Luigi Rinaldo Legnani (7 November 1790 – 5 August 1877) was an Italian

virtuoso A virtuoso (from Italian ''virtuoso'' or , "virtuous", Late Latin ''virtuosus'', Latin ''virtus'', "virtue", "excellence" or "skill") is an individual who possesses outstanding talent and technical ability in a particular art or field such as ...

guitarist, singer, composer and

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

Life

Born in

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

, Legnani was trained as a string player while very young but dedicated himself to guitar and voice. His debut as an operatic tenor was in Ravenna in 1807; his singing career spanned 17 years. His career as a guitarist began with a concert in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

in 1819, and continued with the 1822 concerts in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and return visits in 1833 and 1839. He tried to continue the guitar tradition established there by

Mauro Giuliani Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (27 July 1781 – 8 May 1829) was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century. Biography Although born in Bisceglie, Giuliani's center ...

Music

Legnani is perhaps best known for his ''36 Caprices'' op. 20 for the guitar, which cover all the major and minor keys, and which were probably inspired by Paganini's '' 24 Caprices'' for the violin. He and Paganini were friends from the 1830s; while it was once thought that he and Paganini performed together in public (Powroźniak mentions a concert in Northern Italy in 1837), there is no evidence to support this claim. After the 1850s Legnani retired from active performance and became an instrument maker, concentrating on guitars and violins. The "Legnani model" guitar was popular in Central Europe through the middle of the nineteenth century. Legnani composed some 250 works, which were published in his lifetime throughout many of the major publishing houses in Europe. He died in

Luthier

As a regular visitor to Vienna, Legnani cooperated with

Johann Georg Stauffer Johann Georg Stauffer (also Johann Georg Staufer; born January 26, 1778 in Vienna; died 24 January 1853) was an Austrian luthier and the most important Viennese luthier of his time. Life Stauffer was born in the Viennese suburb of Weißgerber, ...

and his son Anton to make guitars according to Legnani's design, to be followed by a number of other luthiers ("Nach dem Modell des Luigi Legnani" / 'after the model of Luigi Legnani'). Later he began making his own guitars, and some of his instruments still exist: *Guitar by Legnani *Guitar of Legnani (ca.1870) There is some confusion regarding the luthierie of Legnani, as there seems to have been a second (earlier) Luigi Legnani, an apprentice of Zosimo Bergonzi.
Sergio Monaldini affirms clearly that there is no reliable evidence that Legnani ever built a guitar or a violin, and there is no guitar signed by him.Monaldini, bibl.p.109: '' "non esiste alcuna prova attendibile che Legnani abbia costruito anche una sola chitarra, e tantomeno dei violini. Sino ad ora non è stato trovato un solo strumento che porti la sua firma." ''

Bibliography

*''Sergio Monaldini: ''Chitarra romantica. Luigi (Rinaldo) Legnani e il virtuosismo strumentale nell'Ottocento, Ravenna (Longo, 2015)
''In morte di Luigi Legnani''
by Antonio Zanca (1861–1958); (Milano : Tip. Lit. Degli Ingegneri, 1887)
Information about publication is found in ''Bibliografia italiana''

''Luigi Legnani''
by Romolo Ferrar

(E. Bassi e nipoti, 1932)
''Teatro Carignano''
28 Inglio 1855 *''Appunti su una chitarra di Luigi Legnani'' b
Ciurlo, Ernesto Fausto (1895 - 1978)Strumenti e Musica
XXIV, 1971, No. 2, page 70 *Introduction to "36 Caprices", by Simon Wynberg (Heidelberg: Chanterelle, 1986) *Gazzelloni, Giuseppe, "Legnani, Luigi", in:''

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and theo ...

'' (London: Macmillan, 2001)

References

External links

;Biographical
Luigi Legnani, Guitar Virtuoso and Composer
by George C. Krick; ETUDE, May 1941, volume LIX, number 5, page 351-352

Luigi Legnani
by Philip James Bone (The guitar and mandolin : biographies of celebrated players and composers for these instruments (1914)) ;Articles

by Daniela Rossato (nova giulianiad 7/85, p. 154) ;Sheetmusic
Rischel & Birket-Smith's Collection of guitar music1
Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Denmark

The Music Library of Sweden
alternative

George C. Krick Collection of Guitar Music
Washington University * ;Images *Legnani's guitar
1
{{DEFAULTSORT:Legnani, Luigi 1790 births 1877 deaths 19th-century classical composers Composers for the classical guitar Italian classical composers Italian classical guitarists Italian male classical composers Italian male guitarists Italian Romantic composers 19th-century Italian male musicians 19th-century guitarists