A ‘Florentine’ flautist

Born in 1721 in Lunéville, a French commune in the Lorraine region, Nicolas Dôthel came to Florence with his father, an oboist in the Lorraine military band, a musical formation in which he himself began playing from 1736. He was later part of the Grand Duke of Tuscany’s court chapel as a flutist: his uninterrupted presence in the grand ducal chapel is documented from 1736 to 1807, and his activity in the orchestra of the Teatro della Pergola in Florence is attested from the autumn opera season of 1765 until 1798. Dôthel’s importance in the spread of the transverse flute in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during his long career in the Lorraine period was remarkable. In fact, in 1737, after the end of the Medici dynasty with the death of Gian Galeazzo and as a consequence of the new European order following the War of the Polish Succession, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany had been assigned to Francesco Stefano of Lorraine, who, married to Maria Theresa of Habsburg, ruled from Vienna as regent until 1765, when his second-born son Pietro Leopoldo succeeded him and settled in Florence, where he remained until 1790.

His 25 years of rule made Tuscany one of the most modern and advanced Italian states and a model of enlightened reformism that also involved musical activity. During the years from 1737 to 1765, therefore, several musicians from Lorraine came to Tuscany in the retinue of the new court: among them were Niccolò Dôthel and Charles Antoine Campion, contemporaries, fellow citizens and friends, who together with the violinist Pietro Nardini are cited by Charles Burney as eminent musicians. Moreover, while in the previous century strings were the dominant presence, as attested by the famous ‘Quintetto Mediceo’, the splendid strings, 2 violins, 2 violas and cello built by Antonio Stradivari for Grand Prince Ferdinando in 1690, in this period, the Lorraine period, the number and presence of wind instruments increased at the Grand Ducal court. With Ferdinand III, who had been in power since 1790, the Court Music Chapel was further enriched, and in 1792 what can be described as a full-fledged orchestra consisted of not only the strings (with Pietro Nardini as first violin), but also a flute (Dôthel) two oboes, two horns, two clarinets and a bassoon.

From the second half of the 18th century to the first decades of the 19th century, therefore, along with the development of the Grand Ducal Chapel comes the gradual affirmation of wind instruments throughout the Tuscan state, spread mainly in amateur concerts and private academies of noble amateurs.

Nicolas Dôthel composed a great deal of music for the flute, and carried out a long and very intense activity as an orchestral player, soloist and also as a teacher, as can be seen in the extensive catalogue of printed editions of his flute compositions (concertos, sonatas, duets, trios, etudes), which were mainly produced in London and Paris.

In an article by the amateur flutist Justus Johannes Heindrich Ribock, published in the German magazine ‘Magazin der Musik’ in 1783, Dôthel’s musical style is described as follows:

… a relaxed and pleasant melody blended and linked in its parts by very long and uninterrupted passages, passages that flow with an uninteresting flow; triplets employed ‘lovingly’, a total lack of language (or rather, it is not required), in contrast much use of chest and deep aspiration; and finally a certain manner of ‘stolen’ time that overturns the value of the notes and constitutes the most notable characteristic of this manner.

Only one copy complete with all the parts of the edition of the 6 Quartets is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington: thus the Biblioteca Casanatense has been further enriched by the acquisition of a rare musical source. But it is singular to know that in the Library there is a manuscript copy of the same Quartets, present in the Fondo Compagnoni Marefoschi: the initial paper of the first violin part bears the following information: ‘VI Quartetti del Sig.r Niccolò Dothel copiati per uso del Il.me Sig.r Conte Camillo Compagnoni Marefoschi’.

The Compagnoni Marefoschi collection, one of the many music collections currently housed in the Biblioteca Casanatense, is a collection of manuscript music, consisting of 793 bibliographic units including scores and parts, composed and transcribed in the period from the late 18th to the early 19th century, and reflecting the musical practice of a noble Italian family of the time. They are, in fact, the most considerable part of an aristocratic music library, which after various vicissitudes was the object of a laborious but successful recovery, culminating with the arrival of the 793 manuscripts in the Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome in 1973. The Compagnoni Marefoschi family was born with this name in the year 1732, when, due to the testamentary disposition of Cardinal Prospero Marefoschi, Cardinal Mario Compagnoni and his brother Count Camillo united their names to form a single lineage, which followed the marriage of Giovanni Francesco Compagnoni and Maria Giulia Marefoschi in 1713. In the 1740s and 1750s, the cultural life of the household became particularly intense and thanks to the passion of the brothers Camillo and Giuseppe Compagnoni Marefoschi, the first music library, now lost, was formed.

