“Improvvisatori” (Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal)

Performer Name:

Sgricci; Corilla; Pradel; Marone; Wolff

Performance Venue:

Rome

Performance Date:

 

Author:

 

Date Written:

1838

Language:

English

Publication Title:

Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal

Article Title:

Improvvisatori

Page Numbers:

6:398-99

Additional Info:

6 January 1838 issue (No. 310)

Publisher:

W. S. Orr and Co.

Place of Publication:

London

Date Published:

1838

Text:

[398] IMPROVVISATORI is the appellation given, in Italy, to persons who compose and recite, extemporaneously, poetical or dramatic pieces on any given subject, or sing them, either with or without an accompanying instrument. This art, which is called in English improvising, seems to have been occasionally practised in ancient Greece, but it reached its greatest perfection in Italy, in which country the practice first began to attract notice at the era of the revival of letters, and where it continues in high repute, up to the present time. The Latin language being universally used by the learned, up to the end of the fifteenth century, it was in that tongue that the first improvvisatori composed. The great patron of reviving letters, Pope Leo the Tenth, carried his love for improvising even to childishness, and encouraged the learned men about his court to devote their whole time to the amusement. Wonderful things are told be contemporary authors of the skill, and command over the Latin tongue, evinced by Andreas Marone, Leo’s chief favourite, and the best improvvisatore of the day. Another poet, named Querno, though an excellent scholar, seems to have been a sort of court fool to Leo. Being very fond of wine, Querno obtained permission to drink from the Pope’s own glass at table, on condition that he made at least two extemporaneous Latin verses on every subject proposed to him, and if they were bad, his wine was mixed with water, in quantities proportioned to his want of success. Some of the verses of these learned triflers have been preserved, but, as might be expected, their chief merit arises from the consideration of the circumstances under which they were composed.

In the sixteenth century, the Latin language was laid aside by the majority of Italian writers, but the practice of improvising did not fall into disuse with it. On the contrary, the art became much more extensively cultivated, and its professors more famous — a circumstance scarcely to be wondered at, when we consider, that the modern tongue of Italy possesses advantages for improvising, superior not only to those of the Latin language, but also of any other form of speech either of the old or the modern world. The Italian tongue is supereminently abundant in rhymes, and, from the frequency of its vowels, and its generally harmonious structure, has a natural tendency, even in common speech, to run into poetry. In judging of some of the marvels of Italian improvising to which we have to refer, these advantages must be duly taken into account. An Englishman must not magnify the difficulties which an Italian improvvisatore has to surmount, by thinking how little he himself could do, in the way of extemporaneous composition, with his own intractable language. At the same time, we are far from saying that much of the success of the improvvisatore does not rest on his own individual gifts. An English poetess, Miss Landon, has said that she writes verse with more ease than prose — a near approach to poetical improvising in English. The endowment of eloquence or language, conjoined with a fine poetical fancy, appears to be indispensable to improvvisatori.

With these explanatory remarks, we shall now present to the reader an excellent account of an Italian improvvisatore (Tomaso Sgricci), extracted from Constable’s Magazine for October 1819, where it appears as a portion of a distinguished traveller’s journal. “A new improvvisatore (says the traveller) has made his appearance at Rome. We had heard much of his prodigious talents, and went to see him yesterday. When the company had assembled, subjects were requested and given by a variety of persons, some of whom were known to us, and who could not have an understanding with the improvvisatore. All those subjects were thrown into a box, which was sent round to ladies principally; and those who chose (they happened to be foreigners) drew the subjects, four in number, on which the improvvisatore was to exert his talents that night. He then entered the room — for these preparative arrangements had been made in his absence — and I own I was strongly prepossessed against him at first. He is a well-made little man, about twenty-five years old, with the shuffling gait and mincing step of a woman in man’s clothes, with nice yellow morocco shoes, and white pantaloons and waistcoat; a lilt-white hand, with diamonds that put out your eyes; an embroidered shirt collar, like lace falling over his shoulders; no neckcloth, a bare neck, with a handsome expressive face, shaded with abundance of black hair and luxuriant whiskers. He took the subjects and read them over; they were, ‘the dispute about the armour of Achilles,’ ‘the creation of the world,’ and ‘Sophonisba.’ He paused and then began, without recitativo, singing, or musical accompaniment of any sort, and went on without hesitation or seeming effort, only occasionally repeating the same verse twice over. The two first subjects took him an hour and a half, with very little pause between. I lost too much to give any opinion on what he said; the manner, indeed, took up, at first, so much of my attention, as to make me lose more of the sense than I should otherwise have done — that manner was admirably good; voice, action, and expression of countenance, was that of a good actor, knowing his part thoroughly, and full of its spirit. I felt uneasy a long while, thinking he could not go on thus fluently and easily, and must come to a full stop, be lost in difficulties, and tumble down from the giddy height. Sometimes I thought this must be a studied part, and an imposition on our credulity; yet, when I recollected the circumstance of giving the subjects and the drawing out of the numbers, I was satisfied it was impossible. The attention of the Italians was riveted upon him; yet their applause was not too frequent and indiscriminate; it burst out now and then with great violence, but in general they were silent. If we had been astonished at Sgricci’s two first extempore poems, how much more when he gave a tragedy in three acts, on the story of Sophonisba, and Syphax her husband; Massanissa and Scipio; Sophonisba’s female attendant and a Roman soldier.

