Pietro Migali: Sonate Op. 1
Sheet Music

SKU: NX.MVC01744

By Davide Pozzi and Ensemble BariAntiqua. By Pietro Migali da Lecce. Classical. CD. Naxos #MVC01744. Published by Naxos (NX.MVC01744).

What little information we have concerning Pietro Migali is derived from his will, kept at the State Archives in Lecce. The document states that he was ''approximately 22'' when his father Angelo died. He took charge of the entire family, including his mother Francesca Redesi, and his seven siblings. We have no information regarding migali's musical education - documents or other information that could shed light on this period of his life have not been uncovered. This collection of sonatas attests to Migali's high level of compositional skill, a unique case in the musical scene of the late seventeenth-century Apulia. It is unlikely that his musical education was limited to his native city - it almost certainly extended to Naples or more probably to Rome. His ''lucrative profession as Maestro di Cappella and Music Composer'' is confirmed by his only surviving printed work. We have no information regarding other compositions of manuscripts. The collection of Trio Sonatas was published in Rome in 1969, when the composer was roughly 61; it is the work of a mature musician with considerable knowledge of the ''Roman'' style of the late seventeenth century. Assuming Migali was in Rome when he was around 23 (in approximately 1655) a meeting with Corelli would have been unlikely, as the presence of the latter in the Eternal City can be attested starting in 1675; moreover, at that time the 40-year-old Migali would have already been well known and established. In recent years, musicologists have identified and defined a Roman style of instrumental music, with Corelli as its most notable representative. Violinist Enrico Gatti comments that ''Corelli introduced a new formal model, which wa spure, balanced, and full of musical substance; at the same time he pursued the Roman style, endorsing and incorporating the significant inventions of his illustrious predecessors, among whom Alessandro Stradella''. Migali's works could belong to the ''Roman style'', though his idea is not supported by any evidence.