi Picchianti, Ugolini studied with Bartolomeo Felici in the Church of the Santissima Annunziata and had Luigi Cherubini as a "schoolmate". Unspecified congenital malformations made him hunchbacked and lame, and he needed crutches to walk all his life. Under Felici's guidance, he composed several oratorios for the Chiesa degli Scolopi, which he "did not want to keep". He collected many musical treatises on which he perfected almost self-taught after the master's death in 1776. He found work as organist in several Florentine churches and composed much liturgical music. Ugolini obtained the professorship of counterpoint at the newly founded Istituto Musicale, and taught according to the rigorous canons of the didactics of the time (imparted according to the model of musical pedagogy institutionalised by the Neapolitan Fedele Fenaroli) to a large number of pupils.
Dedicated to Eleonora Sansedoni born Cennini (?-1847) - Tuscan marquise and wife of Alessandro Sansedoni and befriended with the composer Ettore Romagnoli (1772-1838) - who "delighted in singing and playing the harpsichord".
Dedication page contains coat of arms of the Sansedoni-Cennini family, with the medallion of the order of the Starry Cross attached.
The Order of the Starry Cross (Ordine della Croce stellata) is an imperial Austrian dynastic order for Catholic noble ladies, founded in 1668 by Eleonora Gonzaga of Mantua, dowager empress of the Holy Roman Empire. Only high-born ladies could be invested with the Order, including “princesses, countesses, and other high nobility.” Once invested, members were to “devote themselves to the service and worship of the Holy Cross, and to lead a virtuous life in the exercise of religion and works of charity.”
Allegro - Larghetto - Rondo. Allegretto Grazioso
Alla nobilissima dama la signora Eleonora Sansedoni nata marchesa Cennini dama della Croce Stellata e della real corte di Toscana dedica umilissimamente queste due suonate per cimbalo con violino obbligato, opera terza, Disma Ugolini fiorentino
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); 19th Century (1801-1900); Sonata; Keyboard music; Freedom; Italy