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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi)
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1819 - 1908) - Versetti per organo
Of course, the hero of Italian liberation was not an organist!
But perharps our composer was a far cousin because at Cipressa, his birth village near San
Remo, Riviera, about a third of the families were named Garibaldi.
Our Giuseppe was born 1819 (his birth certificate has disappeared) and died at Cipressa
25/05/1908.
He ran a double life: well-off landowner and organist-pianist.
On Sunday morning he used to play organ in two neighbouring churches and conducted a
few singers.
In the afternoon and evening he would play dance music in marriages and balls. It is unlikely
that farm labour would hurt his hands.
He had a son, Giovanni Battista (1862-1938), who succeeded him as organist at Cipressa.
I had the lucky opportunity to buy his music library from his grandson Alfredo (1924-1988)
who was not a musician.
This collection of scores was commented in a paper: "Le répertoire d´un organiste de
campagne" published in the "Organi Liguri" review, N°1, 2004, pp 107-122, (Agorà edizioni,
Sarzana).
It consists of 234 printed scores and 22 manuscript scores.
Most 19th-century Italian pieces retypeset by J.P.Coulon for http://imslp are part of this
collection. It also includes many salon pieces for piano.
Almost all manuscripts are copies of specified composers´ pieces and opera transcriptions.
Only one shows an original character and bears the "G.Gi" signature. We have retypeset this
very one.
Its interest is more documentary than musical: it reflects the taste of the time.
The melodies are merry and stirring, and with some operatic remembrances as in piece p.19.
It consists of easy Versetti in D major, about 20-30-bar long, without any specified
registration except two of them.
The handwriting is neat and has no scratches. It seems copied from a draft.
This makes harmony mistakes and musical clumsinesses more evident.
G. Garibaldi must have suffered from the limits of the musical instruction he obtained from
his father or another musician because his collection includes five harmony treatises
published in Milan in the first half of 19th century, among which the famous Reicha´s treatise
and M. Balbi´s "Grammatica ragionata della Musica".
Unfortunately he did not benefit from this.
In order to preserve the testimony of a cultural level we made no correction, leaving the task
of correcting what offends an ear better educated than our countryman´s to the performer.
Michelle Bernard, Centre d´études Organistiques
Honestly, I can not say I saw many errors differents from those I very often see also today in
printed scores of well educated composers. I'll be not so sure they can not be simple
mistyping.
Anyway, that's it. Let's take the whole as is.
In my opinion, many melodies have quite a "Verdi" taste, with a bit of "Rossini"...