During this period, ensemble music practice took place at frequent private and public academies, receptions, parties and all official family occasions, also involving the young sisters Isabella and Maria Pandolfina in the playing of the harpsichord, psaltery, forte-piano and singing. Moreover, for the training of the young heirs, the family had music lessons, theory and instrumental practice given by several teachers who came to the residence in Macerata and, in the summer, to Palazzo Rosso in Potenza Picena. These teachers were then the same professionals who intervened as players during the academies, or who took on compositional duties to provide concerts, chamber music and dance pieces for the most diverse occasions, while some of the family members contributed to the musical performances with their activities as noble amateurs. The repertoire performed at the palace in the 1730s-1760s included overtures from melodramas and vocal compositions performed both for exercise and private entertainment, as well as during academies organised for the presence of other important families, distinguished guests and travellers.

Giuseppe and Camillo were the driving forces behind the family’s diverse and numerous musical activities during this period, and especially Camillo, an amateur violinist and composer, born in 1722, to whom we owe the initiation, expansion and care of the music library during the second half of the 18th century. For him and his palace concerts, a manuscript copy of Nicolas Dôthel’s 6 Quartets was made: the first violin and cello parts are now preserved in the Biblioteca Casanatense, while the second violin and viola parts are in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence.

Boards

Dôthel, Nicolas (or Dothel, Niccolò)

[6 Quartets: fl (or vl), vl, vla, vlc. G major, F major, B flat major, D major, C major, C minor]

Six Quartets / for Flute, or two Violins, Viola, and Violoncello / Dedicated / to / His Excellency / Lord Muzio Spada Bonaccorsi, Senator of Bologna / Marquis of Roncofreddo, Monte del Vescovo, and S. Giovanni in / Scorzarolo; Count and Lord of Montiano, and their annexes; for / the Order of S. Stefano in all Ecclesiastical Romagna, Bailiff / and Commendatore, and Chamberlain of the / LL.MM.II. and RR. ec. / by Niccolò Dôthel / Virtuoso di Camera di S.A.R. il Granduca di Toscana ec.ec.ec. / Engraved in Florence by Ranieri del Vivo / and at the expense of the same

Florence, Ranieri del Vivo, [1777] Printing (intaglio); parts; 4 fasc. ([1], 12, [3] p. each); 230×330 mm

Parts: fl, vl, vla, vlc

Contains:

Quartet I, G major. Allegro, Adagio, Allegro p. 1-2

Quartet II, F major. Adagio, Allegro, Rondo Andantino p. 3-4

Quartet III, B flat major. Allegro Moderato, Adagio, Allegro p. 5-6

Quartet IV, D major. Allegro Moderato, Adagio Assai, Presto p. 7-8

Quartet V, C major. Adagio, Allegro spiritoso, Prestino p. 9-10

Quartet VI, C minor. Allegro, Rondo Adagio grazioso, Minuetti p. 11-12

Rism AI, D3450

Origin: Purchase December 2012

Mus. 978.1-4

Dothel, Niccolò

[6 Quartets: fl (or vl), vl, vla, vlc].

On 1r: VI Quartets / Del Sig.re Niccolò Dothel / Copiati per uso del Il.me Sig.r Conte / Camillo Compagnoni Marefoschi / Violino Pmo

Ms. cart. copy; 1761-1790, parts; 2 fasc. ; 207×285 mm

Parts: vl1, vlc

C. Ir is printed (intaglio engraving), with floral motifs and instruments: gong, bells, harp, organ, lute; 3 angels, one with music cards, second with horn, third with violin.

Shop signature: Si vendono dal Cartolaro passato l’Arco de Carbognani / P. Antonaroli delin. / Carloni scul.

Provenance: Compagnoni Marefoschi Library in Macerata

Ms. 5835.1-2

Bibliography:

C.Burney, The Present State of Music in France and Italy, Becket, Londra, 1771

J.J. Heirich Ribock, Ueber Musik an Floetenliebhaber isonderheit , in Magazin der Musik a cura di C.F Cramer, Hamburg, (1783), p. 686-736

J. Harich, Inventare der Esterházy-Hofmusikkapelle in Eisenstadt, in Haydn Yearbook, 1975, p. 5-125

M. Graziadei, Niccolò Dôthel, virtuoso of transverse flute: his life and his concertos for flute and orchestra, Degree Thesis, University of Pisa, 1988

N. Delius, Nicolas Dôthel, oder ein janusköpfiger Oswald?, Kassel, 1992

N. Delius, I duetti per due flauti di Nardini e la ‘scuola flautistica’ a Firenze, in Pietro Nardini, violinista e compositore, Livorno, 1994, p. 35-51

G. Lazzari, Il flauto traverso: storia, tecnica, acustica. Turin, 2003

C. Ipata, Niccolò Dôthel and the transverse flute repertoire in the Tuscany of Lorraine