Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi (2 April 1719 – 30 March 1762) was an Italian composer. He is best known today for a work that cannot be certainly ascribed to his pen, the song "

Tre giorni son che Nina in letto senesta "Tre giorni son che Nina in letto senesta" (often called "Nina" or the "Siciliana") is an 18th Century song traditionally attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Pergolesi, but now more often to Vincenzo Legrenzo Ciampi (1719–1762). The song w ...

", formerly called

Pergolesi Pergolesi is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, (1710–1736), Italian composer, violinist, and organist * Michael Angelo Pergolesi, 18th-century Italian decorative artist {{Surname Italian-langu ...

's "Nina".

Education and early career in Italy

Ciampi was born in

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

and studied at the Naples Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini with

Francesco Durante Francesco Durante (31 March 1684 – 30 September 1755) was a Neapolitan composer. Biography He was born at Frattamaggiore, in the Kingdom of Naples, and at an early age he entered the '' Conservatorio dei poveri di Gesù Cristo'', in Naples, ...

and

Leonardo Leo Leonardo Leo (5 August 1694 – 31 October 1744), more correctly Leonardo Ortensio Salvatore de Leo, was a Baroque composer. Biography Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (currently known as San Vito dei Normanni, province of Brindisi) in ...

.Van Boer 2012, p. 131. His first known success was the comic opera ''Da un disordine nasce un ordine'', performed at the

Teatro dei Fiorentini Theatres for diverse musical and dramatic presentations began to open in Naples, Italy, in the mid-16th century as part of the general Spanish cultural and political expansion into the kingdom of Naples, which had just become a vicerealm of Spain. ...

in Naples in 1737, when he was only eighteen.Walker 1954. Five more of his comic operas were produced in Naples up to 1745, and he also received commissions for operas to be presented in Rome and other Italian cities. In 1746 he was engaged as a harpsichordist at the opera house in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

, and his

opera seria ''Opera seria'' (; plural: ''opere serie''; usually called ''dramma per musica'' or ''melodramma serio'') is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to abo ...

''Ataserse'' was performed there in 1747.Walker 1954; Libby et al 2001. That same year he was engaged at the Ospedale degli Incurabili in Venice as an assistant to the ''maestro di coro'' G. B. Runcher, whom he had succeeded by 1748.

London

Ciampi was one the first music directors of the Ospedale to be given extended leave, and by the autumn of 1748 he was in London. His replacement at the Ospedale was

Gioacchino Cocchi Gioacchino Cocchi (''circa'' 1712 – 11 September 1796) was a Neapolitan composer, principally of opera. Cocchi was probably born in Naples in about 1712, although his place of birth has also been given as Padova. His first works were performed ...

. In London Ciampi was the composer and director of music for a company of Italian singers under G. F. Crosa, who presented the first season of Italian comic opera at the

King's Theatre, London Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre situated on Haymarket in the City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established ...

.Libby et al 2001. The company's repertory consisted of works already presented in Venice, among which was ''Gli tre cicisbei ridicoli'' in which appeared the popular song "Tre giorni son che Nina", often attributed to Pergolesi. This caused

Barclay Squire William Barclay Squire (16 October 1855 – 13 January 1927) was a British musicologist, librarian and librettist. Biography William Barclay Squire was a devoted music enthusiast. He spent 35 years of his life (1885-1920) working for the British ...

and others to suggest the song was actually composed by Ciampi, however, according to Frank Walker, "this is extremely doubtful". Ciampi continued to appear in London until 1756.Marshall 2003, p. 233. He died in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

References

Bibliography

* Fétis, François-Joseph (1860)
"CIAMPI (Ligrenzio Vincenzo)", vol. 1, p. 299
in ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique''. Paris: Didot. * Fétis, François-Joseph;

Pougin, Arthur Arthur Pougin ( 6 August 1834 – 8 August 1921) was a French musical and dramatic critic and writer. He was born at Châteauroux (Indre) and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris under Jean Delphin Alard, Alard (violin) and Napoléon Henri ...

(1878)
"CIAMPI (Legrenzo Vincenzo)", vol. 1, p. 183
in ''Biographie universelle des musiciens et bibliographie générale de la musique. Supplément et complément''. Paris: Didot. * Letellier, Robert Ignatius (2010). ''Opéra-Comique: A Sourcebook''. - Page 241 1443821683 2010 Vincenzo. CIAMPI. (1719-1762). Le Caprice amoureux, ou Ninette à la cour Comédie mêlée d'ariettes parodiées de Bertolde à la cour en deux actes. Librettist: Charles-Simon Favart. Music parodied from Vincenzo Ciampi and various other ... * Libby, Dennis; Willaert, Saskia; Jackman, James L. ork-list(2001)
"Ciampi, Vincenzo (Legrenzio)"
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 ...

'', 2nd edition, edited by

Stanley Sadie Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was publ ...

. London: Macmillan. . (hardcover). (eBook). * Marshall, Robert Lewis (2003). ''Eighteenth-Century Keyboard Music''. New York: Routledge. . * Osborne, Charles (2014). ''The Concert Song Companion: A Guide to the Classical Repertoire''. Springer. . * Sonneck, Oscar G. (1911)
"Ciampi’s ''Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno'' and Favart’s ''Ninette à la cour'': A Contribution to the History of Pasticcio (Sämmelbände der I. M. G., 1911)", pp. 111–179
in ''Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music'', edited by O. G. Sonneck. New York: Macmillan, 1921. * Squire, W. Barclay (1899). "'Tre Giorni son che Nina'", ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainze ...

'', vol. 40, no. 674 (1 April 1899), pp. 243. A
Hathitrust
* Squire, W. Barclay (1914). "'Tre Giorni son che Nina'", ''The Musical Times'', vol. 55, no. 860 (1 October 1914), p. 615. . * Van Boer, Bertil H. (2012). ''Historical Dictionary of Music of the Classical Period''. Scarecrow Press. . * Walker, Frank (1948). "'Tre giorni son che Nina': An Old Controversy Reopened", ''The Musical Times'', vol. 90, pp. 432–435. . * Walker, Frank (1954). "CIAMPI, Vincenzo Legrenzio", vol. 2, pp. 293–294, in ''Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. New York, St. Martin's Press. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ciampi, Vincenzo Legrenzio 18th-century Italian composers Italian Baroque composers 1719 births 1762 deaths