Grove Music Online

Dall'Abaco, Evaristo Felice

Michael Talbot

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07074
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

(b Verona, July 12, 1675; d Munich, July 12, 1742). Italian composer.
He was born into a family of high social standing, his father being a
jurist. As a boy he learnt the violin and the cello, possibly under
Torelli until the latter's removal to Bologna in 1685. In 1696
Dall'Abaco went to Modena, where his services as a musician were
much in demand despite his not being attached to the court
orchestra. His noted penchant for the French style may date from
his Modena days, since the director of the orchestra, Ambreville,
was French. After 19 September 1701 no further trace of Dall'Abaco
exists in Modena, and the next mention of him is early in 1704 as a
cellist in the Bavarian court, where one of his colleagues was J.C.
Pez. The defeat of the reigning elector, Maximilian II Emmanuel, in
the War of the Spanish Succession forced him to flee to the
Netherlands, where he brought a large retinue including many of his
own musicians. Setting up court in Brussels, Maximilian continued
to patronize the arts extravagantly, but further French reverses
caused him to withdraw to Mons in 1706. The capitulation of Mons
following the battle of Malplaquet in 1709 sent the elector back to
France, and a relatively impoverished court was established in
Compiègne by grace of Louis XIV. Throughout these unsettled times
Dall'Abaco remained at the elector's side. He had married Marie
Clémence Bultinck in the Netherlands, and their son Joseph-Marie-
Clément was born in 1709 or 1710.

Dall'Abaco must have deepened his acquaintance with the French

style after prolonged residence in the Low Countries and France,
though it was only after Maximilian's eventual triumphant return to
Munich in April 1715 that specifically French traits began to creep
into his published music. Dall'Abaco's loyalty and competence were
rewarded by his appointment as Konzertmeister in the reconstituted
court orchestra and his elevation to the rank of electoral councillor
in 1717, a fact proudly advertised on the title-page of his fifth
publication, a set of concertos for various combinations. He also
participated as a soloist in ‘academies’, the precursors of the musical
soirées of the 19th century, some of which were held at his own
house. Dall'Abaco remained in the service of the Bavarian court after
Maximilian's death in 1726 and the accession of the new elector, his
son Karl Albrecht. Though a music lover like his father, the new
elector favoured a more up-to-date style of music than his
Konzertmeister would, or could, supply, with the result that
Dall'Abaco's musical activities became increasingly relegated to the

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 background. A second set of concertos, published by Le Cène in
1735 as Dall'Abaco's op.6, is the sole proof of his continued creative
work during this final phase. He seems to have retired on a pension
in 1740.

Dall'Abaco's surviving output is restricted to the 66 works published

in his lifetime as opp.1–6. Like Corelli, he seems to have taken
unusual care in preparing his works for publication. The result is a
consistently high standard of craftsmanship allied to an original and
inventive turn of mind, which shows itself in individual details no
less than in the broad design. Although the musical materials
Dall'Abaco worked with are accurately described as post-Corellian,
he did not hesitate to adapt or embroider them for special effect. His
movements, whether binary or unitary, are mostly long and restate
material systematically, using large units. The French influence in
his music does not often extend to harmony, melodic style or
ornamentation, but is seen in the occasional adoption of the rondeau
form and in French dance movements, such as the passepied, with
no traditional cultivation in Italy, and in a marked fondness for the
parallel key (also, more unusually, its satellite keys). Thus an
excursion to G major in the course of a movement in E major, such as
occurs in the opening movement (Ciaccona) of the 12th sonata in his
op.1, is no novelty for him.

Although nominally da camera, the 12 op.1 sonatas for violin and

cello (which can also be performed as keyboard solos) contain a
mixture of abstract and dance movements, mostly in the Corellian
four-movement sequence. ‘Da camera’ thus no longer denotes a
distinct sub-genre, still less a prescribed context of performance,
though its connotations are appropriate to the medium. The 12
Concerti a quattro da chiesa op.2 are roughly equivalent to
contemporary concertos by Albinoni and Albicastro in that they
reconcile their adoption of forms taken over from the sonata with the
need for display passages allotted to a first or principal violin (more
rarely cello) part. Frequent forte and piano indications stand in lieu
of ‘solo’ and ‘tutti’ cues, and one might easily believe that they were
intended as such, were it not for the ubiquity of Dall'Abaco's habit of
marking dynamics carefully. (The question is not whether soloists
should be extracted, but rather whether ripienists should be added.)
The 12 Sonate da chiesa e da camera a tre op.3 show the same
mixture of abstract and dance movements as op.1, though the
former are concentrated in the first six sonatas. They continue along
the same stylistic path, as do the 12 sonatas for violin and cello in
op.4, which reproduce the formulae of op.1. The six Concerti a più
istrumenti op.5, which include one concerto with two obbligato
flutes and another with obbligato oboe, testify in their cautious way
to the Vivaldi vogue of the 1710s. The final set of concertos, op.6
(presumably not to be identified with a second book of concertos, the
projected complement of op.5), consolidates this more advanced
style, introducing a few galant touches.

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 Works

all printed works published in Amsterdam

Editions

E.F. dall'Abaco: Ausgewählte Werke, ed. A. Sandberger, DTB, i,

Jg.i/1 (1900)

xvi, Jg.ix/1 (1908) [AS]

E.F. dall'Abaco: Ausgewählte Werke, 3. Teil, ed. H. Schmid,

DTB, new ser., i (1967) [HS]

op.

1 XII sonate da camera, C, d, e, a, g, D, b, G, A, F, B♭, E,

(vn, vc)/(hpd) (c1708); AS

2 Concerti a quattro da chiesa, d, e, F, a, g, D, C, b, B♭, A,

G, F (1712); 4 in AS, 6 in HS

3 XII sonate da chiesa e da camera a tre, C, F, b, G, D, e, g,

C, a, F, G, A (1712); 8 in AS

4 Sonate da camera, d, e, F, A, g, C, a, G, D, F, b, g, vn, vc

(1716); AS

5 Concerti a più istrumenti … libro primo, F, G, e, B♭, C, D

(c1721); 5 in HS

6 Concerti a più istrumenti, C, E, F, b, G, F, A, D, B♭, C, E, D

(1735); 5 in HS

Vn sonatas, A-Wn

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 Bibliography
DBI (B.M. Antolini)

DEUMM (T. Chini)

NewmanSBE

A. Hutchings: The Baroque Concerto (London, 1961,

3/1973)

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