Twelve Monferrine, op. 12

These twelve Monferrine op. 12 have very many effervescent details: for example no. 5 which is all low but then a couple of higher snatches vary it; or no. 6 with its drone bass, or the glissandos in no. 9. The monferrina is an Italian folk dance, probably from Monferrato which is an area in Piedmont not far from Turin. We can imagine, perhaps, fine local costume. So Giuliani, who was Italian, would have known it well; but we also know that it was commonly danced in Vienna at this time, and Hummel wrote a set of variations on it for cello and piano, op. 54. A Vienna dance teacher in 1838 gave a tempo for the monferrina of dotted crotchet (dotted quarter-note) = 60-64. But that figure is most probably on the slow side compared with the reality of the dance floor, so players of these pieces today might try them at a higher speed. The keys of the twelve monferrine are carefully varied to make a set: E, A, D, G, C, F, d, D, A, D, G, C. All of them start on the second beat of the bar and are in the form ABB. No. 9: I start on the second string, at the tenth fret, with the second finger, which is surely what Giuliani intended. The passages at bars 2-4, 6-8, and 14-16 could also be well performed high up on the strings. No. 9: in his Studio per la chitarra of 1812, Giuliani describes the ornament which is here in bars 6, 12 and 14 as strisciato. He writes: “si striscia fino alla nota di melodia, facendo risuonare tutti gl’intervalli, a guisa dell’abbellimento, che nel canto si chiama portamento di voce” (‘the left hand finger slides up to the melody note, sounding all the intervals on the way, in the same way as in the portamento in singing’). Also no doubt the downward ornament in bars 1, 5 and 13 is a glissando (and not an ornament performed by pulling the finger away). No. 9 bar 1: the second bass note is G sharp. However, when this passage comes again at bars 5 and 13, the second bass note is E. Personally I think it is fine the way it is, with G sharp. For more about these and other dances by Giuliani, including more about performance practice, see the book Dances of 1810 by Giuliani which is in nkoda.