The improvvisatore never mentioned the names of the interlocutors; but by the change of tone, and frequently, also, the change of place, left no doubt about the speaker. He used the heroic Italian blank verse of eleven syllable, but in the chorus, which recurred several times, he used rhyme of all sorts, from four to twelve syllables. The tragedy lasted two house and a half; he affected to die twice in the course of it; once on the floor, to suit the English taste I presume, and once in an arm-chair, in the French decorous manner, both times with appropriate action, very energetic, but very natural and graceful, and never outré. His fine tones were quite free from the guttural r r r with which the Italians are apt to spoil their sweet harmonious language. At the conclusion there was a rush of a number of admirers towards the poet, and he was carried off among them in a sort of spontaneous triumph!

Tomaso Sgricci is the son of an advocate of Arezzo. He was educated at the University of Pisa, or rather that branch of it established at Florence, and was intended for the law; but his love of poetry, and particular talent for improvising, at which almost all the young men here try their powers at an early period of their lives, has at length made him a sort of professor of the art, in which he is deemed by most Italians to excel any improvvisatore that ever was known. Young men who have been his companions at college, told me that his conversation was poetry itself; that he was well informed on most subjects, but chiefly in belles lettres.”

The seeming inspiration which all improvvisatori have more or less affected to be actuated by at the moment of composition, and the lively acting of the speaker, must add greatly, it is obvious, to the impressiveness and effect of the extemporised poetry on its auditors. Indeed, where the productions of the improvvisatori have been published, they have been seldom found to pass the bounds of mediocrity. Yes, under the circumstances, mediocrity must be allowed to be a very wonderful attainment. The females who have distinguished themselves in this art, or improvvisatrici as they are called, have naturally excited even more admiration than their rivals of the other sex. Maddalena Fernandez, who died 1800, acquired so high a reputation as an improvvisatrice, that she was invited to Vienna by the late Emperor Francis, and loaded with distinctions. She was publicly crowned in Rome in 1776.

In considering the subject of improvvisatori, one can scarcely help reverting to what is told of a distinguished Scot of old — the Admirable Crichton. Unfortunately, the details of this individual’s life are so mixed up with fable and tradition, that it is difficult to come at the unvarnished truth respecting him. It seems undeniable, however, that he possessed the gift of improvising in an extraordinary degree. He was able to conduct a disputation in extemporaneous verse, in a great number of different languages — a feat far excelling those of the Italian improvvisatori.

Within these few years, several Germans have improvised with success in the tongue of their country, which is not ill suited to the task. Wolf of Altons, the present professor of modern languages at the college or gymnasium of Weimar, appeared with applause as an improvvisatore in several places. In France, in 1825, Eugene de Pradel gave several successful evening exhibitions of the same talent. Nobody, to our knowledge, has yet attempted publicly to extemporise serious English poetry. It is said, however, that [indiscernible] metropolitan wits, and, in particular, the talented author of “Sayings and Doings,” posses the the gift, in no mean degree. But the production of a few burlesque or witty stanzas upon an occasional subject — which is all the length, we imagine, to which the art of impro- [399] vising has been carried in Britain — must be admitted to be a very different thing from the production of sustained and solemn tragedies, extending in the delivery over two or three hours, and which draw tears from the spectators as readily as the conjoined labours of a Shakespeare and a Siddons. Taking every thing into consideration, the art of the Italian improvvisatori is a striking and wonderful one.

Notes:

Collected by:

EW