I know that he published at least one song both in an edition with 5-course
guitar accompaniment (tab+staff), in France, and the same song with a very
similar accompaniment for the English Guittar, in staff, in London, though in a
different key. We also know he recycled guitar-violin duets as guitar duets (or
the inverse, I don't know).
So he may well have converted guittar pieces to guitar pieces :-)
Jelma
On Sep 5, 2013, at 20:13 , WALSH STUART wrote:
> On 05/09/2013 06:21, Pieter Van Tichelen wrote:
>
> Hi Stuart,
> Beautiful and I'm happy someone has finally started looking into the
> Merchi publications for (English) guitar. As I have recently done
> some research into some of his music I can add a bit of background
> info.
> Merchi actually preferred the "Spanish" guitar as can be noted from
> a fragment from the Public Advertiser, February 10, 1769:
> "Signor Merchi [...] begs Leave to acquaint the Nobility and Gentry,
> that he continues to teach Singing, and the Accompanyment on both
> the Spanish and English Guittar; he however recommends the former;
> for though it be a more difficult Instrument than the English
> Guittar, yet it is more harmonious and pleasing,; nay, it proves as
> proper for Accompanyment as the Harpsichord; and as to the
> Difficulties, a skillful Master may very easily remove them. Signor
> Merchi has invented a new and most expeditious Method, after which
> any Person with a little Attention may be able to play a Minuet in
> two Lessons, and to accompany an Air in four or five. He also offers
> to supply the Dilletanti with the choicest Collection of Opera
> Songs, both French and Italian, with some of his own Compositions,
> as well as Duo, Trio, Allemandes, Minuets, Rondeux, which he has
> lately set [...]" (Public Advertiser, January 15, 1774, GDN
> Z2001147297, BBCN).
> Merchi (we usually don't which of the two brothers Giacomo or
> Giuseppe Bernardo - only the early Paris publications mention the
> first name Giacomo I seem to recall) went to London to teach and
> publish guitar - same as they (or one of the brothers) did in Paris.
> In Paris they published about 40 works, mostly for guitar, about
> half of which is accompaniment of popular song (from the Opera
> Comique), but there are a couple of instrumental works for (Spanish)
> guitar as well. Some of this Paris output has been republished in
> London for (English) guitar, but if you want to dig into the real
> bulk of Merchi repertory you'll have to look into their Paris
> output. He also published one book of triosonata's and two books of
> duo's, all of which were listed for violin or mandolin or pardessus
> de viole. Some of his guitar duo's are in the Paris taste of
> accompaniment with a violin (guitar has the lead and accompanied by
> a violin).
> Merchi had established himself in Paris as a maitre de guitarre,
> colascione ("calisoncini") and mandolin (at least until the big
> maestro's took over in the 1760s). He and his brother were actually
> listed as virtuosi players touring Europe in the 1750s on all of
> these.
> Part of the Paris output is the famous guitar method in two books -
> the second of which goes into the details of "agremens"
> (ornamentation) and is usually quoted for praising the use of single
> strings on the guitar (making the transition from the baroque
> course-strung guitar).
> This particular treatise can be quite useful when you're about to
> play Merchi music, to see what he really meant with some of his
> ornamentation signs. For example, contrary to normal theory and
> practice, he recommends a triller to start on the principal note
> rather than the upper note (which makes a lot of sense on the guitar
> as well).
> He actually shows some influence from Tartini in use of
> ornamentation and his triosonata's and violin/mandolin duets bear
> this out as well. I'm not sure where they had their music education
> but Brescia isn't all that far from Padua, so it's not all that
> surprising to see this influence.
> Kind regards & thanks for posting!
> Pieter
>
> Thanks Pieter and thanks for all this detailed information.
> I think it's just the case that, every so often, someone digs out some
> Merchi (whichever one) and has a go. James Tyler and Robert Spencer
> recorded a Merchi (J.B?) duet for ('Spanish' gut-strung) guitars
> decades ago. Taro Takeuchi has just released a CD, Affectuoso, with
> music for both types of guitar from the 1760s/70s and which includes a
> virtuoso rendition of Merchi's variations on La Folia, also for
> 'Spanish' gut-strung guitar (lasting about 15 minutes!).
> The little piece I played from Dodici Suonate does actually specify
> Giacomo Merchi on the title page.You say that some of the Paris
> repertoire was republished in London for the English guitar? I have
> the Studio Per Edizioni Scelte reprints of Merchi and I know Le Guide
> Des Ecoliers but I don't remember seeing any music for the Spanish
> guitar recycled as music for the English guitar. But some of Merchi's
> English guitar music (published in London) does turn up in C.F.A.
> Pollet's publications for 'cistre ou guitharre allemande' published in
> Paris (without attribution).
> Stuart
> ____________________________________________________________________
>
> From: "Mayes, Joseph" [1]<[email protected]>
> Sent: 04 September 2013 23:26
> To: "WALSH STUART" [2]<[email protected]>, "lutelist Net"
> [3]<[email protected]>
> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Giacomo Merchi: Allegretto per la chitarra 1776
> Nice!
> Joseph Mayes
> On 9/4/13 4:50 PM, "WALSH STUART" [4]<[email protected]> wrote:
>> [5]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_iZXUD6rTA
> To get on or off this list see list information at
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>
> --
>
> References
>
> 1. mailto:[email protected]
> 2. mailto:[email protected]
> 3. mailto:[email protected]
> 4. mailto:[email protected]
> 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_iZXUD6rTA
> 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
