The Improvisation of Poetry, 1750 – 1850
A database of commentaries on improvisational performance
A report of a lecture on improvisation delivered at the Royal Institution by the Marquis Moscati, who is himself an improviser. Moscati gives a historically and culturally wide-ranging account of extemporaneous poetry and performs his own improvisations on the topics of music and Poland.
Partially translating Fernow’s German treatise, this article provides an extended history of improvisatori in Italy.
Fernow provides a detailed history of Italian improvisation, recounting that improvisation (in Latin) experienced a peak in popularity in the court of Pope Leo X, a lover of the art, and that in the course of the eighteenth century a renewal of popularity has brought improvisation to new heights, this time in Italian. The author gives biographies of the most famous improvisatori that he mentions.
A laudatory essay about the life and career of Gianni and the traits of improvised poetry. Improvisation is superior in imagery, written poetry in form. Gianni follows the mode and manner of Dante and Metastasio and at the same time he shows originality. Monti, on the other hand, lacks inspiration.